Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Jennifer Garrett

Abstract

This study explored the effects of both parent and child technology use on developing literacy abilities. Research is limited in this area, but is becoming increasingly important as technology continues to evolve and become more commonplace in the lives of both adults and children. This study aimed to determine if there was a correlation between technology use and decreased literacy abilities of children. This study also explored if increased technology use in conjunction with decreased quality of parent-child interactions resulted in decreased literacy skills. Research was conducted through a survey and 15 responses were analyzed. No decreased literacy abilities of children were reported, despite the variation in screen times of children, parents, and daily time spent conducting parent-child interactions via play and reading. The inverse relationship of increased technology use and decreased time spent reading approached statistical significance, with a Kendall Tau correlation coefficient producing a negative association of -0.402 and p-value of 0.098. Despite the small sample size, these findings suggest that future research should be done to provide a better understanding of how both parent and child technology use influence developing literacy abilities.

Year of Submission

2025

Department

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

2025

Object Description

1 PDF file (28 pages)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Download

Comments?

Share

COinS