Play is an integral part of childhood which is done for the sake of enjoyment but also confers many benefits. For young children who attend childcare, preschool, and elementary school, play is frequently done outside the home and with peers. The public health measures of the COVID-19 pandemic confined many families to their homes while parents had…

Using a convergent parallel mixed methods design, the present study examined children's screen time and social behaviors through parents' perceptions. The participants were 113 children and their parents for the quantitative strand and 42 randomly selected parents for the qualitative strand of the study. Parents reported on children's social…

This study sheds light on sibling mediation of young children's media use, focusing on older brothers and sisters as significant mediators in imparting preferences, skills, and norms of media use in early childhood. The sample included 20 families with two or three children, one of whom was four to seven years of age and had at least one older…

The current study aims to identify changing trends in digital play addiction tendencies among young children and parental guidance strategies before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic. In light of the bioecological model of development, it was hypothesized that the pandemic would have a significant impact on the addiction to digital play…

The purpose of this study was to describe the daily activities of Canadian children outside of school. Participants were parents of N = 189 children (90 boys, 99 girls) in grades 1 to 3. The What Your Child Did Today parental telephone interview protocol was developed as a daily log of both the type and social context of children's activities.…

The purpose of this literature review is to identify patterns and discuss key perspectives from empirical studies published during the last decade that explore how young children (birth to six years old) and teachers together engage with digital technologies in early childhood education and care institutions. An inductive thematic analysis results…

This article explores 4- to 7-year-old children's tablet computer (tablet) use, drawing on empirical data from day-care institutions, primary schools and private home settings in Denmark. Data were gathered via video observations in two different studies: (a) a media ethnography on children's tablet play practices in home settings and (b) a…

Background: Parent-child interactions are crucial for child development. The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected mental health and increased parenting challenges impacting parent-child functioning. Objective: This study examined parent factors related to more and less enriching child activities during the pandemic through Bronfenbrenner's…

The study's objective was to explore media consumption among children and its association with play as well as motor, social, and emotion recognition skills. The participants were 200 children between the ages of four and eight (M = 5.53), their mothers, and their teachers. Media consumption and play tendencies (frequency and playmates) were…

"Many kindergarteners struggle to master the foundational behaviors that enable them to successfully engage in classroom learning" (Cameron, et al., 2012, p 1229). As a school-based occupational therapist, there has been a noticeable rise in concerns from kindergarten teachers regarding the fine motor, visual motor, self-help, and…

In this report, Defending the Early Years (DEY) offers offers some thoughts and suggestions for supporting young children through COVID-19. Topics discussed include: (1) falling behind; (2) communicating with grandparents, family, and friends; (3) routines; (4) play; (5) time to teach skills; (6) screen time; (7) talking with children; and (8)…

The processes and patterns of strategies used by children when drawing on the computer with friends and acquaintances were investigated in a case study. The participants were five-and-six-year-old children and the study took place in their home settings. The data collection methods consisted of interviews, observations, audio recordings, video…

Many parents find it hard to make decisions about screen time for their kids because advice comes from different directions and often conflicts. In the field of child development, there are decades of theory and research that can be very helpful as a guide for screen and digital device use with young kids. These ideas can be a resource for parents…

A digital disconnect perspective is founded on an assumption that technology use in the home is frequent, creative and generative, and that technology use in the early childhood centre should be the same as that found in the home. However, such arguments divert our attention from understanding the nature of the setting and thereby from an…