Exploring the Opportunities and Challenges of the Digital World for Early Childhood Services with Vulnerable Children.

Leona Harris,Una Cunningham,Nikita Gregory,Saili Aukuso,Lia De Vocht,Tufulasifa’Atafatafa Taleni,Niki Davis,Jan Dobson,Sonja Macfarlane

doi:10.3390/ijerph15112407

Abstract

Potentially addictive behaviours supported by the internet and mobile phones raise concerns in education services for early childhood. Although there is evidence that screen media can distract the attention of young children, there was a massive uptake of digital devices by early childhood centres (ECCs). We investigated practices of families (n = 85) and of six ECCs serving vulnerable children in New Zealand, many of whom are emergent bilinguals. Descriptions of the limited and exemplary choice of screen media of the ECCs include digital portfolios containing children’s learning stories in multiple languages illustrated with digital photos. This was facilitated by increasing partnership with the families and the inclusion of their languages in the physical and digital landscapes of the ECCs. However, these families and the ECCs are seeking additional guidance to face the complex challenges of the digital world. These early findings from our national research programme, A Better Start, E Tipu E Rea, already informed significant changes in the ECCs; we also identified the potential for young children to act as agents of change.

Highlights

Childhood today is increasingly technologically constructed [1] with digital technologies such as computers, tablets, and smartphones commonplace in many education systems and homes worldwide [2]
We bring together two complementary datasets of vulnerable emergent bilinguals who grew up in one locality, at a time when the digital world blended into their physical world: (1) qualitative ethnographic case studies of the linguistic landscapes of six early childhood centres (ECCs) in 2016 and in 2017, and (2) a multidisciplinary survey of families that included some of the same children during their first year of primary school in the same locality (n = 85)
The 85 questionnaires returned by whānau described the selected 50 boys and 35 girls with low language abilities attending their first year of schooling including many of the children that previously attended an ECC described earlier

Summary

Introduction

Childhood today is increasingly technologically constructed [1] with digital technologies such as computers, tablets, and smartphones commonplace in many education systems and homes worldwide [2]. While the ubiquity of these technologies has beneficial outcomes for youngsters’ learning and socialisation, it contributes among other detrimental outcomes, to the loss of minority languages and cultures [3]. This loss is of concern given the increasing body of evidence that bilingualism and multilingualism can have lifelong cognitive, health, and economic benefits (see, for example, Reference [4]). Addictive behaviours supported by technologies, such as the internet and mobile phones, raise concerns, in health services for early childhood. Public Health 2018, 15, 2407; doi:10.3390/ijerph15112407 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph

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