Evaluating Apps for Young Children

[Dr. Roberta Golinkoff] What about the quality of the apps that are available to young children? When I and my colleagues entered the fray to work on this issue, there were no scientists that had tackled this. There was no regulatory group that existed or even now to evaluate apps. Yet the majority of apps sold or given for free are for preschoolers. In 2021, this is all apps, It’s a huge number. 230 billion apps were downloaded. We are in this new world. Enter, four evidence based principles drawing on the science of learning for app designers, parents and educators. That’s the product of what happened after we did an analysis of the quality of apps. So based on how human brains learn best, we found that apps that include the following features are worthy of your child’s time: when they’re active, not passive, when they’re engaging and not distracting, when the information is meaningful and links to their lives and when they’re socially interactive.