• Media type: E-Article
  • Title: Touch-screen technology usage in toddlers
  • Contributor: Ahearne, Caroline; Dilworth, Sinead; Rollings, Rachel; Livingstone, Vicki; Murray, Deirdre
  • imprint: BMJ, 2016
  • Published in: Archives of Disease in Childhood
  • Language: English
  • DOI: 10.1136/archdischild-2015-309278
  • ISSN: 0003-9888; 1468-2044
  • Origination:
  • Footnote:
  • Description: <jats:sec><jats:title>Objective</jats:title><jats:p>To establish the prevalence and patterns of use of touch-screen technologies in the toddler population.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Design</jats:title><jats:p>Parental questionnaires were completed for children aged 12 months to 3 years examining access to touch-screen devices and ability to perform common forms of interaction with touch-screen technologies.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results</jats:title><jats:p>The 82 questionnaires completed on typically developing children revealed 71% of toddlers had access to touch-screen devices for a median of 15 min (IQR: 9.375–26.25) per day. By parental report, 24 months was the median age of ability to swipe (IQR: 19.5–30.5), unlock (IQR: 20.5–31.5) and active looking for touch-screen features (IQR: 22–30.5), while 25 months (IQR: 21–31.25) was the median age of ability to identify and use specific touch-screen features. Overall, 32.8% of toddlers could perform all four skills.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusions</jats:title><jats:p>From 2 years of age toddlers have the ability to interact purposefully with touch-screen devices and demonstrate a variety of common skills required to utilise touch-screen technology.</jats:p></jats:sec>