Executive functions and parent-child interaction during technology-enhanced storytelling

Abstract

This study explores how children's executive functions influences the way parent and child engage in a technology-enhanced story telling activity (TES). Research has indicated that children's executive functions (inhibitory control, memory and cognitive flexibility) are related to how they engage in reading activities, computer learning activities and explain instructional effects thereof. Also parent-child interaction is influenced by the child’s executive functions. The app Jeffy's Journey supports shared verbal storytelling of parent and child with real time support through a story structure and visual, auditory and textual prompts. 44 Parent-child dyads played this a newly developed app. The results indicate that although the time spent on the TES activities was not associated with the child's EF and that the usage of prompts was positively related to the child's cognitive flexibility. Additionally cognitive flexibility was also positively associated with interactive parent-child interaction and highly yet not significantly correlated with story related utterances. These findings indicate the importance of cognitive flexibility for active storytelling activities. No relation between memory and inhibitory control were found neither for TES characteristics (time spend or prompts used) nor parent-child interaction.