Young people will find their digital
bubbles: How can we support them?
Kevin Durkin
digitalbubbles.org.uk
Structure of talk
• Definition
• Bubbles
ASD
TD
• Bubbles
• Bubbles
ADHD
SLI
Digital media
• any media that are encoded in a machinereadable format
• digital media can be created, viewed,
distributed, modified and preserved on
computers
• (Wikipedia)
Bubble
1.: a thin sphere of liquid enclosing air or another gas
"we'd shake up a piece of soap in a tin of warm water and
blow bubbles"
2.: a good or fortunate situation that is isolated from reality
or unlikely to last
"we both lived in a bubble, the kind provided by occupying a
privileged pied-à-terre in Greenwich Village"
• (Google dictionary)
Digital bubble(s)
a good or fortunate
situation
involving diverse forms
of engagement with new technologies
isolated from reality and unlikely to last?
Digital bubble(s)
a good or fortunate
situation
involving diverse forms
of engagement with new technologies
critics isolated from reality and unlikely to last?
Play is good
• Most developmental psychologists,
educational psychologists, teachers and many
parents agree that play is a positive and
natural component of healthy child
development
• This includes play with and in bubbles
(including digital bubbles)
The digital bubbles panic
• The fear is often voiced that digital bubbles
will:
•
•
•
•
•
isolate kids, maybe everyone
rot young brains
cause autism
cause ADHD
cause communication impairments
The digital bubbles panic
• The main sources of the digital bubbles panic
are the mass media (especially, the press)
Neuroscientist quoted in the press
‘My fear is that these
technologies are infantilising the
brain into the state of small
children who are attracted by
buzzing noises and bright lights,
who have a small attention span
and who live for the moment.’
'It is hard to see how living this way
on a daily basis will not result in brains,
or rather minds, different from
those of previous generations’
Throw in circumstantial
evidence that links a sharp
rise in diagnoses of
Attention Deficit
Hyperactivity Disorder and
the associated three-fold
increase in Ritalin
prescriptions over the past
ten years with the boom in
computer games and you
have an immensely
worrying scenario.
(Greenfield, 2014,
Mail Online)_
The evidence:
Lady Greenfield told the Lords
a teacher of 30 years had told
her she had noticed a sharp
decline in the ability of her pupils
to understand others.
"If you play computer games
to the exclusion of other things
this will create a new environment
that will have new effects
... every hour you spend in front of a screen
is an hour not spent climbing a tree
or giving someone a hug."
(Greenfield, The Telegraph, 2011)
"Creativity, imagination, self-esteem and
even our basic ability to process information
could be sacrificed at the virtual altar
of what is known as "hyperconnectivity",
(BBC, 2013)
Are self-esteem, cognition, hugs and tree
climbing sacrificed by digital bubbling?
• 1000+ US 16-year-olds
• Tested as part of longitudinal Michigan Study of
Adolescent Transitions
• Measured on computer game play and
miscellaneous aspects of social adjustment,
wellbeing, educational performance
• Durkin and Barber (2002)
Self esteem
4.7
4.65
4.6
4.55
Never
4.5
Low
4.45
High
4.4
4.35
4.3
Never
Low
High
Self concept: Intelligence
5.3
5.25
5.2
5.15
5.1
5.05
5
4.95
4.9
4.85
4.8
4.75
Play freq
Never
Low
High
Self concept: Computer skills
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Play freq
Never
Low
High
GPA
2.8
2.75
2.7
2.65
2.6
Play freq
2.55
2.5
2.45
2.4
Never
Low
High
Family closeness
5.1
5
4.9
4.8
4.7
Play freq
4.6
4.5
4.4
4.3
4.2
Never
Low
High
Activities/clubs involvement
2.5
2
1.5
Play freq
1
0.5
0
Never
Low
High
• Never-players obtained most
favourable scores on
none of the measures
• Not claiming that game play CAUSED positive
outcomes
Game play is one interesting
and challenging digital bubble
that well adjusted young people
may elect to immerse themselves in …
… for part of their time
• What digital bubbles do young people with
developmental disorders engage in?
• Do their digital bubbles differ?
• Should we stop them?
• Or support them?
(Interviewer)
Do you see a link between
computer games
and the rise in conditions such as autism?
When we play computer games,
we are all autistic.
(Greenfield, New Statesman, 2009)
Are we all autistic when we play
videogames
or enter other digital bubbles?
• No
• Only people with autism are autistic when
playing videogames
Children with ASD, ADHD and TD
play VGs in different ways
• Study of mouse clicking in VGs
• Children with ASD tended to be more cautious
in initiating moves, more likely to inhibit
prepotent responses, more likely to repeat
moves
• Children with ADHD less likely to inhibit
responses
• (Veenstra et al., 2012)
Adolescents with ASD use everyday
media in different ways
• Primary uses of mobiles
• For TD adolescents:
• * to call my friends
• For AS adolescents:
• * to play games
• (Durkin et al., 2010)
Children with ADHD sometimes
perform better within digital bubbles
• Children with ADHD have problems with:
• Inhibiting behaviours
• Interrupting their ongoing
behaviour to change
course when needed
• Dealing with distractions
A comparison of ADHD children in the
‘real world’ versus the digital world
• Participants:
•
•
•
•
Boys 6 to 12 years
57 with ADHD
57 typically developing (TD)
Matched on age and IQ
• (Lawrence et al., 2002, 2004)
Method
• Participants visited the Perth Zoo
Method
• Instructed to follow two routes:
• A simple route (short, past trees)
• A complex route (longer, past exciting displays
– Reptile House, Penguins, Crocodile House)
• On a separate occasion, participants played
two videogames
• A simple game: Point Blank (shooting)
• A complex game: Crash Bandicoot
Measures
• ZOO
• Behavioural inhibition (deviations from instructed
route)
• Motor control (time to complete course)
•
•
•
•
•
VIDEOGAMES
N of correct shots fired (Point Blank)
Behavioural inhibition (Crash Bandicoot)
- pauses
- motor control, working memory
Results
• ZOO: Behavioural
inhibition
0.6
0.5
Deviations from
instructed route
0.4
ADHD
Typical
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
Simple
Complex
Results
• VIDEOGAMES
• Point Blank:
• No difference in mean
% of correct shots
• 64% ADHD
• 66% Typical
Results
• VIDEOGAMES
• Crash Bandicoot:
• No difference on
behavioural inhibition
• ADHD group slightly
poorer on Motor
Control and Working
Memory
Implications
• In the ‘real’ world, children with ADHD have
problems with:
• Inhibiting behaviours
• Interrupting their ongoing behaviour to
change course when needed
• Dealing with distractions
• In the video game world,
children with ADHD can inhibit behaviours,
providing the game is not too complex
(distracting)
• Video games are not a cure for ADHD
• But they may provide a context for helping these
children to develop skills
Specific Language Impairment
• Difficulties in expressive/ receptive language
• - in the context of IQ in normal range and no
hearing impairment
•
Specific Language Impairment (SLI)
• Approximately 7% of children present with SLI
at school entry (Tomblin et al., 1997)
• One of the most common childhood
impairments, yet markedly under-represented
in research into neurodevelopmental
disorders (Bishop, 2010)
Young people with SLI
at risk of poorer
educational, behavioural
and social outcomes
Interpersonal communication
within digital bubbles
• Computer Mediated Communication (CMC)
reduces the pressures of face-to-face
interaction and the threat of negative
evaluation
• On this basis, adolescents with SLI could be
expected to be motivated to use home
computers for interpersonal purposes
• Compared the uses of home computers by
adolescents with and without SLI
• Participants completed questionnaires and
diaries about their uses of new media
• Measured frequency of use and perceived
ease of use with respect to both interpersonal
and educational purposes
• (Durkin, Conti-Ramsden et al., 2009)
• Access to home computers was essentially identical
between groups
• Both groups showed preference for non-educational
uses of home computers
• Interpersonal computer use very similar
across groups
• Virtually all adolescents with SLI regularly
engaged in interpersonal uses of new media
• Nonetheless, use was somewhat restricted for
adolescents with SLI …
Uses of home computer for non-educational purposes
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
*
**
**
*
TD
SLI
**
Email
MSN
Buy = Purchase items via web
Mus = Download music
Games = Play games (offline)
Buy
Mus Games
** = p <.001
* = p <.05
SLI, language and computer use
• Adolescents with SLI group scored lower on a
measure of perceived ease of use of computers
•
•
•
•
•
Participants with SLI reported:
- information provided was too technical
- involved the use of too much text
- was difficult to understand
- hard to read, write and spell when using the
applications
SLI, language and computer use
• Conti-Ramsden, Durkin and Walker (2010): adolescents
with SLI reported higher levels of computer anxiety
than did typically developing peers
• A significantly larger proportion of adolescents
with SLI did not use educational applications
in a typical week (nearly one third for SLI
versus only 8% for TD)
Adolescents with SLI used a number of
online and offline educational
applications less often than did
TD youth
(e.g., downloading educational materials,
online libraries)
Participants
• 49 16/17 year olds with SLI (male = 36, 73%)
• 56 16/ 17 year olds with TD (male = 36, 64%)
• (from the Manchester Language Study)
• Groups matched for maternal education level,
and household income band
Results
• Mean educational progress at 19 years:
• TD = 5.6, SD = 1.0
• SLI = 2.4, SD = 1.9
• p<.001, d = 2.11
Results
• Frequency of leisure uses was not a significant
predictor of exams at 17 or educational
progress at 19 for either group
• Frequency of educational uses did predict
exam scores at 17 years (SLI and TD) and level
of educational progress at 19 years (SLI only)
Why?
Persistence with challenging
tasks = hard work
Working with educational
computer applications
likely to be associated with
readiness to study, per se
Transferable skills?
[Leisure, not sure,
Education, yes]
Conclusions
• Digital bubbles are unstoppable
• Keep calm and do not fear for hugs or brains
• Children’s characteristics and needs influence
how they use digital bubbles
• What looks playful may serve important
purposes for the developing individual(s)
concerned
• Much remains to be done to ensure they have
opportunities to find the best bubbles
How can we help children
with different conditions
to get the best
out of their digital bubbles?
How can we best assess
quality and consequences
of particular bubbles?
What,
if anything,
transfers?
References
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•
•
•
•
•
•
•
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Conti-Ramsden, G., Durkin, K., & Walker, A. J. (2010). Computer anxiety: A comparison of adolescents with
and without a history of specific language impairment (SLI). Computers & Education, 54, 136-145.
Durkin, K. (2010). Videogames and young people with developmental disorders. Review of General
Psychology, 14, 122 – 140.
Durkin, K., & Barber, B. (2002). Not so doomed: Computer game play and positive adolescent
development. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 23, 373- 392.
Durkin, K., Boyle, J., Hunter, S., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2013). Videogames for children and adolescents
with Special Educational Needs. Zeitschrift fur Psychologie, 221, 79 – 89.
Durkin, K., & Conti-Ramsden, G. (2014). Turn off or tune in? What advice can SLTs, educational
psychologists and teachers provide about uses of new media and children with language impairments?.
Child Language Teaching and Therapy, 30, 187-205.
Durkin, K., Conti-Ramsden, G., Walker, A., & Simkin, Z. (2009). Educational and interpersonal uses of home
computers by adolescents with and without Specific Language Impairment (SLI). British Journal of
Developmental Psychology, 27, 197 – 217.
Durkin, K., Whitehouse, A. J.O., Jaquet, E., Ziatas, K., & Walker, A. (2010). Cell phone use by adolescents
with Asperger syndrome. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 4, 314–318.
Lawrence, V., Houghton, S., Tannock, R., Douglas, G., Durkin, K., & Whiting, K. (2002). ADHD outside the
laboratory: Boys' executive function performance on tasks in videogame play and on a visit to the zoo.
Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 30, 447- 462.
Veenstra, B., van Geert, P. L. C., & van der Meulen, B. F. (2012). Distinguishing and improving mouse
behavior with educational computer games in young children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder or Attention
Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: An executive function-based interpretation. Mind, Brain, and Education, 6,
27 – 40.
Acknowledgements
•
Parts of the research summarised here were supported by ESRC grant no. ES/I00064X/1 (Gina ContiRamsden, Andrew Pickles, Kevin Durkin, Nicola Botting)