The home learning environment is the single biggest influence on young children’s development, and can help close attainment gaps between advantaged and less advantaged children. Technology is transforming how we parent and while there are certainly advantages to digital tools to support parents, there are also risks. In this session, we discuss recent findings from academia on effective activities to support children’s development in the earliest years of life (0-5 years), how technology can help and hinder parents in their role as ‘first educators’, and the role of behavioural science to improve digital tools for parents.
Sue McMillan of Mumsnet, Fionnuala O’Reilly of BIT, Professor Stephanie Carlson of the University of Minnesota and Owain Service of Sheffield University discuss how technology is shaping parenting in the 21st century.