Child's play: Toddlers and infants smart enough to handle iPads, confirms US study

Washington: Toddlers as young as one-year-old are turning tech-savvy and can use a tablet, but require help to access apps, according to a study conducted by University of Iowa researchers, who studied more than 200 YouTube videos of infants and toddlers using iPads. By age two, 90% of the children in the videos had a moderate ability to use a tablet, according to Juan Pablo Hourcade, associate professor of computer science in the UI College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and lead author of the study. “Just over 50% of 12-to-17-month-old children in the videos had a moderate ability,” Hourcade said, which he defined as needing help from an adult to access apps, but being able to use them while displaying some difficulty with basic interactions. [caption id=“attachment_2328340” align=“alignleft” width=“380” class=" “]  YouTube screengrab.[/caption] Though other researchers have conducted surveys of the prevalence of tablet use by young children, Hourcade said the UI study is the first to show how infants and toddlers are actually using the devices. He said YouTube enabled his group to conduct the research without having to ask infants and toddlers to use tablets, something that pediatricians discourage. “We know that toddlers are using iPads because we’ve seen the videos recorded by their parents, and surveys confirm it is happening. ,” he said. However, Hourcade acknowledged the drawbacks of using unsolicited YouTube videos, such as not knowing the exact ages of the children pictured and if they were selected by their caregivers and may not be representative of the larger society. He said the researchers were able to estimate the ages of the children (two-thirds of the videos included the age) and observe a clear progression of successful performance linked to age that is consistent with developmental milestones. “One of the biggest differences we found is that when children turn one year old, they switch from using both hands and all their fingers to interact with the tablet to using an index finger, similar to adults,” he said. PTI