The aim of the independent project is to examine whether ICT should be taught within Early Years settings and Early Years Reception school classes and what impact this has on children’s mental health whilst using ICT for educational learning. In today’s society children have access to a multitude of technology at their fingertips from smartphones, iPads, interactive toys and as a modern sociocultural world we are sometimes not catching up with the advances being made within technology. Another aspect for doing the project about the use of ICT within Early Years settings and Early Years Reception Classes, is the current Government are in consultation with practitioners within the Early Years sector about the removal of ICT from the Statutory Framework for Early Years guidelines (EYFS,2017) from next year.
The chosen method of gathering data for the project is a quantitative questionnaire with some qualitative questions. The main findings of the independent project hope to support the views of many practitioners that using ICT within Early Years settings and Early Years Reception Classes supports the children’s learning and development through collaboration, cognitive development and social interactions with their peers and adults. The findings hope to support that there is currently little research to support that over usage of ICT has an impact on children’s mental health.
Conclusions from the project aim to be critically discussed and analysed such as technology can be beneficial to children's development (Vaughan & Beers, 2017), reflection throughout the project must be considered by the researcher, as highlighted by the theorist Glesne (2011), who underlines that critical reflection is how researcher, research participants, setting, and research procedures interact and influence each other (Glense, 2011). In the data analysis thematic themes will be drawn from the data gathered by the project supporting the theory of Braun & Clarke (2006) who discuss that it is important to recognise thematic evaluation within research. Finally, the research will offer a small-scale insight into how practitioners view the use of ICT within their settings and what benefits it has on the children’s learning and development.