Melding Digital and Tangible Toys to Support Creative Play for Preschoolers with Erik Nilsen, PhD, Associate Professor of Psychology at Lewis & Clark College
Educational research tells us that manipulating physical objects is essential to early childhood development. There is also an explosion in the use of digital technology for early childhood education. For the past two years we have been studying preschoolers playing with an iPad app called Tiggly Draw. It combines the use of physical shapes and digital technology to teach preschoolers basic shape recognition and to support creative play. The results suggest that combining digital and tangible play has a positive synergistic effect and highlights the role that parent-child co-play has on children's learning. We will also explore other examples of "tangible technology" as a promising new approach to move kids of all ages beyond "screens" to learning about the real world with computer-based toys.
Doors Open @ 5PM | $5 Suggested Donation | All ages welcome
