Findings suggest by being actively engaged, adults can help children make the most of the educational benefits of digital media. Young children spend a lot of time using screens: watching television, playing on touchscreen apps, or Facetiming with grandparents. Research on global screen time guidelines has found about 75% of children aged up to 2 use some form of digital media daily, and 64% of children aged 2 to 5 years use it for more than an hour a day.
Digital media is part of children’s lives and is set to stay that way. This means it is crucial to understand how to use this technology so children can benefit from it, and how to maximise its educational potential. A key way to do this is for parents and other adults to use digital media together with children.
This is known as co-use, and can range from parents actively discussing the media content with their children to simply watching a show together. Our recent research with colleagues has investigated how adults using digital media with children aged up to 6 affects their ability to learn from digital media..
