Madeleine Oswald: The Effectiveness of Using Touch-Screens to Improve Early Math Learning
Counting principles are a foundational aspect of mathematics, yet many children, particularly those from
low-income families, struggle with these basic concepts. Increasingly, parents are turning towards touchscreens
as a method of providing educational content for their children. Touch-screens can be beneficial
to learning of more advanced math concepts in elementary school aged children yet it is unclear if this
holds true for preschoolers. Moreover, little is known about which factors parents take into consideration
when deciding which apps to download for their children.
Finally, touch-screen usage among children is growing dramatically, especially as technology becomes
more affordable for low-income families. As such, we must not just address the question of if touchscreens
are useful for learning but also how they can be designed to be as useful as possible while
simultaneously appealing to parents. The proposed project will address these questions through three
studies. Study 1 will examine if children can learn counting principles effectively from touch-screens by
training three groups of children on these concepts with different materials (books, objects, and touchscreens).
Study 2 will assess the decisions parents make when selecting educational apps for their
children by comparing online app ratings to app features and surveying parents. And Study 3 will
combine results of Studies 1 & 2 to explore how apps may be developed to engage parents and increase
learning. Findings from this project have the potential to inform parents, researchers, and app developers
as to how touch-screen technology can benefit even the earliest of STEM skills.