In our Innovation Sweet Spots project, we are investigating how new innovations and technologies, such as advances in artificial intelligence and a growing market for child-focused products and services are expanding the resources available to parents and educators to help improve outcomes for children. We aim to publish updates on the process and progress of our investigation as we go.

The environment we grow up in and experiences of our early childhood shape our development. And in the UK not every child gets what they need to thrive. Children growing up in poverty are less likely to live a long, fulfilling and happy life than their peers. Could technological trends pave the way for innovations that support child development?

In order to map and categorise these emerging trends, we are constructing a taxonomy that covers the domains of child development as well as various types of technologies and innovations. This taxonomy will be aligned with the aims of Nesta’s fairer start mission and cover innovations that can effectively detect and manage development needs of children aged 0-5, thereby helping to close educational gaps.

What we are doing

The first step in this process is to review recent literature on the topic of structured taxonomies across technology and childhood development, a key step in shaping the aspects to be included in our own.

Mapping different perspectives on early years development

To explore how emerging technologies and innovations influence child development, we first need to define the developmental aspects. The classification and framework for early years development vary based on the theoretical perspectives applied.

An comprehensive overview of early childhood research using data science offers a valuable starting point via classification of empirical research related to early childhood. Their research organises the literature into a taxonomy with three categories: development, health and others. They then identify four subcategories including body/growth, psychological/mental aspects, skills and medical procedures.

The Department for Education’s statutory framework establishes benchmarks for learning and development from birth to age five. It identifies three primary areas – communication and language, physical development, personal, social and emotional development – as well as four specific areas including literacy, mathematics, understanding the world, expressive arts and design.

Recent research provides crucial insight into developmental conditions shaped by the interaction of genetics, environment and early relationships. For instance, young children participating in high-quality early childhood education and care programs are likely to have a stronger cognitive and linguistic development. OECD’s literature review thus prioritises three conditions for examining early childhood development: enhancing family and community involvement, advancing curriculum and pedagogical practices and improving the training and working conditions of caregivers and preschool teachers.

The nurturing care framework for early childhood development, developed by WHO, UNICEF and other global institutions, underscores the importance of a supportive environment through policies and social systems that empower parents and caregivers. The framework identifies five pillars – health, nutrition, protection, responsive caregiving and early learning opportunities – as crucial to foster a thriving children's developmental journey. This approach advocates for holistic support to enhance the potential of early childhood development.

These frameworks highlight the interplay between various developmental areas spanning individuals to communities. This underscores the need for a multifaceted approach that accounts for these intricate connections within developmental processes.

Responses to technological advancement

Technology plays a complex role in early childhood development. The potential of it in early years education is underscored by studies like the Department for Education's exploration of the EdTech market in England. It identifies a diverse range of more than 20 types of educational technologies, such as online tutoring and virtual classrooms, which highlights the sector's rich landscape.

Some taxonomies are constructed to assess and evaluate the impacts of technology on early years development. A recent study of the effects of technology in early childhood provides an overview of technology's dual nature, highlighting how it can benefit or impede various developmental domains such as social-emotional growth and cognitive skills. To navigate this complex landscape, researchers in the US developed a classification system for educational apps based on criteria like learning quality and security, presenting a structured approach to evaluate early learning technologies.

Further research documents children's engagement with technology, expanding the dialogue to include digital interaction. Analysis of study of the use of apps among pre-school children offers a taxonomy detailing the spectrum of children's digital play interactions, ranging from vocabulary shaping to relationship building, crucial for comprehending the nuances of their digital play practices. Similarly, Australian academics Jo Bird and Susan Edwards offer a digital play framework which sets up young children’s behaviours in relation to knowledge-building and more whimsical play. It summarises how young children learn to use technologies through play, allowing teachers to observe and assess their learning.

Dr. Petra Petersen of Stockholm University takes a step further by categorising ten genres of preschool apps, such as multilingual storytelling and board games. This taxonomy provides a structured insight on the role of technology in fostering children’s communicative abilities. Complementing these insights, a 2020 update to theoretical and applied playworker Bob Hughes's 2002 taxonomy of play reflects technological advances, suggesting how digital applications can enrich traditional play and learning. For instance, fantasy play in digital context can be reflected when children use an avatar and act as a character both off-screen and during on-screen activities.

These evolving taxonomies underscore the necessity of aligning technological advancements with the developmental needs of young children, ensuring their growth is nurtured in different aspects.

Why we are doing this

Current literature on early childhood development provides a rich tapestry of frameworks and adaptable categories for digital learning in formal educational settings. Nonetheless, existing taxonomies tend to focus predominantly on education and play. They have not fully explored how novel innovations foster not just academic abilities, such as cognitive and language skills, but also to cultivate socio-emotional competencies, such as resilience, and health.

There is a palpable absence of a comprehensive framework that integrates developmental theories with the latest technological and innovative strides and accounts for the complex web of factors that enable children to thrive in their early years. This indicates a pressing need for a more robust, multifaceted taxonomy that reflects the ever-evolving digital landscape's impact on childhood development within a broader socio-economic and political context.

What’s next?

As the next step, we will utilise these existing frameworks as foundational elements to build a robust taxonomy that combines both the critical aspects of child development and various types of innovations. We will use this taxonomy in combination with machine learning to map the emerging trends around technology and innovation for supporting early childhood development.