Over the past four years, digital media products directed at infants and very young children have exploded into the market place. With the penetration of these digital products into households, the average U.S. infant and toddler now invests approximately two hours each day with media, beginning with DVD viewing in the first months of life followed by computer exposure in a parent's lap at about age 2. These early media use patterns persist despite the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics that children should not experience screen exposure before the age of 2. Although preliminary data do suggest negative effects of screen exposure when infants are heavily exposed to television programs designed for adult audiences, little is currently known about the positive or negative effects of programs designed for very young children, or how infants and toddlers come to understand these first media experiences. An interdisciplinary research team from the Children's Digital Media Center will use a multi-theoretical and multi-method approach to track early digital media exposure and how that exposure influences infants' and very young children's attention and learning. Guiding the research program are two distinct but complementary theories, one involving the comprehensibility of the content and the other focusing on the grammar of media (formal features such as action, music, and sound effects). As one component of the program, national surveys will document patterns of change and continuity over time in very young children's access to, and uses of, various digital media platforms, such as DVDs, computers, and music. A second component will entail content analyses of the formal production features used in popular digital products for the very young. This formal feature analysis will be used, in part, to set the stage for selecting and creating stimuli for experimental and observational research. This third component will involve determining how infants and very young children learn from digital media exposure. Experimental studies will also be employed to examine factors that influence major cognitive accomplishments, such as understanding that events presented on a screen can represent real-life events. Together with other methods, the experimental research will include eye-tracking studies to pinpoint how very young children learn to read a screen.
In contrast to popular belief, infants' digital media use functions as more than a surrogate for a babysitter. Rather, digital media use is a major environmental influence from the earliest months of life. This project will provide new information about the early exposure of very young children to media specifically created for them and advance current understanding of the most critical features involved in the construction of these products. The project will also generate knowledge of the means by which infants and toddlers come to understand symbolic media presentations, a key to understanding infants' intellectual development. The outcomes of this project will likely guide the development of digital products designed for the very young, may influence federal media policies, and inform parental decisions about the media choices and early media exposure that they provide for their infants and young children.
