Toddlers now has a new learning platform achieved from interactions through online video chatting, as shown in a study involving the use of FaceTime by one to two year-olds versus pre-recorded videos. The study was published in the journal Development Science.
"In this study, we tested whether young children form relationships with and learn from people via video chat," said Professor Lauren J. Myers, Ph.D., as per NewsWise. Myers, a developmental psychologist, conducted the study on toddlers with the help of her three students at Lafayette College, Rachel B. LeWitt, Renee E. Gallo and Nicole M. Maselli.
FaceTime might help toddlers learn new skills and social interactions - Medical News Today https://t.co/qpxEX6WmPW
— Hlthnews (@hlthnews) July 18, 2016
Toddlers Exposed To FaceTime, Pre-recorded Videos
Medical News Today reported that Myers and her team examined how one to two year-old toddlers learned from FaceTime in live conversations or pre-recorded videos for a week. There were a total of 60 toddlers for this study, split into the two groups.
The two groups of toddlers were taught by an on-screen person words, actions and patterns, according to the report. The toddlers were attentive and responded, but only the toddlers having live FaceTime conversations responded in sync with the on-screen person teaching them. After one week of being taught, the toddlers were subjected to a review.
Learning Occurred For FaceTime Group
According to a report from Science Daily, the toddlers in the live FaceTime conversations group learned social and cognitive information. The toddlers were said to have recognized the person they met only on video chat and learned new words and patterns one week after being taught through FaceTime.
"Learning occurred from video chat only when children talked to an on-screen "partner" who responded to them in real time, and learning did not occur when the partner was pre-recorded and couldn't actually see or hear the child," the report said. Myers was quoted as saying that learning happened through video chat because it was similar to in-person interaction wherein the on-screen person could respond to the toddler back-and-forth.
