HOW TO PREVENT CANCERS

Our expert: Dr Kate Highfield

u need to occupy your kids while you make an important phone call, cook dinner or during a long plane trip, so you hand them your phone or tablet. You've downloaded some "educational" apps that promise everything from improved spatial awareness to advanced reading skills, so you figure it's screen time well spent.

But are "educational" apps really a good way to enhance your child's learning?

It depends on the app and how it's used, says early childhood lecturer and researcher Dr Kate Highfield, from Sydney's Macquarie University.

"I don't think parents need to be getting their kids to play specific apps to enhance their learning, but it's another tool to have in your educational kit box," she says, adding there's "considerable evidence" well-chosen apps can help kids in areas including literacy, science and maths.

"Some apps can enhance learning incredibly, particularly when they are to do with practising specific skills or when they give the child the opportunity to create their own content and communicate in new ways," she says.

Others have much more limited benefits.

Not surprisingly, most parents seeking good quality educational apps will head to the education section of the app store. But these apps may not actually be very educational at all, research by Highfield and colleagues has shown.

Around 85 per cent have a design that encourages only very basic or low level thinking skills. These can be a fun way for your child to practise a specific skill, such as learning times tables or letter sound recognition. (You still need to match the app carefully with your child's education level so they're not bored or intimidated).

But such "instructive, drill and practise" apps don't promote "higher order" thinking, which has much broader educational benefit, Highfield says.

Every time a child engages with an app, it influences the connections that form between nerve cells in their brain. So it's a crying shame to miss the opportunity to form the most valuable types of connections, she says.

"A lot of families have given them access to only those low-level educational apps.

"There's no opportunity to evaluate, synthesise, reason, or communicate and very limited opportunites to think reflectively or create."

Making sure your child's screen time is beneficial is important as research suggests children are using screens for an average of at least three hours a day and possibly more, which is well in excess of recommended guidelines for all screen time, including television.

"Children over two should be using screens for around one to two hours a day at most," Highfield says. For the under-twos, the American Academy of Paediatrics recommends no screen time at all.

"If we are using screens, we need to be using them to their best capacity rather than just for low-level interaction. So it's a missed opportunity."

So how does a parent recognise the better quality apps?

"Generally they're the apps that are like a digital version of a blank piece of paper. The child can make or do anything with them," Highfield says.

She recommends looking at app reviews on sites, such as the non-profit Common Sense Media, where you can filter reviews based on a number of variables, including the skill the app develops. Apps that promote skills, such as "creativity" and "communication" are good to aim for, she says.

And with any app use, she encourages parents to "co-play" or interact with their child as much as possible.

"A little bit of digital babysitting is absolutely fine. But just like you don't leave your child totally alone in a real playground, don't leave them totally alone in the virtual playground. Really participate with your child to see what they're doing, learn how to play with them and talk to them about what you're both doing.

"You need to know what habit of mind they're creating," she says. For instance, apps that reward children every step of the way with enthusiastic phrases like "great job, well done" may set up unrealistic expectations about the level of reinforcement for any learning activity and you may want to limit these.

And remember to help your child keep a balance between learning in the digital world and learning in the real world. Too much time in the digital world is harmful to a child's development, she says.

"If you're a parent who's engaged with your child's life, you're going to extend their learning quite naturally. Read good books [to, or with, your child]. Go on adventures. Have fun. Sometimes that can be digital fun, but it doesn't always have to be."

Dr Kate Highfield is a lecturer and researcher in early childhood at Sydney's Macquarie University. Highfield was one of the educational advisors for ABC's Play School Art Maker app. She spoke to Cathy Johnson.

Published 24/10/2013