Studying children's tactile problem-solving in a digital environment

•It is essential to understand how the digital environment might affect children's cognitive development.•Tactile interaction with digital tools provides a cognitive aid that supports children's creative problem solving.•Tactile interaction has the potential to empower children's capacities for problem reframing, stimulating divergent thinking.•Introducing digital tactile tools into early childhood education would be beneficial to the development of creative thinking.

Given that modern children have grown up with numerous digital interactive devices it is essential to understand how the digital environment might affect children's cognitive development. As an extension of previous studies, this research investigates the cognitive effects of tactile interaction on children's problem solving. In order to explore the cognitive development of children with respect to tactile interaction, we compared furniture arrangements by elementary school students of 3D blocks and pencils. A protocol analysis was adopted for examining the ways in which children used the two different tools. The results of this study show that tactile interaction supports children's problem solving. This research implies that children in early education need to experience a wide range of digital devices utilizing rich sensorial dimensions as such devices stimulate divergent thinking, affecting cognitive developmental trajectories.