Systematic review of young children's writing on screen: what do we know and what do we need to know

Natalia Kucirkova,Deborah Wells Rowe,Lucy Oliver,Laura E. Piestrzynski

doi:10.1111/lit.12173

Natalia Kucirkova, Deborah Wells Rowe + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1111/lit.12173

Copy DOI

Abstract

AbstractWriting is part and parcel of children's active meaning‐making on and with screens, but it has been relatively neglected in the literature focused on children's digital literacies. This study synthesises existing empirical evidence focused on young children's (aged between 2 and 8 years) writing on screen and identifies the relationships between dominant themes in published literature and contemporary theories of children's technology use. A systematic literature review that included studies from diverse disciplines yielded 21 papers. Constant comparative analysis generated five themes that indicate four key directions for future research. We call attention to researchers' theoretical framing to supplement mono‐disciplinary approaches and single levels of analysis. We suggest that future research should provide greater specification of the purpose of children's writing on screen and the different types of tools and applications supporting the activity. We also highlight the need for interdisciplinary approaches that would capture the composing stages involved in the writing process with and around screens. Finally, we point out possible age‐related differences in documenting and reporting the composing process in classrooms. Overall, limitations in the current evidence base highlight the need for research conducted from a critical perspective and focused more directly on multimodality.

Highlights

National surveys conducted since the 2010s provide insights into the sharp increase of access and use of digital technologies, such as smartphones and tablets, by young children growing up in Western countries (e.g. Common Sense Media, 2013 in the USA; UK Ofcom, 2014 in the UK and Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016 in Australia)
It was interesting to note that studies in the former group adopted a strongly qualitative orientation, with inductive methods guided by larger theoretical constructs. These studies tended to focus on a broad range of skills and the interrelationships and interactions that comprise children’s experience of writing on screen
Agentic and intrinsically motivated writing for pleasure can occur in any form or format and we focused on children’s writing with touchscreens because it constitutes a popular contemporary writing context

Summary

Introduction

National surveys conducted since the 2010s provide insights into the sharp increase of access and use of digital technologies, such as smartphones and tablets, by young children growing up in Western countries (e.g. Common Sense Media, 2013 in the USA; UK Ofcom, 2014 in the UK and Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2016 in Australia). With these technologies, children can access multimedia texts and games with a selection of visual, textual and audio representations of meaning (Sefton-Green et al, 2016). We established that the study of children’s writing is shaped by macro influences, such as researchers’ epistemologies and their study methods; meso influences, such as human and object mediation; and the micro influences of children’s own dispositions and characteristics (Kucirkova et al, 2017)

Methods

Results

Conclusion