QUALITATIVE DATA ANALYSISPerceived fears and concerns of educatorsSome concerns and fears, which ar

This technology allows app creators to make the tedious learning process hassle-free and entertaining. The importance of play in the educational process also has a scientific rationale; in this research paper, Pho and Dinscore support that brains make new synapses faster through game-based learning.

3. Digital storybooks Regarding kids of younger age groups, stories, poems, and music are always in demand. UX professionals combine all these aspects into digital storybooks, creating engaging content for children. These can also be combined with educational platforms, adding value to the learning experience.

Children's needs are increasingly recognized in the UI/UX design industry. Important sectors – education, gaming, and healthcare – are now seeking designers specializing in creating interactive solutions for children.

cognitive skills. Therefore, keeping the designs clean and safe from clutter and distractions is essential. This will help kids get the b

What are some of the best practices for kids’ UX design?

Khan Academy Kids

. Additionally, designers should use attractive colors for children of lower age groups.

What are some top UX design principles when designing for kids?Some important UX design principles when designing for kids are as follows. Simplicity and clarity Interactive and engaging elements Age-appropriate content Safety and privacy Consistent feedback and rewards

When UI/UX designers create solutions and interventions for children, they need to be cognizant of the age group they are working with – and for. It is important to note that the basic principles of human-centered design stay the same. In this case, the designers still need to prioritize the needs of their target audience – children.

The needs of children, when it comes to digital designs, vary from those of adults. However, several UX principles, design patterns, and preferences hold for kids and adults. The overarching goal of any design, i.e., to create valuable and usable solutions for a user, stays the same for all audiences.

What are the unique UX needs of children?Four critical areas must be considered when designing products and services for children. Cognitive abilities Motor skills Attention span Emotional responses

UI/UX designers

What is child-centric design in UI/UX?Child-centric design in UI/UX focuses on understanding and meeting the needs of children as the target audience. This approach prioritizes the needs of children, treating them as expert users and targeting their specific concerns as they interact with a product or service.

What are some top sectors where designing for kids is essential?The following sectors need UX designs for kids. Educational apps

As Ramadiro worked his way through this period, he reached severaloverarching conclusions about the available materials. He concluded that muchof the available materials had been written in English, and back-translated toisiXhosa, and as such were not based on the linguistic logic of isiXhosa. They didnot take advantage of the home (oral) language resources of children in isiXhosaas the basis to build reading and writing skills. Second, taken together they didnot constitute a balanced reading programme guided by contemporary readingresearch (Pressley, 2006). There was no set of materials that combined a wholereading approach with systematic language skills (phonics, grammar etc.) inBefore... After...

The work of research, teacher development andsupport, curriculum, assessment and policy development are not closely alignedto the social and linguistic contexts of our children and their teachers. Children arefailing not because teachers are inherently problematic, but because the work hasnot been done to provide teachers and learners with a good fighting chance at thechalk-face.The results of the work suggest the basis for a new horizon. With a carefullyfield-tested structured toolkit and support, a collective of rural foundationphase classrooms with some of the lowest results in the country in literacy andmathematics are starting to function like more normal schools.

here were no longitudinal intervention research programmes combiningresearchers and teachers that had demonstrated in practice how to turn aroundfoundation phase classrooms in poor and rural communities. As summarised byvan der Berg, et al (2016:51), ‘unfortunately there have been almost no successstories, at least in terms of improving reading outcomes verified by a rigorousevaluation’. Moreover, while there was a small but important research communityfocusing on the importance of African languages in South African primaryschooling (prominent and influential is the work of PRAESA in early literacy, ledby Carole Bloch (e.g., 2002; 2000), there are no longitudinal attempts to applybilingual language theory systematically to the entire enterprise of foundationphase classroom teaching.

educationaldesign research methodology.

The year was challenging. The most difficult part of the year was the socialenvironment of the school. The relationship between teachers and children wastoo often mediated through corporal punishment. With no cleaning staff, forexample, children spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning, often under thethreat of corporal punishment. Teachers largely avoided their classrooms. Theyoften came late and left early. The Grade 3 class was often the only one still insession after lunch. Breaks took longer than scheduled. Teachers spent longperiods of times sitting in their cars with each other. There were tight cliques, andtensions between these cliques. The day to day talk between teachers was rarelyabout teaching. Some teachers were supportive of the work, others watchedsuspiciously. It became increasingly clear that the challenge of supportingteachers to shift their practice was not limited to expanding teaching practice at anindividual level; without building alternative communities of practice, supportive ofchange and inspired by the challenge of teaching itself, teachers were unlikely toachieve or sustain new patterns of practice over tim

class children and their teachers. There are two elements of the critique. Thefirst element focuses on the linguistic resources of children and teachers. Thecritique is that the knowledge project implicitly works from an English speakingnormative social universe and starting points, and does not field test or generateenough research placing African language children and teachers at the centre. Assuch, our ideas about literacy and mathematics do not build upon the languageresources of African language speaking children and teachers. The secondelement focuses on social class and its relation to education. The critique isthat the knowledge project implicitly works from a more middle class schoolingcontext, underestimating the exigencies of the poor and working class, deeplyrooted in historic neglect and the marginalisation of communities and schools

An interesting new extension of this work is Pretorius and Spaull(2016), who undertook the first large scale analysis of oral reading fluency inEnglish. Regardless of the assessment tool, the majority of South African childrenperform extremely poorly in reading, writing and mathematics in the early phasesof primary education (Fleisch, 2008; Spaull, 2013b, 2010; Taylor and Yu, 2009;van der Berg, 2008). Beyond the low results across the system, it is characterisedby a stark bimodal distribution (Fleisch, 2012; van der Berg, 2008; Taylor and Yu,2009; Spaull, 2013a.) The wealthiest quintile of schools is producing some readingresults, while the remaining schools are strikingly non-productive. The wordbimodal is used to suggest that the current system of public education representstwo distinct universes of schools – a small universe serving 20% of the nation’schildren and a vast universe of schools serving the remaining childre

Learners who knew all their letters at the end of grade 1 were on track with their reading by the time they reached grade 4. Learners with very limited letter-sound knowledge at the end of grade 1 were three years behind, only reaching grade 4 reading fluency levels in grade 7.

We need to understand what prevents basic reading skills from being acquired in grade 1 and 2 classrooms. A systemic programme to improve what teachers are taught at university is needed. In classrooms, diagnostic assessment of early grade reading skills can also help to detect where children are falling behind.

Reading comprehension is one of the skills that South Africa needs most. It will be in short supply until basic reading skills are taught correctly.

Children are struggling to master the most basic reading skills in their home language in the foundation phase (grades 1-3).

We found that far too many children were entering school with weak oral language skills and were acquiring alphabetic knowledge and fluency far too slowly. This limited their reading comprehension and academic progress through school.

The study’s findings are a global wake-up call to the effects of pandemic disruptions on children’s reading comprehension. In South Africa they are also a transparent met

When decoding is a slow, laboured process this places demands on cognitive processes like working memory. By increasing speed and accuracy in reading, cognitive resources are freed and the child can begin to comprehend what they are rea

A child needs at least two kinds of skills before they can comprehend what they’re reading. These are oral language skills (listening, speaking and knowing how spoken words sound) and decoding skills (knowledge of letter-sound relationships to turn a written word into a spoken word).

MDA, a theory of how game design works. MDA is a theory about the emergent nature of game play. It says when you combine game MECHANICS (shoot something, collect coins, jump over something, open a locked door, etc) the combination becomes DYNAMICS (sidescroller, boss battle, etc) which then is experienced by a player as a type of fun, or AESTHETICS (Fellowship, Challenge, Fantasy etc.

A Unified Theory for Designing Just About Anything

CAMP

mundane design

If you want to understand poetics for interaction design, look at apps. The app store ecosystem and price point has created a cambrian explosion of apps with the same core purpose and wildly different poetics.For example, a word processing app can evoke a variety of feelings depending on choices made in mechanics: feature set, graphic design choices, microinteractions. Both iAWriter and OMWriter discard Microsoft Word’s “all the features for everyone” approach in exchange for a stripped down writing application that creates a very different writing experience.iA Writer “gives you the experience of disappearing into the text and forgetting everything around you.” It makes you feel like Jack Kerouac banging away on his Underwood. By choosing fewer features, they’ve created a poetics of simplicity and focus.

children can talk long before they can read and write. E

ater lessons are multilingual and focus at the same time on reading for meaning and learning a target language. For most learners, the target language is English. Learners listen to sentences in one language and must reproduce a translation textually. The app currently incl

In such an environment, where it’s not easy to acquire literacy, the innovative and creative use of technology offers new ways of tackling this strategic challenge. This is what our Ngiyaqonda! project aims to do. “Ngiyaqonda” is an isiZulu word which means “I understand”.

In the earlier lessons, the application focuses on the task of decoding. This is a mental process and an essential component of reading in which sequences of letters must be associated with their corresponding sounds to form words. At this stage, lessons are monolingual.

We are fortunate to be collaborating with a school and team of educators who have embraced innovation as an aid to improving their learners’ outcomes. The results of the study are expected towards the end of 2023 and will inform subsequent studies in 2024. Preliminary results indicate that both the teachers and the learners are benefiting from using the app in the classroom. The teachers say they appreciate its multimodal aspect, which allows the children to learn independently; the children are excited to use it during their reading lessons.

curriculum-based vocabulary

resource-scarce language

The initial focus is on the learner’s home language (it’s currently being piloted with grade 3 isiZulu-speaking learners at a school in Soweto, Johannesburg). English is introduced gradually as a target language. The language and speech technology has been developed to provide linguistic accuracy and is grounded in teaching principles.

During the first three years of their education, South African children receive schooling in one of the 11 written official languages. Generally, this means being taught in their home language.

But in South Africa, 8 out of 10 children cannot read for meaning by the end of their third school year.

The Mzanzi kids multilingual language learning App was created for children between the ages of 2-6 years in South Africa. It was designed to stimulate visual, speech and language literacy skills at an early age by understanding basic everyday concepts and highlighting the correct pronunciation of speech in six (6) different languages; English, Afrikaans, IsiXhosa, IsiZulu, Sepedi and Setswana. The integration of images and phonetics provides a good foundation for children to learn and speak in their mother tongue or home language with confidence and fluency, but most importantly comprehend and appreciate the diversity of languages used by South Africans. This multilingual App provides a good introduction before entering a schooling environment, and offers a non-threatening, playful and fun way of learning languages using innovative technology.

Tried it with Sepedi and English and yho, your Sepedi 👎. How will kids learn if you don't pronounce words correctly? Get someone who knows and can pronounce/speak the languages fluently

I hate that I cant select language and fix it at that. Instead my child is expected to answer a multiple choice question each time before the language of choice opens. Which he cant, he's 4! Please fix this. Content also very limited.

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Let the adventures begin, download today!

Youtube Kids is an example of how the product designed for kids differs from the one targeting adults. It’s much easier to navigate thanks to bigger buttons and fewer content boxes on the page. Plus the security settings on the platform make sure that younger users are safe and have access to appropriate content. Those all are parts of a thought-through design interface for children.

here are badges for progress, statistics that keep users motivated, and also a clear menu that helps to navigate the application easily.

friendly digital helper is a good idea in digital products for children. Designing a virtual helper, cool and cute character that will help children to navigate through the product, can make the user experience smoother and more interactive.

Save Create a Product Children Will Love Pew Research Center reports that the majority of kids in the US actively use digital devices, and many of them have smartphones or tablets of their own. The number of young users tends to increase over time. And design for this interesting (and somewhat challenging) audience is a responsible mission.UX design for kids is not as simple as to just have a few clowns looking funny and some music playing while they use the product. First of all, you must know what difference in terms of demands lies between children and adults.As a design agency we understand the importance of UX specifics when targeting a particular audience, especially a younger one. In this article, we would like to provide insights on what you need to pay attention to when designing a kid-friendly interface. Main niches where design for children is applicable To better understand where a solid design for kids is especially important, take a look at statistics on what content children most interacted with in 2021. Image credit: Statista As we can see, software products and video content are among the most popular. We can name three main niches where child-friendly design is especially needed. EntertainmentEntertainment is the main reason why children use digital products, so it’s no wonder that gaming apps, entertaining platforms and websites make the biggest niche. When designing an entertaining product for children, keep in mind that kids develop an addiction easier, so you need to be ethical in your design decisions.Online learningIt is hard to get children engaged in learning and keep them interested in whatever they study. However, if done right, it can be a very positive experience. Students can appreciate learning something new or improving on what they already know. You can use this insight as a base for online educational platforms for children. For example, include design elements that show progress and achievements.Fintech for childrenYes, children nowadays use fintech products along with adults. The days of cash are behind and the demand for mobile banking and other fintech products for children is growing. Pay extra attention to the safety and usability of such complex products and don’t forget to include and design educational components to increase your teenage users’ financial literacy.  Image credit: Anastasia on Dribble What differs children from adults?  Children are a new, unique, and more demanding audience. Stating the obvious, there are many differences between them and adults. And these differences matter for design. Physical  difference is the first thing to take into account when designing for kids. Children’s motor skills (especially at a young age) are different from those of other age groups. Younger kids’ motoricts change their user behavior. For example, at early age children typically type slowly or have limited control of the mouse. This is something designers have to pay attention to when creating UI for children. Cognitive difference is an even bigger matter to consider if you want to create a great user interface for kids. That’s why it makes sense to dive a bit into the theory of cognitive development. Children’s mental abilities are quite different. Depending on the age, they may lose focus or get bored quickly and in general, are less patient than grown-ups.

Physical  difference is the first thing to take into account when designing for kids. Children’s motor skills (especially at a young age) are different from those of other age groups. Younger kids’ motoricts change their user behavior. For example, at early age children typically type slowly or have limited control of the mouse. This is something designers have to pay attention to when creating UI for children.

You can use this insight as a base for online educational platforms for children. For example, include design elements that show progress and achievements.

UX design for kids

HOW TO IMPROVE TO MOTHER TONGUE LEARNING
Begin literacy teaching in mother tongueA curriculum, rooted in the child’s known language, cultureand environment, with appropriate and locally-developedreading and curriculum materials, is crucial for earlylearning success. Using the home language in the early stagesof schooling in multilingual contexts supports child-centricpolicies. It starts with what is familiar and builds in newknowledge. It creates a smooth transition between home andschool; it stimulates interest and ensures greaterparticipation and engagement. This prepares children for theacquisition of literacy and encourages fluency andconfidence in both the mother tongue and, later, in otherlanguages, where this is necessary.
Ensure availability of mother-tongue materialsChildren need to be engaged in and excited about readingand learning and this can only be done if the materials areones which they will understand and enjoy. In mostdeveloping countries, the only reading material children seeare school textbooks, which are often in very short supply.Other materials to support learning are hardly everavailable. Without access to good materials, children struggleto become literate and learn. In most low- and middle-income countries, the majority of primary schools have nolibrary, and books are luxuries which families cannot afford.For children from minority language communities, thesituation is even more dismal. Textbooks are rarely availablein local languages.
Provide early childhood education in mother tongueLiteracy development starts early in life, and the homeenvironment is an important factor in children’s learningachievement. It helps build the knowledge and skills childrenneed for learning to read. Where parents and the communityare supporting literacy development, results show a markedimprovement. The earlier children are exposed to stories thebetter their reading is: reading for only 15 minutes a day canexpose children to one million written words in a year,thereby helping them to develop a rich vocabulary. Childrenwith access to materials at home are more likely to developfluency in reading

The success of the different multimedia tools that have been used on the various target groups and subjects can be attributed to the technologies and components embedded as shown in Tables 4 and ​and5.5. In most cases where text, audio, video, graphics and animations were the components of choice, significant improvements in teaching and learning are used, as reported in the studies reviewed (Blevins, 2018; Huang et al., 2017; Zhang, 2012).

tangible object in cognitive apprenticeship instruction stimulates more meta-cognitive behaviour.

Huang et al. (2017) explored the use of multimedia-based teaching materials that include three view diagrams (3D) and tangible 3D materials to teach 3D modelling course. This was aimed at determining the influence of multimedia technology in meta-cognitive behaviour of students.

Nevertheless, despite the impact of multimedia tools on the improvement of teaching and learning activities, it could be counterproductive if the computer-based tools are not properly designed or the instructional materials are not well composed.

Certainly, multimedia technology brings about improvement in teaching and learning, however, there are a number of limitations in this technology for educational purposes. Some of these limitations include unfriendly programming or user interface, limited resources, lack of required knowledge and skill, limited time and high cost of maintenance among others (Al-Ajmi and Aljazzaf, 2020; Putra, 2018).

The importance of multimedia technologies and applications in education as a teaching or learning tool cannot be over emphasized. This has been confirmed in several studies that have investigated the impact of multimedia technology to the education system. Milovanovi et al. (2013) demonstrated the importance of using multimedia tools in Mathematics classes and found that the multimedia tool greatly enhances students' learning. Several works exist that show that multimedia enhances students' learning (Aloraini, 2012; Al-Hariri and Al-Hattami, 2017; Barzegar et al., 2012; Chen and Xia 2012; Dalacosta et al., 2009; Jian-hua & Hong, 2012; Janda, 1992; Keengwe et al., 2008b; Kingsley and Boone, 2008; Shah and Khan, 2015; Taradi et al., 2005; Zin et al., 2013).

It has been demonstrated, by research on using multimedia for learning, that there are more positive results observed in learners who combine picture and words than those who use words only (Chen and Liu, 2008; Mayer, 2008). As stated in Eady and Lockyer (2013), different pedagogy methods were implemented by the use of digital resources.

So, in this study, the taxonomy and component synthesis of some widely cited multimedia applications are provided.

However, when used in the classroom or for educational purposes, the design quality and sophistication of multimedia application must be high enough to combine the different elements of the cognitive processes so as to achieve the best mimicking of the teacher. There are different types of multimedia applications available in the market today. T

symbols, images, pictures, audio, video, and animations usually with the aid of technology for the purpose of enhancing understanding or memorization (Guan et al., 2018). It

Adults do not perceive accessibility of reading materials in appropriate languages as a primary barrier to reading with children. Only 5% of adults who do not read with children said it wasbecause they did not have materials in the right languages (most said it was a lack of time). On the other hand, 79% of adults also report that they would read more with children if theycould access more materials in their preferred languages. This suggests that adults who are strongly motivated to read with children will do so, irrespective of materials access, but thatincreasing accessibility to reading materials in the right languages may increase the quality and amount of reading.71Figure 49

The digital revolution is transforming not only how we communicate (faster,at much larger volumes, to a large extent through text rather than voice),but how we read more broadly.Digital and online materials can be produced faster, versioned (e.g. intodifferent languages), and distributed more cheaply than print materials.Materials can also be shared (rather than read by one person at a time),interacted with (through annotations, comments, reviews, interactivediscussions, embedded dictionaries, etc.), archived and searched moreeasily. Furthermore, much of what we read today in digital formats is writtenby other ‘normal people’ like ourselves (social media posts, messages, blogs,etc.) rather than professional authors mediated by a commercial publishingindustry. All of these factors ‘democratise’ reading and open up access.On the other hand, there are concerns about the quality of digital reading -both in terms of the quality of the content being read and the quality of thereading experience itself, i.e. the depth with which the reader engages withwhat they are reading. Various studies have shown that digital reading bystudents is not as good for learning as reading the same content on paper(Lang 2021).Since Covid-19, debates about the spread of digital materials for teaching andlearning in the schooling system have also accelerated. The NRS cannot commenton school-based reading pedagogy or materials, but similar questions are oftenposed about the wider reading ecosystem. When the project consulted stakeholdersabout key questions they wanted answered, concerns about digital reading, readingon smart phones and possible trade-offs between social media use and book readingwere prominent. So was curiosity about how digital reading is reshaping readingculture generally, and what opportunities it might provide.In response to these questions, the NRS included questions about social media use,digital device use for reading, and adult perceptions about digital reading by theirchildren.One of the NRS’ innovations is to include ‘reading for communication’ as a ‘readingpurpose’ and therefore to include the reading of (mostly) digital messages as a formof reading. As reported in Chapter 2, when analysed in relation to other forms ofreading, such as reading for information and reading for enjoyment, reading tocommunicate appears to augment rather than replaces these forms of reading.

Free online materials: 21% of adults with children are awareof free online books or stories or mobile story apps. The mostwell known online initiative is Nal'ibali, which is also the most used(13% of adults with children are aware and 4% have used it atleast once), followed by the National Education Collaboration Trust(NECT) (7% aware and 3% used at least once)

More than three quarters of South Africans with children in theirhousehold say they would read more if they had more access tomaterials that are free, based on interesting topics, based on stories orinformation that is relatable to them, or available in their preferred languag

apitalise on the opportunities that digital reading offers for free reading material distribution. It is however not areplacement for making print reading materials accessibleDBE, NLSA, Civil society, Department ofSports, Arts and Culture, NECT, Nal’ibali,Publishing and reading materialsdistribution industry2 Support digital reading by• Recognising that all forms of reading can co-exist• Encouraging the linkages between reading types• Rolling out public wifi, reducing the cost of data, and zero-rating websites with educational and readingmaterials• Shifting the narrative about people not reading due to social media and digital devices and recognising thatreading to communicate (digitally) can co-exist with and reinforce other forms of reading, such as readinglonger texts in printNLSA, Civil society, Department of Sports,Arts and Culture, NECT, Nal’ibali3 The majority of South Africans read to communicate via social media and WhatsApp. Use these existingcommunication channels to make reading attractive and share information about where to access other readingmaterialsNLSA, Civil society, Department of Sports,Arts and Culture, NECT, Nal’ibali

An exception is a recent study showing that children’s listening comprehension was uniquely related to text reading fluency after accounting for list reading fluency for first graders. However, this unique relation appears to depend on children’s developmental level of word reading proficiency such that listening comprehension was uniquely related to text reading fluency only for skilled word readers but not for average word readers in first grade (Kim et al., 2011). Thus, a certain level of word reading proficiency might be needed for listening comprehension to play a role in text reading fluency. These results lend support to the verbal efficiency theory (Perfetti, 1985, Perfetti, 1992), which posits that children’s word reading proficiency influences the consolidation of fluency component skills. For readers with slow and nonautomatic word reading, word reading will constrain meaning construction processes in text reading fluency and reading comprehension. For children with skilled word reading, cognitive resources are available for meaning construction (i.e., comprehension), thereby allowing listening comprehension to be related to text reading fluency (Kim et al., 2011).

reading prosody is an important aspect of reading fluency

Numerous studies have shown strong correlations between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension

prosody

text reading fluency (oral reading fluency and silent reading fluency)

text reading fluency was uniquely related to reading comprehension in Grade 2, but not in Grade 1, after accounting for list reading fluency and listening comprehension.

reading fluency

Conclusion In recent years, educational tablets and software have transformed education in South Africa. If you are looking to homeschool your child and know how children can learn effectively at home, an educational tablet is your best option. There are also offline educational tablets available in South Africa that can immensely help young kids learn better.So just grab an educational tablet for your child and get going!

The students learn and understand at their own pace and engage in all aspects of language learning, including grammar, vocabulary, etc. the software contains over 1000 passages along with exercises in both English and Afrikaans. This software was developed to assist the education imparted through tablets and software in Africa. The teachers can add content and improve the student’s reading, comprehension, and visual memory capacity with this software.

which is the national curriculum,emphasises the importance of student proficiency in at least two languages and being ableto communicate in others. The language-specific curricula follows an additive approach tomultilingualism, namely, all students learn a language on a “home language” level (which formost would be their home language) and at least one additional offi cial language, and becomecompetent in their additional language on a second-language level, while the home languageis maintained and developed.

Should Kids Use Apps at All?

Engaging Visuals: Bright, colorful, and appealing visuals are essential to capture a child’s attention and stimulate their creativity.

Mobile and tablet apps have become an indispensable part of growing up. As a parent myself, I’ve witnessed firsthand the incredible impact these apps can have on early childhood development.

Specifically, children classified as typically engaged made greater gains in expressive language and phonological awareness when they attended preschool classrooms where the teacher displayed high quality interactions with her students. This is in contrast to children classified as positively engaged who made similar gains in phonological awareness regardless of the quality of classroom level teacher-child interactions and who made greater gains in expressive language when attending preschool classrooms with lower quality teacher-child interactions. Together, these results indicate that children’s level of individual engagement appears to matter less in classrooms characterized by high quality teacher-child interactions. This emphasizes the importance of what the teacher can bring to the classroom—if teachers interact with the children in their classroom in ways that are emotionally, organizationally, and instructionally responsive, children in that classroom may have more equitable gains in language and literacy skills regardless of their individual patterns of classroom engagement.

The current study extends findings from previous research by testing how childhood reading problems in the face of normal general cognitive ability are associated with later cognitive function and decline, whereas previous research has primarily focused on general cognitive ability in childhood.

little research has investigated the long-term association of childhood reading with cognitive ageing, and how any such association operates across a longer period over the life course.

cognitive functioning

Evidence shows that reading problems in childhood can be associated with negative outcomes in adulthood, including lower income, poorer self-esteem and higher rates of psychiatric problems

Reading problems in childhood were associated with poorer cognitive function in early old age, and associations were partly mediated by education.

1. If a creative artefact is the basis of the contribution to knowledge, the research ispractice-based.2. If the research leads primarily to new understandings about practice, it is practice-led

ext in the home: Learners need to be given age-appropriate texts to take home to optimise exposureto text out of school and enhance the possibilities for reading with caregivers, siblings and neighbours

Books in the home: There are two sites of acquisition for learning to read: the school and the home.Most learners are exposed to very little text in the home and few opportunities to engage with books,especially story books, outside of school hours. The responsibility for developing reading thus falls whollyto the teacher. Learners require more exposure to text and more opportunities to practice reading thanwhat is made available during school hours.

Higher-order learning as stipulated in the curriculum will be possible when adequate resourcesare available in the classroom that broaden the thinking of the learner and develop their graspof the language and their ability to convey their thinking in writing. Language (in the home andin the classroom) and contextual factors (in the home and at school) in education have aninteractive effect on learner development of higher-order cognition for reading achievement(McLeod Palane, in press). The more learners are exposed to good resources, the more they willhave an opportunity to develop their literacy, as well as their language competence. Accordingto Vygotsky (1978) the socio-cultural context and access to mediation in, for example, the formof text develops learners’ higher-order thinking, which includes metacognitive processes andcritical thinking, and are recognised as 21st century skills.LANGUAGES (CENSUS 2011)English10%IsiXhosa16%IsiZulu24%Sepedi9%Other2% Afrikaans14%Sesotho8%Setswana8%Siswati3%Tshivenda2%Xitsonga2%IsiNdebele2%

Curriculum 2005 (C2005) with its implementation in 1998 was regarded as the master plan to eradicate the inequalities of the apartheid education system. In 2000, C2005 was revised and is now referred to as the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) (Jansen, 1998; Manganyi, 2001; Harley & Wedekind 2004; Vambe, 2005). The NCS is an outcomes-based, integrated knowledge system based on a learner-centred pedagogy that has to improve the quality of education for all in South Africa (SA) (Jansen, 1998; Botha, 2002; Fiske & Ladd, 2004; Todd & Mason, 2005). However, the potential for Outcomes-based Education (OBE) to enhance learning in all South African schools, given the historical and situational constraints, is limited. Numerous schools in SA have been unsuccessful in implementing the concept of outcomes to drive the educational programmes and state resources have not been sufficient to bring all schools up to the standard that was enjoyed by former Model C schools prior to 1994 (Whitaker & Whitaker, 1995; Mathieson, 2001; Todd & Mason, 2005; Vambe, 2005). The main factors that hinder policy implementation in South African schools are the lack of management capacity and the scarcity of resources (Jansen, 1999; Botha, 2002; Fiske & Ladd, 2004; Prinsloo, 2007). Educational transformation not only brought about C2005 and OBE, but also a new Learning Area called Life Orientation (LO) in the General Education and Training (GET) Band (Grades R-9) and a new subject in the Further Education and Training (FET) Band (Grades 10-12). This new Learning Area/Subject is to equip learners with the skills, knowledge, attitudes and values (SKAV) to face life's challenges in an informed, confident and responsible way (DoE, 1997; Jansen, 1998; Bot

Support effective teaching methodsSuccessful teaching of early literacy skills is dependent notonly on the provision of suitable materials, but also on theway these skills are introduced and taught. Rote learning andmemorization, with a textbook focus, will likely result in achild’s reading fluency and comprehension remaininglimited. Teachers need to use engaging instructionalstrategies, where children are active in the learning process.Such strategies only become feasible when childrenunderstand the language of instruction and can therefore beinteractively engaged.
Train and deploy mother tongue teachersMother-tongue education requires teachers whom share thelanguage and culture of the children. It also requires thatteachers are trained in the same language they are to teachin. Some teachers may not be truly proficient in the languageof instruction, and may struggle with teaching in a‘dominant’ language they are not fluent in themselves orthey may come from a minority language group and havebeen excluded from the learning process due to a lack oftraining materials in their language. Sometimes a lack ofunderstanding can cascade down the generations where ateacher, who never fully understood their own teacher, isattempting to teach a child who barely understands thelanguage.CONCLUSIONSMany children from corner to corner the developing worldare learning very little in school, a truth that can beconnected to teaching that is in a linguistic they do notcompletely understand. It is a practice that leads toinadequate or non-existent learning and acquisition ofknowledge and skills, alienating experiences, and high drop-out and repetition rates. To develop the quality of education,language policies need to take account of mother-tonguelearning. Models of education which ignore the mothertongue in the early years can be unproductive, ineffectiveand have a negative effect on children’s learning. Mother-tongue teaching at least in early years can enable teachers toteach, and learners to learn further effectively. For too long,mother-tongue education has been mostly unnoticed bypolicy makers. While there are encouraging signs that thepolicy pendulum is beginning to swing towards a greaterunderstanding of the importance of mother-tongue learning,there is still a long way to go. More governments aredeveloping policies and programmes that take account ofmother tongue in the early stages of learning, but there isstill a need to express better policies, make sure betterpreparation for the introduction of second languages andensure adequate resources are set aside. The GlobalCampaign for Education believes that evidence proposes thatthere is assured areas which should be prioritized in policydevelopment, to confirm more responsive and well nuancedpolicy development in the field of mother tongue learning

Studies have shown that children who are exposed to reading prior to preschool tend to develop larger vocabularies and are more likely to succeed during their formal education. If a child is not proficient in reading by 3rd grade, they are at a higher risk for not graduating from high school.

(1)Ability to turn abstract concepts into concrete contents(2)Ability to presents large volumes of information within a limited time with less effort(3)Ability to stimulates students' interest in learning(4)Provides teacher with the ability to know students position in learning.

Super basic

Duolingo ABC

3. Importance of feedback For a positive user experience, feedback plays a significant role. If the users get appropriate and quick feedback from a physical or digital design, they can gain interest, leading to a good user experience. The importance of immediate feedback gets even more pronounced in the case of kids when their attention span is less than that of adults.

There is a need to think about the element that the user sees, the first impression, and the long-term goals of all such designs.

What are some critical UX preferences for kids?Some necessary UX preferences for kids are as follows. Need for intuitive design Desire for engaging content Importance of feedback

We also list some best practices and design principles to ensure better quality designs for children of different ages.

2. Desire for engaging content Engagement is another fundamental design principle and one of the most critical needs of users from any age group. In a usability test, users' engagement and satisfaction levels often go hand in hand. Therefore, when designing for the audience of any target age group, engagement should be considered.

child-centric design

These sentences function as the language content of the speech-enabled mobile application. The application uses synthetic voice technology (also known as text-to-speech) to read aloud the automatically generated sentences in either isiZulu or English.

The problem is partly caused by the fact that South Africa is, in many respects, a resource-scarce country, especially as it concerns indigenous languages. Even a language such as isiZulu, with 15 million home language speakers, has a dearth of language education resources. The situation is even worse for smaller languages, such as isiNdebele, with just over 1 million home language speakers.

Quality Over Quantity: Not all apps are created equal. Parents should carefully select apps that are age-appropriate, educational, and safe. Reviews and recommendations from trusted sources can help in making informed choices.

Screen Time: Excessive screen time can have negative consequences on a child’s physical and mental well-being. It’s crucial to set reasonable limits on the amount of time a child spends with apps and ensure a healthy balance with other activities.

Language Development: Apps featuring interactive stories and language-learning activities can enhance a child’s vocabulary and language skills. For example, apps like “Endless Reader” introduce new words in the context of engaging stories, making language acquisition an enjoyable experience.

Privacy and Data Protection: Protecting children’s sensitive information is paramount. Apps should comply with regulations like COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) to ensure data privacy.

Designing apps for children requires a unique approach when compared to apps aimed at adults or teenagers:

Educational Apps: These apps are designed to teach kids fundamental skills, such as reading, math, and problem-solving, in an engaging and interactive manner.