Published online September 1, 2004
PEDIATRICS
Vol. 114
No. 3
September 2004, pp.
852
(doi:10.1542/peds.2004-0452)
Preschoolers, Computers, and School Readiness: Are We On to Something?
S. Andrew Spooner, MD, MS, FAAP American Academy of Pediatrics Steering Committee on Clinical Information Technology
University of Tennessee Health Science Center,
Memphis, TN 38163
We've all heard of the digital divide: for example, the rural poor are much less likely than others to have access to information technology. Despite this, the authors of "Early Childhood Computer Experience and Cognitive and Motor Development"1 found that over half of a group of rural, poor preschoolers had a computer at home. Another stereotype-smashing finding was that boys and girls in this sample used computers with equal frequency. Whether these results can be replicated in a similar population in another location remains to be seen, but these results raise the question of whether the digital divide is closing. A more important question is whether elimination of the digital divide is important for the very young. Does access to information technology make children better prepared for school? For work? For other technology? The present study implies that it might. Scores of cognitive ability showed a statistically significant effect of computer exposure. This effect was independent of parental education and income (see the multivariate analysis), at least in this sample of low-income families. We do not know exactly what the children were doing on these computers—just that they had access to them. These findings beg to be explored further to uncover a covariate that allows all this to be explained away with some social factor about which we already knew or to prove that computers really are good for preschoolers.
Computers are more common than fish tanks in our preschools. According to a 2003 US Department of Education study, three quarters of 5-year-olds were using computers regularly in 2001.2 It is not surprising that this rate is much higher among older children, and it's almost surely higher among 5-year-olds in 2004. We do not have much data on 3- and 4-year-olds and how computers affect them and almost no information at all about technology use among the very young in rural areas. Li and Atkins addressed a typically ignored population for study in technology use. If future researchers can follow suit, perhaps we can discover an inexpensive tool for reducing the risk of school failure among a high-risk population. Such a tool would be worth finding.
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FOOTNOTES
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Accepted Mar 4, 2004.
Address correspondence to S. Andrew Spooner, MD, MS, FAAP, University of Tennessee Health Science Center, 50 N Dunlap Ave, Suite 4624, Memphis, TN 38103. E-mail: aspooner{at}utmem.edu
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REFERENCES
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- Li X, Atkins MS. Early childhood computer experience and cognitive and motor development.
Pediatrics. 2004;113
:1715
–1722[Abstract/Free Full Text]
- Debell M, Chapman C. Computer and internet use by children and adolescents in 2001: statistical analysis report. Washington, DC: Department of Education; 2003. Available at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2004014. Accessed July 23, 2003
PEDIATRICS (ISSN 1098-4275). ©2004 by the American Academy of Pediatrics
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