Parent scaffolding of young children's use of touch screen tablets

Abstract

Parents play a key role in supporting young children’s interactions with tablets (e.g. iPads). Little is known about the types of scaffolding parents provide during tablet activities and how these relate to child age, SES, and home use. Fifty-five parent–child dyads (M child age = 3.49 years) were videoed as they played on an iPad. All parent utterances were coded into three types of scaffolding behaviours (cognitive, affective, technical scaffolding; CATs). Home tablet use and family demographics were reported via a parent questionnaire. Parents used CATs strategies to support their children’s learning. Parents most frequently used cognitive scaffolding and least frequently technical scaffolding. SES was not related to the number of tablets at home. The negative association found between technical scaffolding and child age suggests that younger children require more scaffolding by parents. Coaching parents in using scaffolding strategies during joint-tablet activities has the potential to support early learning.