A brief tablet-based fast-mapping game improves toddlers' verbal communication skills relative to matched controls¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (3 entries) · causal r2 · q3
Currency · newest study 2024 · checked against its sources 2026-10-26 (automated, 3 of 3 entries) · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q3 i? Toddlers who played the tablet game showed greater pre-post gains in ASQ-3 Communication domain raw scores than matched controls (r = -0.25). → Peña 2024 q3 i? More toddlers in the Study group improved in ASQ-3 Communication category (15 improved, none dropped) compared to Controls (4 improved, 2 dropped), Fisher exact p = 0.026. → Peña 2024 (2) q3 i? Toddlers in the Study group showed greater gains in the CDI Adverbs and Verbs subset (d = -0.45). → Peña 2024 (3)

Evidence¶

Peña 2024¶

Peña, M., Vásquez-Venegas, C., Cortés, P., Pittaluga, E., Herrera, M., Pino, E. J., Escobar, R. G., Dehaene-Lambertz, G., & Guevara, P. (2024). A brief tablet-based intervention benefits linguistic and communicative abilities in toddlers and preschoolers. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00249-3

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Pre-post equivalent-group experiment with 101 toddlers (~24 months); Study group (n=53 for ASQ-3) showed greater Communication gain than Control (n=39), Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney Z = -2.42, P = 0.015, effect size r = -0.25. "the Study group showed greater gain than the Control group in the raw data of the Communication domain"

"When comparing the groups, the Study group showed greater gain than the Control group in the raw data of the Communication domain only (Table 1 and Fig. 2a)."

Peña 2024 (2)¶

Peña, M., Vásquez-Venegas, C., Cortés, P., Pittaluga, E., Herrera, M., Pino, E. J., Escobar, R. G., Dehaene-Lambertz, G., & Guevara, P. (2024). A brief tablet-based intervention benefits linguistic and communicative abilities in toddlers and preschoolers. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00249-3

q3 · i? · causal · r2

Category-change analysis in the same toddler experiment: in the Study group "15 toddlers improved, none dropped, and 38 remained at the same level" versus 4 improved, 2 dropped, 28 unchanged among Controls; Fisher exact probability = 0.026.

"In contrast, in the Study group, 15 toddlers improved, none dropped, and 38 remained at the same level (Fisher exact probability = 0.026)."

Peña 2024 (3)¶

Peña, M., Vásquez-Venegas, C., Cortés, P., Pittaluga, E., Herrera, M., Pino, E. J., Escobar, R. G., Dehaene-Lambertz, G., & Guevara, P. (2024). A brief tablet-based intervention benefits linguistic and communicative abilities in toddlers and preschoolers. npj Science of Learning. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41539-024-00249-3

q3 · i? · causal · r2

CDI gain comparison in the toddler experiment: Study group (n=52) showed greater gain in the Adverbs and Verbs subset than Control (n=45), t-test P = 0.030, Cohen d = -0.45. "the Study group showed greater gains, particularly in the Adverbs and Verbs subset"

"When comparing the groups, however, the Study group showed greater gains, particularly in the Adverbs and Verbs subset (Table1 and Fig. 2b), unveiling a subtle yet significant advantage in favor of the Study group."

Discussion¶

Learner Variables¶

• Communication Skills — outcome: instruction changes it

Related Claims¶

• Preschoolers benefit more from the tablet game than toddlers (cross-experiment comparison) — related
• A brief tablet-based fast-mapping game improves preschoolers' speech comprehension (TECAL vocabulary and total scores) — related
• Language gains are weakly correlated with in-game performance, suggesting transfer relies on general-domain mechanisms — related
• Children retain trained word-object and letter-sound associations four to six months after the intervention — related