Can Smartphones Make Kids Smarter?

It should come as no surprise to parents that as "smartphones" (cell phones with advanced capability such as Internet and full keyboard) become more popular, the number of children with access to mobile technologies is also increasing.

Carly Shuler, a Cooney Fellow at the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop and author of the report Pockets of Potential, estimates that almost 20% of children aged 5 to 7 use a cell phone.  Younger children, she says, are also getting in on the act. “It’s very common to observe what we call the ‘pass-back’ effect, where the parent passes their own device to the child," says Shuler. "And it makes sense - parents’ devices like phones have always been amongst children’s favorite ‘toys’, and as the devices become more functional for adults they simultaneously get more fun for kids.”

One look at Apple’s iTunes App Store confirms this trend.  Not surprisingly, as the number of apps (short for "applications") for children has grown exponentially, so have the number of apps aimed at making kids smarter.  Currently, there are over 3,400 education apps available for download at the iTunes store, with a large number of them targeted for children between the ages of two and five.  Shuler notes that the top selling iPhone education app continues to be Wheels on the Bus and that “13 of the 20 top paid apps in this area are clearly child-directed.”   

Which leaves parents and educators asking one question:  Will smartphones make my kids smarter?