Exploring work practices for scientifically-informed pre-school app creation: a case study in attentional control.

理论基础和研究问题电影、电视和应用程序等视听(AV)媒体渗透到现代生活中。自从触摸屏设备(例如智能手机和平板电脑)出现以来，我们所有人--包括非常年幼的儿童--都有能力在我们清醒的生活中寻找信息和娱乐。家庭对触摸屏设备的拥有率从2011年的7%上升到2014年的71%，其中11%的3岁儿童拥有平板电脑1，并在出生第一年内首次接触触摸屏2。据儿童家庭报告，儿童每天看电视的时间长达8小时，与阅读、参与社交活动或户外体育活动相比，对许多英国家庭来说，屏幕时间更多地构成了孩子清醒时的生活。可以理解的是，对于家长、科学家和其他早期利益相关者(如儿科医生、社会工作者、学龄前教师、媒体制作人)来说，这些设备如何影响儿童发育中的大脑是一个紧迫的问题。流行媒体上充斥着这样的说法，即影视媒体正在创造出注意力缺陷/多动障碍(ADHD4)和反社会行为发生率不断上升的一代5，6。然而，这些担忧并不是基于任何将早期使用触摸屏与长期发育问题联系起来的经验证据。与此同时，学龄前应用程序开发的商业市场是巨大的，‘5岁及以下儿童’类别是苹果应用商店中最大的类别之一。英国是学龄前儿童(如CBeebies、MadeInMe、Hopster)数字内容和技术创作的领先者之一，开发商一直在苦苦挣扎，如何将他们的应用程序在儿童和家庭中取得的明显成功与美国儿科学会(AAP)等官方机构的建议协调起来，这些机构建议不鼓励、强烈限制或适当限制学龄前儿童的屏幕时间7。应用程序开发者经常声称他们的内容基于教育和发展理论和发现，但他们是如何做到这一点的，以及允许这一点的工作实践是什么还不清楚。即使是明确说明这些做法的公司(比如霍普斯特的内部教育从业者)也可能很难知道科学证据表明它们在发展的特定方面(如语言学习、记忆或注意力)做了什么，因为科学文献令人困惑。例如，实验室研究证明了快节奏儿童电视节目对4岁和6岁儿童注意力控制的短期影响9，10和其他研究表明，这种过滤无关感觉信息的认知能力与一生的智力、行为和教育成就11、12密切相关，但屏幕时间和这种长期后果之间的直接联系尚未显示出来。此外，与在触摸屏设备上使用应用程序相比，被动电视消费需要的用户主动参与要少得多，这可能会对认知发展产生非常不同的影响。在我们最近的幼儿注意行为和通过触摸屏(平板电脑)学习的项目中，我们证明了幼儿积极使用触摸屏与现实世界中高级精细运动发育13有关，也可能是防止儿童气质问题的一个保护因素(包括自我调节；一种与注意力控制有关的行为14)。平板电脑项目的初步脑电学(EEG)证据还表明，在18个月大的时候，每天使用触摸屏的幼儿表现出与更好的注意力控制相关的大脑活动。目前的科学证据清楚地描绘了一幅令人困惑的图景，即触摸屏的使用可能会如何影响注意力控制的发展，这使得处于这场辩论第一线的应用程序开发者很难以最具发展性的建设性方式设计他们的体验。

Rationale and Research QuestionsAudio-visual (AV) media such as movies, TV and apps, permeate modern life. Since the advent of touchscreen devices (e.g. smartphones and tablets), all of us -including very young children- have the ability to seek information and entertainment throughout our waking lives. Family ownership of touchscreen devices increased from 7% in 2011 to 71% in 2014, with 11% of 3-year-olds owning a tablet1 and first exposure to a touchscreen occurring within the first year of life2. Combined with up to 8 hours/day of TV exposure reported by families of young children3, screen time for many UK families constitutes more of a child's waking life than reading, engaging in social interaction or outdoor physical activity. Understandably, how such devices impact a child's developing brain is a pressing question for parents, scientists and other early-years stakeholders (e.g. paediatricians, social workers, pre-school teachers, media producers). The popular media is awash with claims that AV media are creating a generation with increasing rates of attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD4) and antisocial behaviour5,6. However, these fears are not based on any empirical evidence linking early touchscreen use with long-term developmental problems. Meanwhile, the commercial market for pre-school app development is huge with the 'Kids 5 & under' category being one of the largest on the Apple App Store. The UK is one of the leaders in digital content and technology creation for pre-schoolers (e.g. CBeebies, MadeInMe, Hopster) and developers are constantly struggling with how to reconcile the apparent success of their apps with children and families with the recommendations of official bodies like the American Academy for Pediatrics (AAP) to discourage, strongly limit or moderate screen time for pre-school children7. App developers often claim to have based their content on educational and developmental theories and findings but how they do this and what the work practices are that allow this are unclear8. Even companies who make these practices clear (such as Hopster's in-house educational practitioner) may struggle to know what the scientific evidence suggests they do in terms of particular aspects of development (such as language learning, memory or attention) as the scientific literature is confusing. For example, lab studies have demonstrated a short-term impact of a fast-paced kid's TV program on attentional control in 4 and 6 year olds9,10 and other studies have shown that this cognitive ability to filter out irrelevant sensory information has been strongly associated with lifetime intellectual, behavioural and educational attainment11,12 but the direct association of screen time and such long-term consequences has not been shown. Also, passive TV consumption requires a lot less active involvement of the user compared to app use on a touchscreen device, potentially leading to very different impacts on cognitive development. In our recent Toddler Attentional Behaviours and LEarning through Touchscreens (TABLET) project we demonstrated that active touchscreen use by toddlers was associated with advanced real-world fine-motor development13 and may also act as a protective factor against child temperament problems (including self-regulation; a behaviour related to attentional control14). Preliminary electroencephalology (EEG) evidence from the TABLET project also suggest that at 18 months, toddlers who use touchscreens on a daily basis exhibit brain activity related to better attentional control. The current scientific evidence is clearly painting a confusing picture of how touchscreen use may impact the development of attentional control and this makes it very difficult for app developers who are on the frontline of this debate to design their experiences in the most developmental constructive way.