It was love at first sight—the infatuated gaze, the flirtatious giggles. He just couldn’t keep his eyes or hands off her. I can still hear the cry of agony when I, his mom, mercilessly tore her away from his small chubby hands…

“He” is my two-year-old son. “She” is the iPad. It’s a love story familiar to almost every parent who has both a toddler and an iPad (or presumably other tablets) in the house. And as this unnatural bit of natural attraction surfaced, it made me and many other parents wonder: “What on earth is the iPad doing to my child?”

Dr. Heather Kirkorian, an assistant professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Department at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is one of the few scientists trying to answer this very question. And for the past few years, she has been studying how touchscreen devices affect early childhood learning.

Before focusing on the small, mobile screen, Kirkorian started her career studying the effect of television on childhood learning. For decades it’s been known that infants and toddlers under two years old learn less from video than real life experiences—it’s called the “video deficit.” For these young minds, face-to-face interaction is crucial for learning language and social skills. Excessive TV exposure at this early age has been linked to language delays and social impairment such as lack of expression or eye contact. In fact, Kirkorian’s early studies showed that even background television—adult programs that children do not pay much attention to—could disrupt play behavior and parent-child interaction.

The video deficit effect diminishes for children around three years of age, when educational video viewing can actually facilitate learning. But because of the known negative effects of television on young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends zero screen time for children under two years of age, and no more than two hours for older kids. However, this guideline was established back when there was no such thing as a touchscreen device—let alone an interactive app.

iPad speed vs. research speed

Within moments, anyone who plays with the iPad knows the experience is different from watching television in many ways. Instead of passively accepting information on the screen, we’re able to interact with the device using the tip of our fingers. Researchers call this “contingency”—the image on the screen changes in direct response to one’s behavior.

Young children are captivated by contingency. They are fascinated by the iPad in the same way they enjoy throwing toys on the floor (after you’ve picked it up the hundredth time!). They see something happen as a result of their behavior. And unlike the action and reaction of a traditional computer, using an iPad is much more intuitive. Anyone with a finger can do it—literally even a baby.

Apple released the first on-device app store in 2008, and the number of educational apps for kids has exploded since then. An analysis by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center in 2012 showed that three out of four top-selling apps in the education category targeted elementary-age children or younger, and the most popular apps are aimed at preschoolers. But although many apps claim they have educational value, there is almost no published research on the effect of interactive apps on infant or toddler learning.

Why? Kirkorian believes one reason may simply be the development cycle. Things change fast in touchscreen technology. Contrast this again with television. There is plenty of research on the effect of TV on childhood learning, not only because it’s been here a long time, but also because it has changed relatively little over the past few decades. “If I study the iPad today, it may not be relevant in the next five years,” Kirkorian says. “This gives researchers less incentive to study.” As a result, there are only a handful of scientists studying the effect of touchscreen devices on infants and toddlers, and no one has published much yet.

To add another complication, studies with children generally take a long time. The first step begins with recruiting volunteers to participate in the study.

“People who do research on kids pretty much are desperate for research participants all the time,” Kirkorian says. “It’s probably the most challenging part of doing research with kids. Even more challenging than getting kids to agree to participate is getting parents to bring them in.”

Kirkorian has recruited volunteers through preschools, sent e-mails to faculty and students at the university, and hung up flyers around the city. “We might purchase an ad in the local newspaper too. We are willing to try everything,” she says. But many parents are uneasy about releasing private information about their child. In some studies, the child has to be videotaped, which is a non-starter for many parents. Individual study sessions take time, and parents are busy. Taking kids to a research session just seems like another task to fit into their already hectic schedule. And although each child often receives a small toy at the end of such a session, there really is no compensation besides the satisfaction of contributing to educational research.

As a result, Kirkorian’s first study (which began in 2011) is only now under revision. It may take up to a year for the paper to actually be published.

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