DIGITAL MEDIA AND COMPETENCES IN PRE-SCHOOL

The child's thinking begins to take shape in the pre-school age and evolves progressively taking into account the perceptive, socio-cultural and behavioural constraints of different educational agencies. The early relationship with the digital technologies is a cognitive and emotional stimulation and the family mediation is almost always absent. This issue splits into two reflections: 1. What happens in the social and psychological development of the child when digital media are involved in the pre-school socialization? 2. How can the social capital orient the child's relationship with the media? The awareness of a connection between digital behaviour and key-skills leads the research to examine the nature and intensity of these relationships. It also evaluates its impact on the youngster's cognitive process. The main objective of this paper is the construction of an experimental pattern that analyses the development of the digital skills and key-competences of children aged between 3 and 6. It is based on the observation of digital behaviour and the detection of different types of proficiency. The proposal provides the following structure: - The construction of the theoretical framework about two key-concepts: 1) the psychological, cognitive and emotional development of children in pre-school age; 2) the social capital influence in their media usage. This first phase is focused on the theoretical introduction for conceptualising hypothesis on the individual and social change in children after the introduction of digital media in their habits. - The planning of experimental pattern, with a discussion about the positive and negative consequences in the application of their methods and tools in this field. - Evaluation of the chosen methodological approach, starting from the analysis of the first temporary results of a case study, that is the research-project “MEDIA USAGE IN PRE-SCHOOL” in Sapienza University of Rome.