Parent-Toddler Social Reciprocity During Reading From Electronic Tablets vs Print Books

Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends parent-child joint engagement with digital media, recent evidence suggests this may be challenging when tablets contain interactive enhancements.

To examine parent-toddler social reciprocity while reading enhanced (eg, with sound effects, animation) and basic tablet-based books compared with print books.

This within-participants comparison included 37 parent-toddler dyads in a counterbalanced crossover, video-recorded laboratory design at the University of Michigan from May 31 to November 7, 2017. The volunteer sample was recruited from an online research registry and community sites. Dyads included children aged 24 to 36 months with no developmental delay or serious medical condition, parents who were the legal guardians and read English sufficiently for consent, and parents and children without uncorrected hearing or vision impairments. Data were analyzed from October 18, 2017, through April 30, 2018.

Reading an enhanced tablet-based book, a basic tablet-based book, and a print book in counterbalanced order for 5 minutes each.

Video recordings were coded continuously for nonverbal aspects of parent-toddler social reciprocity, including body position (child body posture limiting parental book access coded in 10-second intervals), control behaviors (child closing the book, child grabbing the book or tablet, parent or child pivoting their body away from the other), and intrusive behaviors (parent or child pushing the other's hand away). Coding intracorrelation coefficients were greater than 0.75. Poisson regression was used to compare each outcome by book format.

Among the 37 parent-child dyads, mean (SD) parent age was 33.5 (4.0) years; 30 (81%) were mothers, and 28 (76%) had a 4-year college degree or greater educational attainment. Mean (SD) age of children was 29.2 (4.2) months, 20 (54%) were boys, 21 (57%) were white non-Hispanic, and 6 (16%) were black non-Hispanic. Compared with print books, greater frequency of child body posture limiting parental book access (mean [SD], 7.9 [1.9; P = .01] for enhanced; 8.4 [1.8; P = .006] for basic), child closing the book (mean [SD], 1.2 [0.4; P = .007] for enhanced; 1.2 [0.5; P < .001] for basic), parent pivoting (mean [SD], 0.4 [0.2; P = .05] for enhanced; 0.9 [0.4; P = .004] for basic), child pushing parent's hand (mean [SD], 0.6 [0.2; P < .001] for enhanced; 0.4 [0.2; P = .002] for basic), and parent pushing child's hand (mean [SD], 1.7 [0.3; P < .001] for enhanced; 2.4 [0.5; P < .001] for basic) occurred while reading enhanced and basic tablet-based books. Child pivots occurred more frequently while reading basic tablet-based books than print (mean [SD], 1.0 [0.3] vs 0.3 [0.1]; P = .005).

In this study, toddlers and parents engaged in more frequent social control behaviors and less social reciprocity when reading tablet-based vs print books. These findings suggest that toddlers may have difficulty engaging in shared tablet experiences with their parents.