Child–Computer Interaction Quality Criteria for Preschool Educational Applications: A PRISMA-ScR-Informed Scoping Review

Background: Preschool educational apps are child-facing systems, yet the label ‘educational’ provides little assurance of interactional or pedagogical quality. Objective: This scoping review mapped preschool app-quality criteria and integrated them in a child–computer interaction (CCI) synthesis. Methods: Five databases were searched for English-language reports published from 2014 to 26 June 2026. From 785 raw records, 229 were screened and 178 reports were sought. Full texts were obtained for 152 reports (85.4%); 26 were not retrieved and 17 were excluded. The final corpus comprised 103 Central A reports used for nine-dimension coding and 32 Contextual B reports used for interpretation. Initial domains, informed by the review questions and prior frameworks, were refined through pilot coding and applied using stricter app-specific rules. The first author coded the corpus; the second checked flagged, borderline, revised, and sampled cases, with disagreements resolved by consensus. Results: Explicit reporting was most frequent for engagement, interaction and feedback (88/103), pedagogical design (84/103), developmental appropriateness (74/103), evidence and evaluation transparency (69/103), and content and curriculum relevance (66/103). Conclusions: The nine dimensions integrate concerns addressed separately in existing approaches. They constitute a conceptual synthesis rather than a validated rubric or certification tool.