Observing children when using computers with a focus on their self-esteem

Children are born into a rich technological environment and by the time they attend preschool they already have accumulated a wide variety of technological experiences, skills and knowledge. This paper reports on part of a project undertaken in Melbourne, Australia, which had as a primary aim to explore the existence or not of a relationship between computer use and young (4-6 year old) children's self-esteem. Observing children's interactions with computers was one of the data collection methods utilised in this study. The twofold analysis of the observations, the findings related to self-esteem and children's interactions with computers are the focus of this paper and are considered to be interesting and useful for the early childhood educators.