Observation of Children’s Engagement when Playing iPads

Abstract

This paper investigated 3-4 year old children’s engagement levels while they were playing iPads. Observations were used in this study. Eighty students participated in this study. This paper made three important contributions, which include a) children’s engagement levels were medium to high while playing iPads, which supports the play-based learning theory in early childhood education, b) young children can use touch screen technology and gestural interfaces in their learning, and c) children were having fun, expressed especially in their verbal languages and utterances. Early childhood educators and young children’s parents may find this paper useful in providing access and guidance for young children to use iPads to play and learn.