Learning letters, not language: The nature and quality of language and literacy apps used during remote learning with preschool children in the United States

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 pandemic, early childhood educators (ECEs) made a rapid pivot to remote instruction. Much of this instruction was facilitated by digital learning resources, but the nature and quality of these resources for children’s language and literacy learning is an open question. This paper draws on a national U.S. survey of ECEs during the second pandemic school year (2020–2021), which asked them to report on the apps and websites they asked children to use during remote learning. We then engaged in a content analysis of the apps/websites used most frequently, evaluating their quality along several dimensions, including support for a full range of literacy competencies, equity, and accessibility. Survey results indicated that preschool children were asked to use a wide range of apps, but six were used most frequently: YouTube, Seesaw, Starfall, Epic, Boom Cards, and ABC Mouse. The content analysis indicated that most apps supported code-focused literacy skills, but had less capacity to foster oral language and comprehension. Apps also presented few opportunities to approximate the active, hands-on learning characteristic of in-person preschool. Our analysis points to the pressing need for teacher guidance in the selection and use of apps that provide comprehensive support for language and literacy.

Impact Summary

Prior State of Knowledge: Prior studies have investigated the quality of apps for young children’s literacy learning, and several studies have investigated the nature and frequency of remote instruction for children attending preschool during COVID-19.

Novel Contributions: The present study reports valuable information about which language and literacy apps early childhood educators asked children to use during remote learning and provides a comprehensive evaluation of those apps, including dimensions such as equity and accessibility that have been previously under-researched.

Practical Implications: One important implication for administrators is that teachers need support in finding and learning to use apps that align more closely with early learning standards. Teachers can use the QuELLA rubric in this paper as a tool for evaluating apps.

KEYWORDS:

• Preschool
• early childhood
• digital literacy
• apps
• language development
• COVID-19
• content analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2024.2307593

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth Burke Hadley

Elizabeth Burke Hadley is an Associate Professor of Literacy Studies at the University of South Florida. Dr. Hadley’s research focuses on supporting language and early literacy development in pre-k classrooms, especially for children from families experiencing poverty. Her current projects focus on the impact of COVID on pre-k children’s language and literacy development, and the use of technology to capture language interactions in pre-k classrooms.

Meaghan McKenna

Meaghan McKenna is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana- Champaign. Her research focuses on engaging in collaborative partnerships to solve educational problems of practice. She is interested in investigating components of a multi-tiered system of supports framework that optimize educators’ and students’ success. Her primary area of focus is early literacy in kindergarten through second grade. She studies assessment, data-based decision making, tiered instruction, and professional development.

Katharine Hull

Katharine Hull is a doctoral candidate in Literacy Studies at the University of South Florida. As a reading specialist, she provided reading interventions to students of all ages, delivered professional development to reading coaches and classroom teachers, and executed grant-funded research related to emergent literacy in at-risk preschoolers. Her research interests include critical literacy, disciplinary literacy, and qualitative methodologies.