Digital media and young children

Young children and digital media

Digital media are part of young children’s everyday lives. Smartphones, tablets, cameras, digital communication platforms and other technologies are present at home, in early childhood education and care (ECEC), and throughout society. Yet discussions about young children and digital media often remain dominated by concerns about screen time, risks and the question of whether young children should use digital media at all.

At the Research Centre Pedagogy in Practice, we take a broader perspective. Rather than asking only how much time children spend with screens or which devices they use, we explore what digitalisation means for everyday pedagogical practice.

How do digital media shape children’s experiences? How do they affect relationships between children, professionals and families? What choices do ECEC professionals make, and what helps them make those choices consciously? And can digital materials also create new opportunities for play, exploration, creativity and connection?

Across several research projects, we have explored these questions together with ECEC professionals.

Towards a digital pedagogy for ECEC

Our research started with DIGIPED – Digital Pedagogy for Early Childhood Education and Care, focusing on children from birth to six years old.

Digital media had become an everyday reality, but professionals often struggled with how to position themselves towards them. Existing recommendations tended to focus strongly on risks and screen time, while they offered professionals relatively little support for dealing with the complex situations they encountered in practice.

DIGIPED therefore did not aim to develop another list of do's and don'ts. Instead, we wanted to understand how ECEC professionals themselves navigate digital media and how they can develop a pedagogically grounded approach.

We first explored the place digital media already occupied in ECEC settings. Together with professionals, we then reflected on questions such as: What do we consider valuable for children? When does digital media use contribute to our pedagogical goals? When do we deliberately choose not to use it? And which societal expectations influence these decisions?

This resulted in a more nuanced understanding of digital pedagogy: not as a set of fixed rules, but as the ability to make conscious and context-sensitive pedagogical choices about digital media.

Digitalisation is already part of everyday care

DIGIPED also showed us something important: digital media enter ECEC in many more ways than through activities with children.

Professionals use digital technologies to register meals, naps and care routines, take and share photographs, communicate with parents and document children’s days. In many settings, these practices have become so commonplace that they are hardly considered a form of digital media use at all.

This observation led to our second study, DIGIPIP – The use of digital media for registration and parent communication in ECEC practice.

Through two in-depth case studies, we examined how digital tools for registration and parent communication shape everyday care. We used observations, smartphone diaries, photovoice, photo-elicitation interviews with professionals and parents, and focus group conversations.

The study showed that digital communication is not simply a neutral way of transferring information. Digital tools become part of relationships between professionals, children and parents. They influence what professionals document, what parents get to see of their child’s day, what information is expected and how professionals organise their work.

This means that questions about digital media are also questions about care, relationships and pedagogical choices. What do we consider important enough to register? What does a photograph communicate about a child's day? How do expectations about constant information and accessibility affect professionals? And where is the child within these digital practices?

Looking at digitalisation through a pedagogical lens helps ECEC teams make these often invisible choices visible and open them up for reflection.

From reluctance to playing and experimenting

Our earlier research also revealed a recurring tension. Although digital media are deeply embedded in everyday life, many ECEC professionals are hesitant about using them directly with young children. Digital media are often associated primarily with passive screen use, while their possible role in play and exploration receives far less attention.

This became the starting point for DIGIPLAY – Playing with Digital Materials in Infant and Toddler Care.

DIGIPLAY focuses specifically on professionals working with babies and toddlers. Instead of starting from abstract guidelines, we create opportunities for professionals to experiment with digital materials in their own practice and to observe closely what happens when children encounter them.

Digital play does not necessarily mean putting a child in front of a screen. A projector can transform a familiar room through light and shadow. A camera can invite children to look at their environment differently. Sound, images and other digital materials can become part of physical, sensory and social play.

The central question therefore shifts from “Should young children use digital media?” to “What happens here, with these children, this material and this professional — and what pedagogical possibilities does this create?”

Professionals observe and document children's responses: What attracts their attention? What surprises them? How do they explore the material? What happens between children? They subsequently reflect on these observations together and use them to adapt their practice.

In this way, experimentation, observation and reflection help professionals gradually expand their pedagogical repertoire for digital play.

Beyond the screen-time debate

Together, these studies show why we need to move beyond a simple opposition between being for or against digital media in early childhood.

Digital technologies are already intertwined with contemporary childhood and with the organisation of ECEC. They can create opportunities, but they also raise important questions about care, participation, privacy, workload, professional responsibility and inequality.

A pedagogical perspective does not provide one universal answer to these questions. Instead, it helps professionals and organisations ask better questions and make deliberate choices.

Our research therefore focuses on:

• understanding how digitalisation shapes the everyday lives of young children, families and ECEC professionals;
• making the often invisible role of digital technologies in care and communication visible;
• exploring digital media as possible materials for play, creativity, interaction and exploration;
• supporting ECEC professionals in developing the confidence and pedagogical repertoire to experiment and reflect;
• moving beyond simplistic debates about screen time towards a contextual and relational understanding of digital media;
• translating research into reflection tools, inspiration and professional development for ECEC practice.

Ultimately, our aim is not to make ECEC more digital. It is to help professionals and organisations engage with digitalisation more consciously, critically and pedagogically.

Output

EECERA presentations:

Digitizing Care - august 2025 

Digiplay - august 2026

Researchers

• an.piessens@kdg.be
• leen.dom@kdg.be
• mieke.jacomen@kdg.be

• marie.vanroost@kdg.be