Design Principles and Pedagogical Practices in Literacy Apps for Young Children: Insights from a Synthesis of Experimental Research

Roles of digital platforms such as tablets with touchscreens have been inevitably regarded as positive extensions for young children’s literacy development. Built upon previous efforts, this study proposes an operational framework for how well app features and design principles were merged into effective literacy apps that young children (0–8 years old) used independently. This was done by a systematic review of empirical studies published in English within the past 10-year period (2014–2024). After a thorough search of the major databases in Education and Psychology and previous reviews, 22 articles with 26 studies (24 apps) were located. Based on all included studies, we examined three research questions (RQs): (i) the theoretical frameworks that guided the designs of literacy apps for young children, (ii) the targeted skills in these apps, and (iii) the design features of literacy apps that found to be effective in experiments. Our key findings to RQs include: (i) the six most frequently adopted theoretical frameworks in early literacy apps were for general learning, but reading theories were rarely considered, (ii) the targeted skills in these literacy apps for children were generally age-appropriate, whereas little attention was paid to phonological awareness that is highlighted in empirical reading research, and (iii) among the 11 articles that found their literacy apps to be effective, we discuss how the seven effective features identified were immersed in the three major components of player-centered design and propose an integrated framework. In the end, we provided clear suggestions for selecting literacy apps for young children.