{"id":7960,"date":"2019-02-13T16:04:56","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T16:04:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/?p=7960"},"modified":"2025-10-30T00:14:35","modified_gmt":"2025-10-30T00:14:35","slug":"audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development\/","title":{"rendered":"Audio-visual technologies promise toddlers\u2019-eye views of early childhood development"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_79_2 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title ez-toc-toggle\" style=\"cursor:pointer\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #121c4e;color:#121c4e\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #121c4e;color:#121c4e\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development\/#Literally_being_able_to_see_and_hear_the_childs_perspective_will_revise_our_understanding_of_early_childhood_development\" >Literally being able to see and hear the child\u2019s perspective will revise our understanding of early childhood development.<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development\/#Changing_conventional_views_of_early_childhood_development\" >Changing conventional views of early childhood development<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development\/#Technologys_insights_into_early_childhood_development_at_home\" >Technology\u2019s insights into early childhood development at home<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development\/#Risks_of_existing_research_approaches\" >Risks of existing research approaches<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-2'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-5\" href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/audio-visual-technologies-early-childhood-development\/#Insights_into_multiple_models_of_early_childhood_development\" >Insights into multiple models of early childhood development<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Literally_being_able_to_see_and_hear_the_childs_perspective_will_revise_our_understanding_of_early_childhood_development\"><\/span><strong>Literally being able to see and hear the child\u2019s perspective will revise our understanding of early childhood development.<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We will soon know more about <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/early-childhood-development-concepts\/\">early childhood development<\/a> because we can at last see the world directly through the eyes of young children themselves.\u00a0 This extraordinary opportunity will help us to think afresh about <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/language-development-in-early-childhood\/\">language acquisition<\/a>, learning, play and the roles that parents and teachers should provide.<\/p>\n<p>Technology will allow us to move beyond the types of evidence that typically underpin\u00a0 knowledge about early childhood development, such as observation and reporting of young children\u2019s behaviour, usually\u00a0 by mothers, researchers and teachers.\u00a0 A camera strapped to a toddler\u2019s head can now tell its own story.<\/p>\n<p>The ethical question of a child\u2019s informed consent in such circumstances may be challenging. But it\u2019s not insurmountable, and research using these techniques has already taken place.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Changing_conventional_views_of_early_childhood_development\"><\/span>Changing conventional views of early childhood development<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/links-between-toddlers-screen-time-and-language-development\/\">Audiovisual technology<\/a> is already justifying a critical review of some conventional wisdom. Tracking the eye movements of young children has been possible since the 1960s, but today the technology has been miniaturized and is much easier to use. Tests are demonstrating that toddlers\u2019 inattention can be strategic: it frequently reflects their swift assessment of whether they already know the thing they are observing and, if not, whether it\u2019s cognitively within their <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/child-development-milestones\/\">developmental reach<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/early-childhood-development\/early-learning-inattention\/\">Celeste Kidd<\/a> finds that this strategy is rational and efficient, preventing young children from wasting time on stimuli that offer them limited learning opportunities.<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, as Catherine Tamis-LeMonda shows, such technologies can better describe the realities of <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/pretend-play-real-life-early-child-development\/\">young children\u2019s play<\/a> in highly resourced societies \u2013 flitting among as many as 100 objects in an hour \u2013 than traditional research approaches which might place a mother and her child alongside a limited number of toys, with a researcher observing their interactions.<\/p>\n<p>Using technology to see the world through children\u2019s eyes is rehabilitating the concept of exploratory learning. Kidd\u2019s research highlights that the apparent distractibility of many young children is, in fact, a mark of their efficiency as learners. Meanwhile, following the child in what Tamis-LeMonda calls \u2018foraging\u2019 behaviour also helps to identify multiple opportunities for parents to boost language development by naming what these busy children see, touch, smell, taste and explore.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Technologys_insights_into_early_childhood_development_at_home\"><\/span>Technology\u2019s insights into early childhood development at home<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We may be just beginning to improve our understanding of early childhood development, particularly when it comes to <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/home-learning-environment-academic-performance\/\">how homes operate during the early years<\/a>. Technology should help to show more clearly how children interact with parents, siblings and others in the home; how children are directed in their day-to-day lives; and how much freedom they have to explore as they wish. The childs\u2019-eye view may reveal <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/importance-of-play-in-child-development-education\/\">patterns of play and language<\/a> that go unnoticed by busy adults.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>\u201cThis extraordinary opportunity will help us to think afresh about language acquisition, learning, play and the roles that parents and teachers should provide in support early childhood development.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Getting an accurate picture of such things through parental reporting can be difficult, because parents\u2019 reports may be unreliable. Likewise, observations by researchers may be tainted by the fact that their very presence alters home dynamics. With newer technologies, young children can testify for themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Another characteristic of these technologies is their capacity to generate much more and more varied data than we\u2019ve had in the past, thereby helping to redress past imbalances. Early childhood development researchers should be better able to study linguistic minority and minority ethnic families, extended families, children\u2019s relationships with their fathers, and diverse forms of child-rearing\u2014particularly as recording devices become ever smaller, so that they become less obtrusive and disruptive.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Risks_of_existing_research_approaches\"><\/span>Risks of existing research approaches<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The current imbalance in research may have led, in some instances, to pathologising and problematizing disadvantaged, Black, Asian and Hispanic families, when the real issue may be inadequate understanding of these families, based on insufficient data.<\/p>\n<p>Technologies that view the home through children\u2019s eyes \u2013 and which allow data to be collected more cheaply than through direct observation \u2013 might help to address such inadequacies in the study of early childhood development.<\/p>\n<p>They might build on earlier evidence developed by Gordon Wells in the UK and Shirley Brice-Heath in the US. Their findings suggest that children from less well-off families use a much wider, richer range of language at home than they do at school, where they are less culturally confident than some of their better-off peers. It would be good to revisit such observations using more modern tools. Technology could, for example, provide insights into the highly contested claim that in high-poverty households, children are exposed to an <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/vocabulary-gap\/\">average of 30 million fewer words<\/a> in their early years than their middle-income peers.<\/p>\n<h2><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Insights_into_multiple_models_of_early_childhood_development\"><\/span>Insights into multiple models of early childhood development<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h2>\n<p>We know much more about what goes on in white families than in families of other ethnicities, and we know much less about early childhood development outside Europe and the United States. As <a href=\"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/early-childhood-development\/play-cultures\/\">Jaipaul Roopnarine<\/a> demonstrates, there are multiple routes to maturity, and we need to understand them all to optimise early childhood development. Without a more thorough understanding, research may advocate models based only on Western evidence, treating them as universally applicable when alternative models from other cultures might be equally or even more effective.<\/p>\n<p>The value of seeing the world through new eyes is very apparent. Footage on YouTube of domestic cats roaming around with cameras strapped to their bodies is captivating, mapping where cats go, what they see and what they do.\u00a0 Likewise, wildlife programmes have been re-energised by similar methods that capture birds\u2019-eye views of the skies and the land.<\/p>\n<p>Audiovisual technologies hold out the prospect that young children, as unconscious recorders of their own behaviour and of those around them, can shed light on how they are agents of their own early development and what works best for them. The evidence collected may also prove to be just as entertaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Literally being able to see and hear the child\u2019s perspective will revise our understanding of early childhood development.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":7972,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[435,438],"tags":[2],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7960"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22526,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7960\/revisions\/22526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7972"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/childandfamilyblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}