Learning Environment For Children Research Articles

Digital Device Usage and Childhood Cognitive Development: Exploring Effects on Cognitive Abilities.

The present narrative overview explored the complex relationship between digital device usage and cognitive development in childhood. We conducted a comprehensive literature search across multiple databases, including PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Web of Science, to critically assess cognitive domains such as attention, memory, executive functions, problem-solving skills, and social cognition. Incorporating over 157 peer-reviewed studies published between 2001 and 2024, we used strict inclusion and exclusion criteria to ensure scientific rigor. The review integrated empirical findings with established theoretical frameworks, particularly from cognitive development and media psychology, to highlight both the advantages and risks of early, frequent exposure to technology. The potential for digital devices to enhance cognitive skills, such as multitasking and information processing, was weighed against risks such as cognitive overload, diminished attention spans, and impaired social skills. We also examined psychological and behavioral outcomes, including identity formation, emotional regulation, and maladaptive behaviors associated with excessive screen time. Additionally, we identified strategies to mitigate negative effects, emphasizing structured digital engagement and parental involvement to support healthy cognitive and psychological growth. Our findings provided actionable recommendations for parents, educators, and policymakers, promoting optimal digital practices that enhanced cognitive development while safeguarding against potential harms. The review offered essential insights for stakeholders in child development, education, and policy-making, highlighting the need for balanced integration of digital tools in childhood learning environments.

The complexity of opportunities to respond used by mothers and fathers of children with Down syndrome: A preliminary investigation.

Caregiver-child interactions are commonly used to examine children's language learning environment. However, few studies consider interaction configurations beyond dyadic interactions or explore the conceptual complexity of caregiver talk. Thus, we examined if the complexity of a caregiver's opportunities to respond (OTR) varied when sampled across three interaction configurations. Our study included twelve preschool-aged children with Down syndrome and both of their biological parents. Our preliminary findings suggest no differences in mothers' and fathers' frequency of OTRs across complexity levels during dyadic interactions. However, caregivers produced fewer OTRs across complexity levels during family choice than dyadic interactions.

Research Trends in Children's Literature and Learning Environments

Objective: The objective is to analyze research trends in children's literature and learning environments in order to identify advances and gaps in knowledge. Method: The method includes an exhaustive review of scientific literature using the PRISMA method. Using the Publish or Perish search engine, which analyzes academic sources and employs a range of citation metrics, it produced a large number of articles selected by high-impact academic sources and recognized research trends on a given topic. Results and Discussion: The results indicate that research on the topic has increased in the last 4 years. Spain is the country that publishes the most on children's literature and learning environments. On the other hand, the analysis of the main categories reveals keywords with higher co-occurrence, such as reading comprehension. However, the least used pedagogical strategies for the promotion of reading are related to computer media, but it turns out to be an innovative strategy. Research Implications: The hermeneutic analysis conducted indicates that Children's literature is a powerful tool that not only propitiates in developing reading-writing skills in early childhood, but also impacts positively on the cognitive, emotional, social and physical development of boys and girls. Originality/Value: Reading comprehension emerges as a central node of study in the research trends, this is aligned with the justification of the analysis, to deepen and mitigate the effects of low reading comprehension in students in their first year of higher education.

Research on the Educational Needs of Long-term Hospitalized Children

This study discussed the parents' educational needs and expectations of a university-affiliated hospital in the neonatal and oncology departments in a semi-structured interview survey. Parents generally pay close attention to their children's learning environment in the hospital, the allocation of educational resources, and the organization and implementation of educational activities. At the same time, the parents also put forward clear requirements for the professional quality and attitude of the education volunteers, hoping that the volunteers will have solid professional knowledge, personalized teaching ability, and warm and caring emotional attitude. In addition, parents emphasized the importance of educational support in enriching children's lives, promoting physical and mental growth, focusing on mental health and behavioral management, and expected hospitals to provide more flexible and diverse ways of educational support.

Research on the Educational Needs of Long-term Hospitalized Children

This study discussed the parents' educational needs and expectations of a university-affiliated hospital in the neonatal and oncology departments in a semi-structured interview survey. Parents generally pay close attention to their children's learning environment in the hospital, the allocation of educational resources, and the organization and implementation of educational activities. At the same time, the parents also put forward clear requirements for the professional quality and attitude of the education volunteers, hoping that the volunteers will have solid professional knowledge, personalized teaching ability, and warm and caring emotional attitude. In addition, parents emphasized the importance of educational support in enriching children's lives, promoting physical and mental growth, focusing on mental health and behavioral management, and expected hospitals to provide more flexible and diverse ways of educational support.

Embedding Mindfulness Into Early Childhood Classroom Routines: A Practical Strategy for Teachers

Mindfulness in early childhood learning environments cultivates self-awareness, emotional regulation, and cognitive focus, fostering a conducive atmosphere for social-emotional development and academic readiness.

부모의 학습지원과 지지적 학교환경이 초등학생의 학습태도에 미치는 영향

Objectives The purposes of this study were to specify variables related to convergence competency, and to ana-lyze the structural relationships among them. The purposes of this study were to specify variables related to con-vergence competency, and to analyze the structural relationships among them. Methods In this study, 1,145 children who responded to all related variables in the 12th and 13th data of the Korean Children's Panel were used as data. The structural equation model was analyzed to understand the struc-tural relationship between each variable, and the direct and indirect effects were verified through this. In addition, the mediating effect was verified using bootstrapping. Results There was no significant relationship between parents' learning support and elementary school students' learning attitude, and there was a positive relationship between the supportive school environment and learning attitude. Grit showed a complete mediating effect in the effect of parental learning support on learning attitude, and Grit showed a partial mediating effect in the effect of supportive school environment on learning attitude. Conclusions Parents' learning support and supportive environment had a positive effect on Grit, which improved the learning attitude. This study is expected to help parents, who are interested in their children's learning, support direction and school environment by examining the influence and path of parents‘, school variables and grit that can positively affect learning attitudes.

Opportunities to Respond During Dyadic Caregiver-Child and Naturalistic Family Interactions Among Children With Down Syndrome: A Preliminary Investigation.

Dyadic caregiver-child interactions are commonly used to examine children's language learning environments. However, children frequently interact with multiple caregivers and/or siblings if they come from homes with multiple caregivers and siblings. Thus, we examined if and how caregiver opportunities to respond (OTRs) varied when sampled across three interaction configurations. Twelve children with Down syndrome (Mage = 40.82 months) and their biological parents participated in the current study. We collected separate mother-child and father-child dyadic interactions and one family choice interaction (i.e., both caregivers present and occasionally siblings) in families' homes. We analyzed if differences in the caregiver's OTR frequency and type-explicit and implicit-existed among dyadic and family choice configurations. We found that, during family choice interactions, children were exposed to fewer OTRs when combining the total number of father and mother OTRs compared to dyadic caregiver-child interactions. This effect was large for explicit OTRs (mother-dyadic vs. combined family choice: g = -1.99, confidence interval [CI] [-3.00, -1.00]; father-dyadic vs. combined family choice: g = -0.84, CI [-1.84, -0.11]). For implicit OTRs, effects were small for mother-dyadic versus combined family choice (g = -0.34, CI [-1.17, 0.48]) and negligible when comparing father-dyadic with combined family choice (g = -0.08, CI [-0.90, 0.73]). Our preliminary findings highlight the need for a more nuanced understanding of children's language learning environments to better understand how caregivers support their children's language development. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.25579905.

Comparing parent-child interaction during wordless book reading, print book reading and imaginative play.

This study investigated differences in adult-child language interactions when parents and their three-to-four-year old children engage in wordless book reading, text-and-picture book reading and a small-world toy play activity. Twenty-two parents recorded themselves completing each activity at home with their child. Parent input was compared across contexts, focusing on interactive and conceptual domains: use of open prompts, expansions or extensions of children's utterances, and use of decontextualised (abstract) language. Use of linguistic expansions was greater during book reading than toy play. Parents used open questions and added contingent conceptual information more often when reading wordless books than in both other conditions. Findings suggest that wordless books may combine the benefits of open-endedness and linguistic content based around a narrative. Parents' use of abstract language also varied by condition. This study extends understanding of the role of activity context in shaping children's language learning environments.

Designing museum exhibits to support the development of scientific thinking in informal learning environments: A university-museum-community partnership.

Our objective is to scaffold the natural behaviors that support scientific thinking and STEM learning in children through museum exhibit design and development. Here, we describe a collaborative research-to-practice initiative called "Designing Museum Exhibits to Support the Development Scientific Thinking in Informal Learning Environments: A University-Museum-Community Partnership," in which we document natural behavior in the context of children's informal learning environments and detail our plans to translate our findings into exhibit development. This initiative is part of a long-standing university (UT Austin, Center for Applied Cognitive Science), museum (Thinkery-Austin Children's Museum), and community (Austin's Early Learner Community) partnership called Thinkery Connect. Our first aim here is to review best practices in STEM exhibit design that fosters scientific thinking. We will then describe the design of a study on exhibit signage to promote scientific thinking development. We will also discuss our plans to develop and evaluate exhibit signage in context. Our long-term objective is to deepen engagement in activities that build scientific thinking for visitors at children's museums like Thinkery, at home, and in the community.

Quality and inequality in pre-primary and home environment inputs to early childhood development in Egypt

By the time children start primary school, large socioeconomic disparities are evident in their learning and development. Both pre-primary and home environments can play important roles in influencing school readiness and can contribute to disparities in early childhood development, but there is limited evidence on their relative roles in the Middle East and North Africa. This paper examines how pre-primary quality, stimulation at home, and early childhood development vary by socioeconomic status for pre-primary students in Egypt. The results demonstrate substantial socioeconomic inequality in stimulation at home, more so than in pre-primary quality and inputs, although there is variation in the degree of inequality across different dimensions of pre-primary quality. “Double inequality” is observed, where students with less stimulating home environments experience slightly lower quality pre-primary inputs. There are particularly large pre-primary inequities in structural quality (physical environment) and less inequity in process quality (pedagogy). These results suggest that targeted investments in pre-primary education in Egypt are necessary to reduce inequality in school readiness but are likely insufficient to close the socioeconomic status gap in children's development. Investing in interventions to improve vulnerable children's home learning environments, as well as investing in quality pre-primary, is critical to address disparities in children's development.

Relationship of Parents' Educational Capability, Availability of Learning Materials, Availability of A Learning Environment, With Homeschooling Learning Success

The research provides in-depth insights into the factors influencing the success of the learning process in the context of homeschooling in Denpasar. Here are some key points that can be drawn from the findings of this research:Parental Educational Capability:Parental educational capability has a positive and significant impact on the success of homeschooling.Factors such as a lack of commitment, time, technological proficiency, motivation, and responsiveness to the child's learning problems can affect parental educational capability. The availability of learning materials has a positive effect on the success of homeschooling. Aspects such as the suitability of materials to the child's interests and talents, material flexibility, ease of provision by parents, the child's interest in the material, learning facilities from various sources, and community support affect the availability of learning materials. The availability of a conducive learning environment also contributes positively to the success of the homeschooling process. Aspects such as positive family interactions, trust in the child's interests and talents, good relationships with the child's learning environment (tutors, homeschooling institutions, tutors, and community friends), and socializing with various communities support the creation of a good learning environment. Success The success of homeschooling is influenced by learning objectives, curriculum and teaching strategies, the teaching and learning process, and learning achievements that include the ability to have a diploma, portfolio, certificates from tutoring, and behavioral changes. Recommendations: Parents of homeschooling children are advised to pay more attention to fundamental aspects before deciding on homeschooling. If facing difficulties, it is recommended to seek assistance from learning communities or apply for scholarships from social foundations to ensure the successful implementation of homeschooling for the child.This research can serve as a foundation for parents, educators, and relevant stakeholders to enhance the quality of homeschooling in Denpasar by considering the identified factors.Keywords: Educational ability, availability of materials, environment, success in learning at homeschooling

Children build their vocabularies in noisy environments: The necessity of a cross-disciplinary approach to understand word learning.

Research within the language sciences has informed our understanding of how children build vocabulary knowledge especially during early childhood and the early school years. However, to date, our understanding of word learning in children is based primarily on research in quiet laboratory settings. The everyday environments that children inhabit such as schools, homes, and day cares are typically noisy. To better understand vocabulary development, we need to understand the effects of background noise on word learning. To gain this understanding, a cross-disciplinary approach between researchers in the language and hearing sciences in partnership with parents, educators, and clinicians is ideal. Through this approach we can identify characteristics of effective vocabulary instruction that take into account the background noise present in children's learning environments. Furthermore, we can identify characteristics of children who are likely to struggle with learning words in noisy environments. For example, differences in vocabulary knowledge, verbal working memory abilities, and attention skills will likely influence children's ability to learn words in the presence of background noise. These children require effective interventions to support their vocabulary development which subsequently should support their ability to process and learn language in noisy environments. Overall, this cross-disciplinary approach will inform theories of language development and inform educational and intervention practices designed to support children's vocabulary development. This article is categorized under: Psychology > Language Psychology > Learning Psychology > Theory and Methods.

Science Learning in Playful Learning Environments: A Study from US Early Childhood Classrooms

Science may be a particularly vital subject in early life, serving not just to provide the foundation for future scientific understanding, but to expanding understanding and recognition of the value of young children's thinking and learning. therefore, designing learning environment to support children’s playful science learning is getting important. For this purpose, the current study was conducted to instigate how playful learning environments support children’s science learning. The data of this study was collected from four different US early childhood learning environments. The analysis of the data showed that children’s playful discoveries promotes their scientific skills and science learning. In these learning environments, children are encouraged to play more and explore a variety of situations in these learning environments thanks to the materials chosen and the design of the learning centers that encourage interaction between children. The findings of the current study suggest that exemplary practices should be developed in order to move away from traditional learning environments and to support learning through play, and to raise awareness on this issue, starting with teacher candidates.

International Trauma-Informed Practice Principles for Schools (ITIPPS): expert consensus of best-practice principles

Recognition that schools should be responsive to children who are impacted by adversity and trauma is burgeoning internationally. However, consensus regarding the necessary components of a trauma-informed school is lacking. This research developed expert-informed and internationally relevant best-practice trauma-informed principles for schools. A four-phase methodology included (i) identification of school-relevant trauma-informed practice programs, (ii) inductive thematic analysis of the main concepts underlying programs, (iii) phrasing of draft Principles and (iv) Principle revision and finalisation via a two-round Delphi survey with international experts. Excellent agreement by experts on the importance of all Principles was achieved (round 1 ≥ 86.4%, 2 ≥ 92.3%). The final ‘International Trauma-Informed Practice Principles for Schools’ (ITIPPS) include four Overarching (A–D) and 10 Practice Principles (1–10). Summarised, these include that the school: (A) is student focussed; (B) models compassion and generosity; (C) is understanding and responsive; (D) incorporates recognition of their First Nations peoples in the school’s ethos: (1) prioritises safety and wellbeing; (2) models positive relationships; (3) provides a positive culture and connects; (4) consults and collaborates; (5) supports vulnerable students; (6) teaches social and emotional learning; (7) provides trauma-informed practice training; (8) is predictable yet flexible; (9) identifies and nurtures strengths and (10) reflects, changes and grows. The ITIPPS provide clear guidance for education sectors, schools and other settings about appropriate learning environments for children and young people impacted by trauma. Research is now underway in Western Australian schools to pilot test the feasibility and impact of using the ITIPPS within a framework (thoughtfulschools.org.au) to establish trauma-informed schools.

Quantifying quality: The impact of measures of school quality on children's academic achievement across diverse societies.

Recent decades have seen a rapid acceleration in global participation in formal education, due to worldwide initiatives aimed to provide school access to all children. Research in high income countries has shown that school quality indicators have a significant, positive impact on numeracy and literacy-skills required to participate in the increasingly globalized economy. Schools vary enormously in kind, resources, and teacher training around the world, however, and the validity of using diverse school quality measures in populations with diverse educational profiles remains unclear. First, we assessed whether children's numeracy and literacy performance across populations improves with age, as evidence of general school-related learning effects. Next, we examined whether several school quality measures related to classroom experience and composition, and to educational resources, were correlated with one another. Finally, we examined whether they were associated with children's (4-12-year-olds, N=889) numeracy and literacy performance in 10 culturally and geographically diverse populations which vary in historical engagement with formal schooling. Across populations, age was a strong positive predictor of academic achievement. Measures related to classroom experience and composition were correlated with one another, as were measures of access to educational resources and classroom experience and composition. The number of teachers per class and access to writing materials were key predictors of numeracy and literacy, while the number of students per classroom, often linked to academic achievement, was not. We discuss these results in the context of maximising children's learning environments and highlight study limitations to motivate future research. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: We examined the extent to which four measures of school quality were associated with one another, and whether they predicted children's academic achievement in 10 culturally and geographically diverse societies. Across populations, measures related to classroom experience and composition were correlated with one another as were measures of access to educational resources to classroom experience and composition. Age, the number of teachers per class, and access to writing materials were key predictors of academic achievement across populations. Our data have implications for designing efficacious educational initiatives to improve school quality globally.

Relationally Enhancing Teacher Education in Early Childhood Learning Environments towards Sustainability

Teacher education in early childhood learning environments (ECLE) is a generally neglected space in teaching and learning, more so when the focus is on relationality and sustainability. ECLE refers to the Care and Education of children between 2-4 years of age. The focus of this paper is on ECLE from a post-humanist perspective, which goes in tandem with UNESCO’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. Emphasis is on inclusive economic development through environmentally sustainable social inclusion for all. Relationality has been chosen because of its power to advance the deconstruction of the hitherto taken for granted canons of humanism and enlightenment that promote hierarchies in knowledge and its production. These hierarchies disregard the voices of the vulnerable and the excluded, in terms of social class and other markers like age, but most importantly their erroneously assumed lack of knowledge. To date, the voices of the aspirant teachers in ECLE, as well as those of the children and parents, are non-existent when teacher education programmes are designed and implemented. This paper reveals that including the voices of these beneficiary communities enhances the quality of the discourse, theorisation and praxis in the provision of ECLE, as well as in the crafting of relevant teacher education programmes. Thus, the design and delivery of a programme is better based on the relationalities among humans, animals and plants; and between them and inanimate entities like infrastructure and resources. The relationality among all of these in the crafting of the beyond human is enhanced using advanced digital technologies. A relational approach recognises our entanglement with our entire universe in a manner that does not centre on identity. Quality therefore is about the ever-increasing complexity of diffractions of multi-layered and multi-perspective engagements across borders.

A mobilisation of motherhood, babyhood and childhood sensing pasts: Life diaries as creative and speculative force of experimentation

In recent years, the theoretical lens of new materialism(s) and surge in feminist thinking has opened up new ways of understanding the complexities of motherhood, babyhood and early childhood. This surge in post-qualitative and feminist inquiry towards the troubling of dominant early childhood abstractions and norms, as well as resistance to human-centric perspectives offers new possibilities to engage both ethically and politically in an affirmative exploration of motherhoods, babyhoods and early childhoods. Through communicating the methodological nuances in two early childhood physical spaces this article is a (re)assembling of the fibrous, slippery and friable fragments of an earlier inquiry. The first of these spaces was a baby room in an Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC) setting in the United Kingdom (UK), and the second was Higher Education (HE) Undergraduate (UG) Early Childhood Studies (ECS) teaching and learning environments, again in the UK. There were also a number of virtual, past and present, material, ephemeral and ethereal research sites that seem disparate, yet connected. The transversal methodology held bodies in the middle of the research, allowing things to creep in and creep out. A mobilisation of motherhood, babyhood and childhood sensing pasts produced neologisms, such as mothersick, Bowlb(arbar)ian and (gh)host(ile)(ly) which conjure transversality and spacetimemattering in all that I do in the HE ECS classroom and ECEC environments. Memories, histories and (her)stories – severed encounters shared and assembled. Cuts that brought pain to the surface(s) and bodies become ambiguous, unnerving, raw and exposed. Through the article, it is argued, powerful psychological developmental theories that reverberate through human and nonhuman bodies haunt student and pedagogue bodily knowledges and histories. It is suggested that ethically, HE pedagogues have a duty of care to think beyond the immediate teaching and learning classroom and consider how we touch the lives of UG ECS students, in unknown but often imperceptible and sensed ways.

Understanding how educational maths apps can enhance learning: A content analysis and qualitative comparative analysis

AbstractEducational applications (apps) are ubiquitous within children's learning environments and emerging evidence has demonstrated their efficacy. However, it remains unclear what the active ingredients (ie, mechanisms), or combination of ingredients, of successful maths apps are. The current study developed a new, open‐access, three‐step framework for assessing the educational value of maths apps, comprised of type of app, mathematical content and app design features. When applied to a selection of available maths apps previously evaluated with children in the first 3 years of school (the final sample included 23 apps), results showed that practice‐based apps were the most common app type tested (n = 15). Basic number skills, such as number representation and relationships, were the most common area of mathematics targeted by apps (n = 21). A follow‐up qualitative comparative analysis showed observed learning outcomes with maths apps were enhanced when apps combined the following: a scaffolded and personalised learning journey (programmatic levelling) and explanations of why answers were right or wrong (explanatory feedback), as well as praise, such as ‘Great job!’ (motivational feedback). This novel evidence stresses the significance of feedback and levelling design features that teaching practitioners and other stakeholders should consider when deciding which apps to use with young children. Directions for future research are discussed. Practitioner notesWhat is already known about this topic Educational apps have been shown to support maths attainment in the first 3 years of school. Several existing frameworks have attempted to assess the educational value of some of these maths apps. Emerging experimental evidence also demonstrates the benefits of specific app design features, including feedback and levelling. What this paper adds Practice‐based maths apps are the most common type of app previously evaluated with young children. These evaluated maths apps have mostly focused on basic number skills. The combination of explanatory and motivational feedback, with programmatic levelling (either dynamic or static), was a necessary condition for enhancing learning outcomes with maths apps. Implications for practice and policy The inclusion of feedback and levelling in maths apps should be considered by app developers when designing apps, and by educational practitioners and parents when deciding which apps to use with their children. Further consideration is also needed for the development of educational apps that include a broad range of maths skills.

Markers of Sensory Well-Being in the Learning Environment for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

The article describes the results of interdisciplinary research focusing on the concept of “sensory well-being” and its application to construct sensory-friendly learning environments. The article analyzes the relationship between sensory characteristics of a learning environment and its impact on children’s well-being and progress. It is shown that the current standards for learning environments in Russian schools fail to meet the sensory needs of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). The study relies on the case study method to compare the sensory needs a student with ASD and the characteristics of the classroom environment where she studies. The assessment encompasses auditory, visual, olfactory, tactile, vestibular, and proprioceptive modalities. Based on the data obtained, the authors formulate a set of markers that can be used to build a sensory-friendly learning environment. These markers can be used by specialists when designing new or renovating the already existing environments at schools and other educational institutions.