Barr, R., Muentener, P., & Garica, A. (2007). Age-related changes in deferred imitation from television by 6- to 18-month-olds. Developmental Science, 10(6), 910- 921.
This study was designed to gauge the growing body of evidence that examines infant imitation from television both immediately and after a delay. Children were tested in two very controlled manners for this study that only deviated in one way. Some children were shown a demonstration in person (3D) and the others were shown the exact same demonstration via television (2D). This was the only difference in the two demonstrations and therefore created no bias. The study found that imitation from television can occur in infants as early as 6 months of age. The findings of this study also suggest that imitation from television continues to be challenging throughout the second year of life, but repetition may be the key. The results of this study raise several questions and further research is required to disentangle perceptual and representational/cognitive load explanations. This source would be very useful in my research and provides information from an unwavering study that produced very clear and concise results.
Barr, R., Shuck, L., Salerno, K., Atkinson , E., & Linebarger , D. (2010). Music interferes with learning from television during infancy. Infant and Child Development , 19, 313-331. Retrieved from www.interscience.wiley.com doi: 10.1002/ icd.666
This study was conducted to expand on previous studies regarding learning from television and imitating the target actions that took place. Prior to this study experimental research regarding learning from television failed to incorporate the usual attention grabbing formal features into their experimental stimuli, mainly sound. This study examined whether adding sound effects to video or live demonstrations would influence imitation by 6, 12 and 18 month old infants. Also, this study was modeled after the study that was completed to see if infants could imitate target actions better in person (3D) or through television (2D). There was a random selection of participants and some had music integrated into the demonstration while the others had no musical attribute added to the demonstrations. By keeping the selection random, not placing restriction on who could participate, and by controlling the demonstrations as much as possible; it was easy to alleviate bias. This source proves to be beneficial but works better in conjunction with the “Age-related changes in deferred imitation from television by 6 to 18 month olds”.
Bavelier, D., Green, S., & Dye, M. (2010). Children, wired: For better or for worse. Neuron, 67, 692-701
This is an in depth article describing the positives and the negatives of technology’s impact on childhood development. It does not choose a side but rather explores all aspects of technology’s impact on not only early childhood development but childhood development as a whole. This article presents no proof of bias and uses a multitude of research studies to make key points both for and against technology use in childhood development. It argues that good things can turn into something bad if not used properly and that bad things can turn into something good if used in a manner that can benefit the individual. It expresses that it is imperative to keep in mind that some forms of technology have no effect on the form of behavior they were designed to transform, while others have effects that reach far beyond their intended outcomes. I find that this article would be a very useful source because it provides a wealth of information that looks at both sides of the impact of technology on childhood development. It states clear pros and clear cons without presenting bias.
Dimitri, C. (2009). The effects of infant media usage: what do we know and what should we learn? Acta Paediatrica, 98(1), 8-16.
This article reviews what is known about the effects of infant TV viewing on multiple domains of child development including language, cognition and attentional capacity as well as directions for future research. This article states that present day over 90% o f children begin watching TV regularly before the age of 2 years in spite of recommendations to the contrary. This has been on the rise since the late 1990s. This article leans more towards the research that shows that children should not have access to media. It has come to the conclusion that no studies to date have demonstrated benefits associated with early infant TV viewing and that parents should exercise due caution in exposing infants to excessive media. I find that this article is slightly biased but I still believe that it would be a good source to present the cons of media usage with infants and provides a wealth of knowledge and data.
Fidler, A. E., Zack, E., & Barr, R. (2010). Television Viewing Patterns in 6- to 18-Month-Olds: The Role of Caregiver-Infant Interactional Quality. Infancy, 15(2), 176-196. doi:10.1111/j.1532-7078.2009.00013.x
This study measured one hundred and ten 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18 month olds’ viewing time to a 13 minute clip of Baby Mozart during caregiver-infant co viewing at home. Researchers expected viewing time to be predicted by the infant’s age and prior exposure to the program, the proportion of the caregiver’s media directed questions and labels or descriptions, and the quality of the interaction between infants and caregivers as defined by their levels of shared focus and turn taking. The results suggest that caregiver verbal input and interactional quality is critical during co viewing, particularly from 9 months onward. The researches eliminated bias by allowing families to volunteer versus being selected randomly or otherwise. Of the one hundred and ten infants, sixty were boys but this showed no bias in the results. The source further assists my research by providing a more complete picture of how television has an impact on infant learning.
Gadberry, S. (1974). Television as baby-sitter: A field comparison of preschoolers’ behavior during playtime and during television viewing. Child Development, 45(4), 1132-1136.
This report found that the average viewing time for nursery school children has increased dramatically. Data from this study was analyzed from a sample of 22 white, suburban, middle-class males, aged 4.5 to 5.5. By using such a small sample this automatically skews the results. There is no way to come to a sound conclusion by not having a much larger sample and a broader demographic. Besides the clear generalization in sample choice, no attempt was made to control program and play content other than to prohibit violent programs and to schedule observations during morning viewing hours. Content-inspired behavior, such as imitation or emotional responding, was an uncontrolled source of variability. Each child’s behavior was observed in their home under two experimental conditions: play and television viewing. It was noted that the children’s focus would shift from television to play or from one game to another, from companion to television during the time that they were left alone with the television playing. I found this source useful even though the research is could be considered outdated.
Herman, J. (2012). Creating balance in the new age of technology. Montessori Life: A Publication of the American Montessori Society, 24(3), 36-43.
This article was an in depth review on the Kaiser Foundation’s studies on children that have been exposed to over 50 hours of various technologies and media in a week timeframe. It references multiple studies published by psychologists and neuroscientists concerning the developmental stages of children between 0-6 years of age and the adolescent stages. In this article the relationship between a healthy balance and a technological overload is expressed by pointing out the benefits and gains that technology and media can have if applied correctly, and identifying the harmful effect unregulated access to media can have on the development of a child’s brain. This article highlights the problems that children with a high unregulated access to have with show empathy, discerning between realities and participating in depth conversations. I found this source helpful in seeing the progression that children exposed to media.
Johnson, J., & Christie, J. (2009). Play and digital media. Computers in the Schools, 26(4), 284-289.
Kucirkova, N. (2011). Digitalised early years - where next? Psychologist, 24(12), 938-940.
Rantala, L. (2011). Finnish media literacy education policies and best practices in early childhood education and care since 2004. Journal of Media Literacy Education, 3(2), 123-133.

Sefton-Green, J., Nixon, H., & Erstad, O. (2009). Reviewing approaches and perspectives on “digital literacy”. Pedagogies, 4(2), 107-125. Retrieved from Education Research Complete. doi: 10.1080/15544800902741556

Zimmerman, F., Christakis, D., & Meltzone, A. (2007). Associations between media viewing and language development in children under age 2 years. The Journal of Pediatrics , 364-368.
This study was designed to see if media viewing had a direct impact on language development in children under the age of two. The children used for this test were only from two states (Washington and Minnesota) and they were tested through a telephone survey. These two states were chosen because birth certificates are public data. There were also certain demographics that had to be met to participate in this study that may have skewed the results. The children were tested in four content categories: children’s educational, children’s non educational, baby DVDs/videos, and grownup TV. Average daily viewing was used in all analyses, calculated as twice the reported weekend viewing plus 5 times the reported weekday viewing, divided by 7. This study has major limitations. The study’s co relational nature precludes drawing casual inferences, they only used one developmental measure and the sample is not representative of the general population. On a positive note, the study is the first formal analysis to test associations between types of media exposure and any developmental outcome in children this young and to test associations between viewing baby DVDs/videos. This source proves that it could be useful but more research is required.