1. Using Technology to Support Young Children’s
Social-Emotional Development
Presentation Handout: http://www.hatchearlychildhood.com/Layout-
Images/documents/NHSA-TechforSocEmotDev_2012_Hatch-handout.pdf
NHSA Conference April 2012
Lilla Dale McManis, Ph.D. dmcmanis@hatchearlychildhood.com
Copyright 2012

2. OVERVIEW
• Research history of technology supporting
social-emotional development
• Amenable skills
• Characteristics of good technology design
• Best practices for using technology
• Knowing we’re on the right path
*Disclaimer: Photos do not imply endorsement .

3. RESEARCH HISTORY
• Computer center in early childhood
classrooms does not disrupt ongoing play.
• Rather has been found to facilitate:
– extensive positive social interaction
– new friendships
– cooperation
– peer teaching
– helping behaviors
– praise & encouragement of peers

4. Cooperation & Collaboration
• With computers, preschoolers:
– ask other children to join in
– seek help from one other
– look for approval and
acknowledgement from teacher
• Cooperative play at computer equal to amount
in block center.
• Computers add a new participation dimension:
– children offer assistance to one another
– cooperate to solve problems and complete tasks

5. Language & Cognitive
• Language and cognitive skills improvement
regularly seen when children use technology.
• Demonstrate increasing levels of spoken
communication and cooperation w/ IWBs.
• Computer activity has been
found to be more effective
in stimulating vocalization in
preschoolers than many toys.

6. Diverse Learners
• Participation in computer activities supports
social interaction between:
– preschoolers who are English Language Learners
and their English-speaking peers
– Preschoolers with disabilities and their normally-
developing peers

7. Positive Feelings
• Children exhibit positive
emotions and develop
positive attitudes toward
learning with computers.
• Demonstrate greater positive
affect and interest when they
use the computer together.
• Often show a preference for working with a
peer rather than independently.

8. AMENABLE SKILLS
• Social relationships
• Cooperation & collaboration
• Self-awareness
• Self-regulation
• Initiative & curiosity
• Persistence & attentiveness
• Self-efficacy

9. Head Start
Framework

11. Driving Theory
• Bronfenbrenner—Ecological Systems Theory:
Children develop within a system of
relationships affected by multiple levels
of their environment.
• Bandura—Social Learning Theory: Learning
takes place in a social context through
observation, imitation, and modeling.
• Erikson—Psychosocial Theory : Everyone
potentially affects everyone else's
experiences throughout the different
stages of personality development.

12. Driving Theory
• Piaget—Cognitive Developmental Theory:
Children actively construct knowledge,
much through interactions with peers
during sociodramatic play.
• Vygotsky—Sociocultural Theory: Modeling and
language play pivotal roles in children’s
learning, much through sociodramatic
play with peers and guided interactions
with adults.

13. Social Relationships
Provide activities where:
• Learning takes place within a group setting
• Designed to be completed as a group
• Presents opportunities and situations in which
children practice thinking about the
viewpoints of their peers

14. Cooperation & Collaboration
Be aware of designing and providing activities for:
• Taking turns
• Respecting others’ space
• Being friendly, polite, respectful
• Sharing
• Cooperating
• Compromising
• Responding to suggestions and actions of others
positively
• Expressing thoughts, feelings, and ideas through
appropriate language and gestures

15. Self-Awareness
Think about creating activities that support:
• Identifying emotions in themselves and others
• Understanding and matching of emotions with
a wide variety of situations

16. Self-Control & Self-Regulation
Provide self-control activities to teach and support:
• choosing appropriate over inappropriate actions
– following rules and directions
– learning to delay gratification
Self-regulation activities with the focus of:
• learning to recognize the role of
strategic actions
– planning
– participating
– monitoring
– evaluating

17. Positive Approaches to Learning
• Curiosity, initiative, flexible thinking, and
persistence are some of the most critical skills
for school and life success.
• They are also some of the most ‘under-taught’.
• Technology is an effective
and engaging way to
support these skills
with children.

18. Initiative
Promote by creating a trusting environment for:
• providing opportunities to take control of
situations
• making choices
• trying many solutions especially those
involving cooperation and collaboration
Situations presented to children should:
• allow them to explore multiple roles
• let them know they too are competent in
solving problems and having responsibilities
….as the adults they see do

19. Curiosity
Build on children’s natural curiosity by:
• Letting them be enthusiastic
• Asking them guided questions
• Providing vehicles/activities so that they can
learn why and how and what happens if…

20. Flexible Thinking
Guide them in applying flexible thinking by:
• Teaching brainstorming
• Coming up with different answers
• Testing them out with the
children and talking about
which approaches worked
for solving a problem and
why some did and some not

21. Attention Control
Provide activities that teach children about
controlling their attention by:
•focusing on and attending to relevant and
important stimuli and information
•including switching attention
when a difference in stimuli or
response is presented

22. Persistence
Weave in strategies to promote/affirm
persistence by:
•highlighting importance and good feelings that
come from sticking with and finishing a task
•giving children ways to
know about their progress

23. Self-Efficacy
When all these come together children are
supported in understanding and expressing the
belief that they are capable of attaining goals
based on developing an accurate opinion of
their own abilities and limitations….

24. GOOD DESIGN
• Types of technology
• Content
• Child-friendliness
• Interactivity

25. Types of Technology

26. Content
• Aligned with standards
• Scaffolded, correct teaching paths
• Relevant
• Interesting
• Deep

27. Child-Friendliness
• Successful, independent use with guidance
• Simple, clear choices
• Awareness of reading and language limitations
• Not overly stimulating
• Supported instruction/use
• Constructive feedback
• Free from bias

28. Interactivity
• Enough activities with variety
• Responsive to child’s actions
• Activities match with attention span
• Appropriate & balanced use of rewards

29. BEST PRACTICES: EXAMPLES
• Sharing self-portraits created using simple
drawing software to depict and discuss how
they are feeling
• Using Skype to connect with others to build
relationships and self-understanding
• Playing educational games on a multi-touch
table that involves working together to
complete a task
• Collaborating on creating a story ebook for the
class library and to share at home

30. Identifying Emotions
Helping children learn about emotions…
• Identifying emotions can be a challenging skill
– building the needed vocabulary for accurately
describing
– then thinking about which emotion
they are feeling
• May be difficult as children
may feel always expected to be
‘happy’ when reporting to
adults how they feel.

31. The Activities
• To teach children about emotions you can use
the internet to find materials such as charts…

32. ….and Apps

33. The Activities
Children sharing drawings they’ve made using
simple computer software programs
• During Circle Time ask the children to think
about how they are feeling.
• Let them translate their
current emotional state onto
the computer by drawing a
self-portrait that reflects
the way they feel.

34. Self-Portraits

35. The Sharing
• Invite children to share ideas &
experiences related to emotions.
• Answer questions and clarify the vocabulary
surrounding emotions.
• Near day’s end of the day ask if
how they are feeling has changed,
how, and why they think this happened.
• Let the children open up their earlier self-portrait
on the computer and allow them to make
changes to reflect how they feel now.

36. Self-Acceptance
Helping a child with self-acceptance….
• Brianna* was four years old. She was bi-racial with
a Caucasian mother and an African American father.
•All the other children in the class were Hispanic or
Caucasian so she felt like she stood out due to the
color of her skin. She sometimes tried to wash the
color off her skin.
•We had been trying to think of ways Brianna could
be around other children who were African
American in order to decrease her isolation.
*not child’s real name Example provided by Nora Thompson

37. Developing a Plan
• We wanted to videoconference with another
preschool in a large city where most of the
children were African American.
• I spoke to the Director about their ability to
videoconference and she said they had used
Skype before.
• We talked and agreed that this might be a good
beginning.
• We began videoconferencing
between the two classes
twice a week…

38. Skyping…

39. The Activities
• We started by sending each other pictures of our
two schools by email– mine in a farmhouse in the
country and theirs in a city apartment building.
• We collected questions for each other to answer;
met online with the children and answered these
questions; continuing to meet twice a week online.
• A small group of children from each
school travelled to the other school.
• We reviewed differences between
our schools in photos of each center.
• We also made a podcast of our community
meeting together and a video of outdoor play.

40. The Outcome
• Brianna’s perception of herself as “different”
changed and she stopped trying to wash off
her skin color..
Graciously provided by Nora Thompson, M.A.
Early Childhood Special Education Teacher
Ingham Intermediate School District
Harley Franks Early Childhood Center
Lansing, MI 48910

41. Cooperation & Collaboration
Using technology has been found to be one of
the best ways to support cooperation and
collaboration among young children…
• Children like working with peers on computers
because it is playing together and fun.
• These situations also though
provide opportunities for
children to face and solve
conflicts among themselves.

42. Multi-Touch Tables
• Multi-touch tables are a new technology that
allow several children to work and play together.
• Unlike other kinds of touch technology, many
children can touch the surface at the same time.

43. The Activities
WePlaySmart

44. The Activities
• Have children in groups of 4 play together on
the multi-touch table at center time.
• As with any center, introduce the activities
showing the children what they need to do.
• Stay present to support using the technology.
• Facilitate the group interaction
and discussion around
cooperation, collaborating,
and learning.

45. Ice Cream & Fishing
The children:
• Place their pictures in their airplane
• Vote for the place they want to go
• Play a game working together to complete a task
• They will complete a pattern on an ice cream
cone in one game; and find fish in the second

46. Multi-Touch Table Video

47. We love ice cream….

48. Let’s go fishing….

49. The Outcomes
• Curiosity
• Self-recognition
• Initiative
• Teamwork
• Encouraging peers
• Language and concepts
• Attention
• Persistence
• Sense of accomplishment

50. Collaboration
Class eBook project….
• Any topic or subject of interest
to the children
• Allows going from simple to more
elaborate as children develop skills
in telling stories
• Supports language/literacy as well
• Able to be shared with family/at home
Can be simply illustrated and read, to using apps or
websites with features like sounds, animated
illustrations, and interactive options…
http://olc.spsd.sk.ca/DE/PD/ebooks/background.html

51. Steps
1. Pre-writing: brainstorming/discussing idea;
deciding on group theme/topic
2. Drafting/Posting Writing/Illustrating: rough
drafts, revising, editing. To begin perhaps each
child has own individual but later can assign
different parts of the process
3. Final Draft: children complete &
decide what they want to have go
in the eBook.
Play Wishful Thinking ppt.

52. Source: http://www.cobbk12.org/sites/literacy/fetc/ppt/ppt_index.htm

56. Dinosaurs eat acorns…

57. Sharing
• On in-house computers (desk/laptops, IWBs,
tablets)
• On the web (secure place)
• On thumb drives/DVDs to send home
Children can also go back
to the same eBook (or
digital story) over time to
add/elaborate….

58. Capturing the Process
Essential in the social-emotional domain b/c:
• Fluid
• Dynamic
• Formative
• More susceptible to
inconsistency in
skill achievement

59. MONITORING IMPROVEMENT
As in other areas of
development, progress
monitoring for informing
instruction is essential for
young children to be able
to attain and maintain
skills within the social-
emotional domain.
Date Takes turns & shares Uses appropriate Stays with the Follows teacher
words & gestures group activity directions

61. How Not to Use
Technology
with Young
Children….

62. RECAP
Think about:
• Technology you have to use
• Goals & outcomes for the children
• Ways you will integrate use of technology
• How you will use best teaching practices
• Monitoring children’s progress
 Don’t forget to ask for support!

63. NAEYC /Rogers Center Technology
Position Statement Guiding Principle
Effective uses of technology and media are:
• active
• hands-on
• engaging
• empowering
• give the child control
• provide adaptive scaffolds to ease task
accomplishment
• one of many options to support children’s learning

64. Evaluating Educational Technology
• eBook with Tool
& Webinar
http://www.hatchearlychildho
od.com/pages/evaluating-
technology-for-early-learners
http://www.hatchearlychildho
od.com/pages/webinar-sept-
2011-evaluating-early-learning-
technology

66. Q&A

67. References
• McCarrick & Xiaoming 2007
• Clements & Sarama 2003
• Heft & Swaminathan 2002
• Hutinger, Johanson, & Rippey 2000
• Kumtepe, 2006
• Brooker, 2002
• McManis 2011 @
http://www.hatchearlychildhood.com/layout-
images/documents/WePlaySmart/WePlaySmart_
Whitepaper.pdf

68. Connections!
• www.ecetech.net/ & www.hatchearlychildhood/blog
• LinkedIn: Early Childhood Technology Network,
Lilla Dale McManis, Hatch Early Childhood
• Twitter: #ecetechchat Weds. nights 9 EST,
LillaDaleMcManis@DrLDMcManis,
HatchEarlyLearning@hatchearlychild
• Facebook & YouTube HatchEarlyChildhood
Special Announcement!!
http://www.ecetech.net/about/early-childhood-technology-collaborative/
Early Childhood Technology Today Survey 2012
OPEN NOW!!

69. Where we will bePlease turn in your
We’d like to
stay in
next…..
Conference
touch….. Connections Card!
• National Head Start Association Conference April
18 in Nashville
– Using Technology to Support Social-Emotional
Development in Young Children
• McCormick Center for Early Childhood Leadership
Connections Conference May 10-12 in Chicago
– Evaluating Educational Technology in Early Childhood
• International Society for Technology in Education
(ISTE) Conference June 25 in San Diego
– School Readiness: Outcomes and Approaches