Kids and the internet: a developmental summary

ABSTRACT

When planning and developing successful internet programs for children, it is vital to clearly understand and carefully consider kids' innate developmental capabilities and proclivities. It is necessary to keep in mind that children of different ages have vastly different physical, cognitive, and psycho-social characteristics, as well as disparate interests, likes, dislikes, and fears. A four-year old child may not posses the manual dexterity to operate a complex internet game; an eight-year old's growing ability to reason logically gives him the opportunity to take part in strategy-based activities and contests; twelve-year old preteens may be put off by a topic they believe to be "uncool." The following article provides a brief summary of the developmental stages of children and young teens -- from age two to age fourteen -- and the relationship of these stages to kids' use of electronic media. This summary is based on research in the areas of child development, psychology, education, and technology.

REFERENCES

• 1: BEM, S. L. 1981. Gender schema theory: A cognitive account of sex typing. Psychol. Rev. 88.
• 2: BERGER, K. S. 1986. The Developing Person Through Childhood and Adolescence. 2nd ed. Worth Publishers, New York.
• 3: BETTELHEIM, B. 1989. The Uses of Enchantment. Vintage Books, New York.
• 4: BORSTELMANN, L. J. 1983. History, theory and methods. In Handbook of Child Psychology. P. H. Mussen (ed.), 4th ed. Wiley, New York.
• 5: CHOMSKY, N. 1968. Language and Mind. Harcourt, Brace, New York.
• 6: COHEN, D. 1987. The Development of Play. New York.
• 7: COLLINS, J. 1995. Architectures of Excess: Cultural Life in the Information Age. Routledge, New York.
• 8: DEL VECCHIO, G. 1997. Creating Ever-Cool - A Marketer's Guide to a Kid's Heart. Pelican Publishing, Los Angeles, CA.
• 9: DOWNES, T. AND REDDACLIFF, C. 1996. Young children talking about computers in their homes.. http://www.spirit.com.au/ACEC96/papers/downe.htm
• 10: ERIKSON, E. H. 1963. Childhood and Society. Norton, New York.
• 11: FEELEY, J. T. 1982. Content Interests and media preferences of middle-graders: Differences in a decade. Reading World 22, 1 (1982), 11-16.
• 12: FLAVELL, J. H. 1982. The concept of development. In The Minnesota Symposia on Child Psychology. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
• 13: FORMAN, G. E. AND SIEGEL, I. E. 1979. Cognitive Development: A Life-Span View. Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.
• 14: GARVEY, C. 1977. Play. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
• 15: GESELL, A., AMES, L. B., AND ILG, F. L. 1977. The Child From Five to Ten. Harper & Row, New York.
• 16: George Gilder, Life After Television, W. W. Norton & Co., Inc., New York, NY, 1992
• 17: GOLDSTEIN, J. H. ED. 1994. Toys, Play and Child Development Cambridge University Press, New York.
• 18: Sue Howard, Wired up: Young People and the Electronic Media, Taylor & Francis, Inc., Bristol, PA, 1997
• 19: HOTTINGER, W. 1980. Early motor development: Discussions and summary. In A Textbook of Motor Development. 2d ed., B. Corbin ed., Wm. C. Brown, Dubuque, IA.
• 20: HUGHES, D. R. 1998. Kids Online. Fleming H. Revell, Grand Rapids, MI.
• 21: LASZIO, J. I. 1990. Development Psychology: Cognitive, Perceptual-motor, and Neuropsychological Perspectives. North Holland, Amsterdam.
• 22: LAZLO, A. AND CASTRO, K. 1995. Technology and values: Interactive learning environments for future generations. Educational Technol. 35, 2 (1995), 7-13.
• 23: LERNER, R. M. 1986. Concepts and Theories of Human Development. 2d ed. Random House, New York.
• 24: LOWERY, G. H. 1986. Growth and Development of Children. 8th ed. Year Book Medical Publishers, Chicago, IL.
• 25: LYNESS, D. 1993. Mastery of childhood fears. In The Therapeutic Powers of Play. C. E. Schaefer, ed. Aronson, Northvale, NJ.
• 26: MUSSEN, P. H. 1983. Socialization, personality and social development. In Handbook of Child Psychology. vol. 4. Wiley, New York.
• 27: OVERON, W. F. 1982. The Relationship Between Social and Cognitive Development. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
• 28: PIAGET, J. 1959. The Language and Thought of the Child. 3d ed. Routledge and Kegan Paul, London.
• 29: POSTER, M. 1995. The Second Media Age. Polity Press, Cambridge, MA.
• 30: RENNINGER, K. A. 1990.. Children's Play Interests, Representation, and Activity in Knowing and Remembering in Young Children, vol. 3. R. Fivush and J. A. Hudson, eds. Cambridge University Press, New York.
• 31: RENNINGER, K. A., HIDI, S., AND KRAPP, A. EDS. 1992. The Role of Interest in Learning and Development. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
• 32: SINCLAIR, D. 1978. Human Growth After Birth. 3d ed. Oxford University Press, London.
• 33: SINGER, D. G. AND Singer, J. L. 1977. Partners in Play: A Step-By-Step Guide to Imaginative Play in Children. Harper & Row, New York.
• 34: SOMMERVILLE, C. J. 1982. The Rise and Fall of Childhood. Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, CA.
• 35: WHITTAKER, R. 1995. Adult-free zones: Children and entertainment technology. 20:20, 3, (Autumn 1995), 35-37.

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.1 Computer Uses in Education

Keywords:
child development, education, internet, internet game, psychology, technology