Preschooler's Use of Microcomputers and Input Devices

This study measured the efficiency of use by preschoolers of common input devices including the keyboard, the joystick and the mouse. It also investigated their preferred input device in a free play setting. The manner in which the children interacted with the microcomputers and each other in this setting, including gender factors, was also considered. The subjects in the study consisted of thirty-seven children, of whom fifteen were girls and twenty-two boys, with an average age of four years, seven and a half months. The results indicate that there is a significant difference in efficiency between the three input devices, with the mouse being more efficiently used than the joystick, which in turn is more efficiently used than the keyboard. The between groups interaction of gender with input device is not significant. No pattern of preference was identified for a particular input device. The microcomputers were used extensively during free play, and from the variety of activities available, the boys selected the microcomputer activity significantly more than the girls. The present study demonstrates that unmonitored free-play allows for inequitable access to, and selection of, a microcomputer activity.