Nurturing early learners in the digital world: A parental perspective

In today’s contemporary society, parents need to prudently integrate digital devices into their children’s lives to nurture, and not hinder their holistic development. Normatively, a four- to six-year-old child is expected to achieve numerous developmental milestones, as outlined in the nurturing early learners (NEL) framework. The NEL framework classifies these milestones under various learning domains, skills and competencies, namely Aesthetics and Creative Expression, Discovery of the World, Language and Literacy, Motor Skills Development, Numeracy, and Social and Emotional Development. Through qualitative interviews conducted with 21 parents (14 mothers and 7 fathers) online who spoke about their four- to six-year-old children, this study investigated how parents wielded digital devices to foster their children’s development in these key domains, but deliberately ring-fenced their children from pernicious use.