The effects of educational media on children’s language development: a case study

The descriptive research examines the effects of educational media on children’s language development. It aims to answer the following questions; a) to what extend does the educational media influences the children’s language development? b) Do parents interact with their children during co-viewing? Since many of the children in this era are exposed to educational media programs/apps/ games at a very young age, it is important for the researcher to find out the extend educational media influences children’s language development and do parents co-view and interact with the children. Five parents with children from age one year of age to pre-school were interviewed face to face. The research was carried out at Seberang Perai Urban Area targeting parents who send their children to middle income kindergartens. Face to face interviews were carried out to find out the extent to which educational media influences children’s language development and to find out whether parents co-view and interact with their children. The results determined the positive and negative aspects of educational media on children’s language development and how parents co-viewing and interactions can benefit them. KeywordsChildren; Educational media; media; language development


Introduction
Many television program, radio, smart phones and tablets games which are part of the educational media for children are in the rise because it is believed they are for educational purposes. It is an effective way to give information to young minds subconsciously, hoping that they can improve their language skills such as vocabulary and grammar. According to Kirkonian et al (2008:39) [7], although the educational media can bring benefits to children of pre-school but somehow studies on toddlers and infant suggest that better understanding is from real life experiences rather than from the media viewing. Kirkonian et all (2008:39) [7] also suggest that parents and producers must try to maximize the positivity of educational media and minimize the negative effects. In Malaysia, according to the editors of Educational Media in Asia, Reddi and Mishra (2015) [11] stated that Malaysia's commitment to ICT was establish in year 1994 when National Information Technology Council (NITC) was formed. However, the National IT Agenda (NITA) by NITC was launched in 1996 to transform Malaysia into a well developed nation and to reach Vision 2020. NITA vision is to transform all Malaysian society into information, knowledge and values-based society. Thus, ICT has played a great role in education, forming the Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) which is a computer mediated education in schools for teachers and students. The Malaysian Smart School Project was launched in the year 1997, it is to utilize the Multimedia Super Corridor applications to enable technology in schools. By the year 2001, all the technology courseware had been installed in the 90 pilot Smart schools for subjects like Bahasa Malaysia, English language and mathematics for from standard 1 to form 5. Computer labs were built for 18 schools in 6 states from March to June 2002. Furthermore, an ICT website known as My School Net was created by the Minsitry of Education to help increase the knowledge of ICT by providing links to both teachers and students to access educational information readily. This shows that Malaysia supports educational media and intend all its citizen to be ICT friendly to achieve the Vision 2020, thus making parents expose their children to educational media at young age because of the ICT era and want their children to develop knowledge and language skills from the media. This research paper is to discuss the influences of media in the children's language development. It does stresses the values of these educational programs, games and applications, but also emphasizes that these programs, apps and games should be used only as part of their learning process since it has become a vital part of the children's learning in today's reality.

Background of the study
Many pre-school children in this era are being exposed to educational media shows via televisions, smartphones, tabs and laptops at home and school. There are hundreds of educational shows targeting children. The marketers of such shows have assured parents, caretakers and even teachers that these shows bring benefits for children. Children spend hours per day watching these shows by television or gadgets. According to Deborah Linebarger, University of Iowa professor of education, believes that learning the traditional way using books is more static, when children are exposed to the educational media shows they are actively working to understand the things they see, hear and visualize. Since many parents are focusing on educational media shows, the researcher decided to analyse and examined as to what extent educational media effects the children's language development and do parents interactions a crucial role. The researcher is a teacher with 5 years experience in the teaching field. She noticed many pre-school students age 2 to 6 years old are facing some trouble with their language proficiency. When looked further parents have been solely focusing their learning using the educational media shows. However, there are several parents who do interact with their children. Thus, a research has to be carried out to determine the actual reason behind the child's language development, whether are they gaining advantages from the exposure of the educational media shows via television and gadgets.

Statement of Problem
The researcher has been a pre-school teacher for about 5 years and has been teaching children the English language for some time. Based on observation, many pre-school children are facing language problems, they have difficulties in a two way communication with teachers and peers. About 98% of the students are from urban areas. Most of the parents or either one of the parent are working full time. According to observation these parents allow their children to bring the tablets to school and encourage the multimedia usage at school. Some of the parents even install the mini television in the car for the children to view the educational programs like Barney and friends, Hi5 and Nursery Rhymes program to keep their children busy during the drive to school. There is less data about the coviewing between parents and children. The parents are so encouraging about the multimedia learning that in the year 2014, the researcher's pre-school introduced the multimedia learning. Teachers will play the multimedia and let the children listen and watch. It was a one way communication, the teachers would just control the classroom discipline. Parents even downloaded the school's educational multimedia program in their personal computers and just left the children to listen and watch it alone without interacting or co-viewing. The children were happier and found the multimedia program interesting but when the teacher asked questions about what they had just learnt, the children could not give a correct answer. Furthermore, most parents are busy working these days making them spend less time with their children. To keep their children busy they distribute gadgets with educational programs and shows to them. Musical educational media with colorful picture did catch the whole class attention in the 4 years old to 6 years old classroom from the year 2014 till present. They could sing the song and rhymes very well but when the teacher distributed the exercise books they could not answer the questions because there were no further explanations given. Nonetheless, they could not explain what they have learnt even in simple sentences due to the one way communication through the educational media learning. Out of 15 students only 2 could answer without elaboration. The rest of the students needed teachers guide and also parental interaction at home to learn to understand and comprehend what they have learnt. In short, parents can practice a two way communication and explanation to their children from home when watching or listening to any educational programs or shows so that when children come to school they will be able to understand the language, build cognitive skills and also interaction skills with teachers and peers. One way communication will turn vocabulary and grammar into a passive state. Furthermore, a case study has to be carried out to examine the effects educational media has on children's language development and to determine the roles of parents during co-viewing, do the parents interact in two way communication and what is the results towards the children's language development. This research is important because children are getting too technology savvy at a very tender age and their language development are one way which may lead to fossilization of grammar and vocabularies. Educational media programs and shows are fun and allow children to achieve the KSSR principles of teaching where learning is fun, meaningful and purposeful when they join the primary school in the near future. The outcome of this research will be used to determine the extent educational media programs and shows influences the children's language development and also to determine whether parents interact with children during co-viewing or just leave them alone.

Research Objectives
 To analyse the perception of parents on the types of educational media used by their children.  To analyze / examine the effects of educational media influences on children's language development.  To determine the roles of parents during coviewing and interactions with their children.

Research Questions
The objective of this descriptive research is to determine the effects of educational media in children's language development. Based on the research objectives, the research aims to address the following questions.  What are the parent's perceptions on the types of educational media towards their children's language development?  To what extend does the educational media influences the children's language development?  Do parents interact with their children during coviewing?

Significance of study
Since many parents trust and exposed their children to educational media shows at young age, the researcher believes that it is beneficial to conduct this research to explore the effects educational media on the children's language development and to know whether interaction between parents and children via co-view is crucial for the child's language development. Not much research on parent -child interaction had been done in the past thus the researcher wants to explore in this area.

Definition of key terms
The following definitions have guided this study. Educational media consists of various type of media.
Media falls into few classification such as text, image, audio and video. It is a tool used for learning and teaching. It is also a means of communication. According to Raising Children Network (2006) [10], language development is the ability of a child to communicate, understand and express feelings. It also supports thinking skills, problem solving skills and to maintain and develop relationships.

Limitations and successes
This is a small sampling research paper. This is because of time constraints. Some of my interviewer's kept changing the date and time for the interview to be conducted subject to their availability. Out of 5 person I interviewed, about 2 of them took about 45 minutes to complete the interview. In order to overcome my problems I had to find two backup participants for the interview. One of my chosen interviewee did not make it for the interview thus I interviewed my back up participant. It is always good to have a backup plan. On the other hand, all the 5 interviewee's answered the questions well and did collaborate with me quite well. The interviewees did sign the consent forms and understood well about my research.
All of their questions and doubts that they had I managed to answer. Interview ethics were followed. According to [5] Gray (2004), it is important for the interviewee to be assured of their confidentiality, the interviewee has the right not to answer a question, it is important that the interviewee sign the consent form and understand what the interview is all about, and if the interviewee asks for help and guidance, the interviewer should be able to help. I have followed all these interview ethics. Furthermore, the interviewees were very calm and relax. I have already interviewed all of my subjects and it was a successful interview since they managed to answer all of my questions.

Introduction
According to Jusoff, Kamaruzaman and Sahimi, Nurul Nadiah (2009:151-157) [6] the amount of exposure to media among young children is in the rise especially with the increase of educational children's programs. It is found that early exposure to television or media to children could effect their cognitive and language development which could lead to attention disorder, behavior issues and obesity. The World Summit Foundation by Dr Patricia Edgar who is the Chairman of Media for Children's Foundation believes that children could gain benefits in their development if there are creativity and innovation in the programs. Dr Edgar also stated that she would want to meet the needs of the children's and young people with cooperation of governments, organizations and individuals. Dr Edgar also stated that it is important to target children who could not attend school with educational programs using the means of radio, television and other media platforms. She also stated that there should be numerous slot for children's educational programs in the media channels to encourage the development of the children.

The effects of Educational Media on Children's language development
According to Kirkorian et al; (2008) [7], it is believed that a proper design with suitable age of educational programs brings benefits to children of pre school age , however studies on toddlers and infants suggest that they learn better from real life experiences then they do from these medias. Other studies suggest that exposure to television during the beginning years of life will result in poor cognitive development and low achievement later on .Parents-child interaction, co-viewing will allow a two way communication rather than one way. According to doctors at clinics, parents often give their toddlers their smart phones or tablets to keep them busy. An investigation was carried out and found that allowing children to play games on the smart phones or tablets would result in poor speech and lack of confidence in communicating in the near future. The average children that started using touch screens were from 11 months and used these devices for an average of half an hour a day. According to North Shore Long Island Jewish (LIJ) Health System (2014) Dr Ruth Milanaik from Cohen's Children Medical Center , stated that it is observed in the neonatal clinic that the most favourite toys parents choose to give their children are these gadgets .According to Smith (2014) [14] medical editor from The Telegraph, stated that a survey was carried out amongst 65 families and all of them believed that the games and apps in these gadgets were actually educational enough and is helping their children's language development. Media exposure is one of the means for children to gain their linguistic input that can contribute to the children's language development. Exposure to these medias will lead to passive learning of vocabularies but only with interaction these vocabularies will become active. According to Zimmerman, Christakis and Meltzoff (2007) [19], a studies that they conducted between age 8 to 24 months, a small amount of vocabulary was learnt by watching the educational programs like Brainy Baby and Baby Einstein series in average an hour a day. Children are very good language learners. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under 2 years old of age should not be exposed to screen media example television, smartphones, tablets, computers and laptops. A survey carried out by Rideout and Hamel (2006) states that 43% of children below 2 years of age are exposed to TV almost everyday and 61% of these children uses the screen media on average for about an hour and a half. The media viewing is increasing because there are many programs aimed for infants and children. The contents in these medias are claiming to offer educational value and language development skills to children making parents trust solely on these educational media programs.

Parents and child interaction via co-view
However, parents-child interaction will give positive benefits to children rather than solely focusing on the educational media programs. Zimmerman & Christakis (2005) [18] found that television exposed before age three gave a negative predictor for the children's reading, recognition and comprehension. There were some positive outcome of television viewing of children between the ages of three and five. They improved their reading recognition. According to WETA (2016) [15], co-viewing with children are important because it helps parents see and hear what their children see and hear. Educational media programs provide children with information, when parents co-view the children will be able to understand the content of the programs better. The children will be able to learn and improve their language development, through repetition of vocabularies, grammars and sentence structures. They will be able to relate to the real world.
Parents who ask questions during or after watching the educational programs can actually ask questions and encourage speech.

Outcomes of educational media and children's language development
According to Park (2009) [9] from TIME magazine, many parents believe that watching educational programs are good for their children and will stimulate their brains which will eventually promote learning. However, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics children below 2 years of age should not be exposed to television programs. Even gadgets which consist of applications, games and shows should not be given to toddlers. Furthermore, another study was carried out which states that parents who talk and gestures to their children/babies early on have a notable impact on their children's language and vocabulary competence by school age. Dr Dimitri Christakis from the Seattle Children's Research Institute found that Television programs via DVD did hinder toddlers ability to learn vocabulary. In order to stimulate the babies and toddlers brain parents should communicate and co-view with them. Instead of using the media, parents should actually have a hands on activity with their children like playing blocks with an 18 month old toddler which will eventually improvise his language development by the time he/she reaches 2 years old. According to Kirkorian,H.L et all (2008) [7], parents play a crucial role in increasing the success of educational media. Some other studies suggests that co-viewing with a parent may increase the child's ability to learn from these educational programs when the parent explicitly interact and draw attention by asking and answering questions. The parents can provide feedback and extends the lesson however the children can still choose what they want to watch because the interest has to be there. They will still have to control the interactive experience to maintain their interest in the activity. Adults co-viewing will mostly have a positive effect on the children's language development because the activity becomes active since vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures are put into use. According to Gliebe S.K (2011) [4], the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) states that children younger than 24 months should not be exposed to television and gadgets programs. According to DeLoache et al. (2010) [2], televisions educational programs, educational games/ applications via gadgets are all useful and serves as an extra educational tool for parents to keep their little ones busy while they are busy preparing meals, completing house chores or getting ready to work. These parents believe that the children will be able to learn numbers, alphabets, and languages through the programs/applications/games. It is also believed that early learning occurs as a results of seeing events, moving through space, manipulating objects and interacting with people. DeLoache et al. (2010) [2], stated that babies learn better through real life experiences. It is believed that media exposure at a young age will hinder the child's learning and language development because it takes away

Introduction
This is a descriptive /case study research which investigates the effects of educational media on children's language development. It aims to answer the following research questions.
 What are the perceptions of parents on the types of educational media used by their children?  To what extend does the educational media influences the children's language development?  Do parents interact with their children during coviewing? The research was conducted over a four weeks period during the first quarter of the year 2016. About 5 parents were chosen to be the subjects for this research. The 5 parents had children ages from a year and a half to 12 years of age. The parents were interviewed with 12 open ended questions. The objective of this is to determine whether the educational media brings negative or positive impacts on the children's language development from toddler to preschool level. It is also to determine whether parents interactions plays a crucial role in determining the children's language development at the young age and whether do these parents co-view. The 5 parents ages between 26 years old to 40 years old were interviewed to express their thoughts and opinions about the educational media on their children's language development.

Research Design
The research design chose for this paper is the qualitative approach which is a case-study. The researcher would like to find out what are the effects educational media have on children's language development. The children ages are between toddlers to pre-school. Convenience sampling was undertaken. 5 parents either father or mother were chosen to participate in the interview. These parents have all exposed their children to the educational media. The data collected are through face to face interview with these parents, the interview took about 30 to 45 minutes to complete. They were given opportunity to ask questions too. Data analysis is a process of categorization of verbal or behavioral data to classify, summarize and tabulate. The collected data would be coded and analysed in order to understand the effects educational media have on children's language development and whether co-viewing between parents and child are crucial. The Figure 1.1 illustrates the research design for the effects of educational media on children's language development.

Population, samples and sampling
Convenience sampling has been chosen for this research. 5 parents with children of pre-school age has been selected. Two of the parents are Indian, two Chinese and one Malay.
The samples are parents who are technology savvy. The ages of parents are from 26 years old to 40 years old. All of these parents had at least 2 or more gadgets at home and had at least exposed their children to the educational media either through gadgets or smart phones. The education level of each of the parents varied from SPM to Degree holders who were all well verse in the English language. No translations were needed. This group of parents were selected because they all had children who have been exposed to the educational media and had toddlers and preschool children. Their children are all going to the kindergarten at the respected location of research. Since the samples are not chosen at random, the weakness is the sample will less likely represent the population being studied. Generalization from the population being studied is impossible.

Location of Research
Seberang Perai area, middle class kindergartens, heart of the city. Seberang Perai, 13600, Penang. Researcher approached parents who send their children to kindergartens at the heart of the city of Seberang Perai.

Instrumentation
The effects of educational media on children's language development is examined through the interview by a set of questions. The results obtained from the interview would be used to determine/analyse the effects of educational media on children's language development and to understand whether co-viewing between parents and child is important. Initially the researcher planned to carry out observations at shopping complexes, clinics and restaurants but due to time constraints, the researcher did modifications to carry out a face to face interview with 5 participants at selected dates and time. The interview questions determines whether the parents allow the children to watch the educational medias, it also determines the duration of watching the programs, the types of programs, games or applications that they allow their children to watch, whether parents co-view and interact, parents also answer questions by giving their personal opinions, messages and thoughts about the usage of educational media, parents also give opinions about educational media and their children's language development.

Data Collection
The five interview were conducted during weekdays, after working hours . The interview questions can be found in Appendix section. The main interview questions are:  Why do you allow your children to watch these educational media programs?  When your children are engage in these educational programs/games/apps do you co-view with them?  Do you notice any language development after you have exposed to them these educational media programs?
 Do you think educational media benefits young children?  What are your thoughts on education media and children's language development? The questions asked are all open-ended questions. This gives the opportunity to the interviewees to answer the questions carefully and thoughtfully. Procedures: In order to understand this study, face to face interview would be taken .Through the interview process the researcher has the opportunity to understand parents point of view on the effects of educational media on children's language development. The data collected from the interview is crucial because it strengthens the accuracy of the study. The parents will be able to express themselves thoughtfully.
No recordings were taken because the participants were uncomfortable getting their voices recorded.

Data analysis
Data collected from the face to face interview were analysed to determine the perceptions of the types of educational media used by the children, how the educational media effects children's language development and to understand parents role, do they co-view and interact. The outcomes are positive and negative responses from the parents. the researcher would have to analyse the transcripts and analyse them accordingly. Four out of five of the parents did allow their children to use the gadgets to access the educational programs / apps or games for educational purpose. Only one of the parent did not allow his child to use gadgets. All of the parents allowed their children to watch television educational programs. However they controlled the time that is between 1 to 2 hours per day. The reason why they allowed their children to watch these medias are because the children can broaden their mind, keep them occupied, relax their mind, children learn better from animation and educational programs are fun and easier to understand. Most of them believed that spending time or co-viewing with their children had more benefits then just allowing them to watch alone. Relying solely on the educational media programs will not benefit the children since they would not know how to interpret what they've learnt. The children examined are all between 1 year old to pre-school level. There are somehow evidence that the children learnt alphabets and some vocabularies/grammar/sentence structure from watching the educational media programs. All of the parents interviewed did co-view and interact with their children. There were two way communications. The data collected from the interview were analysed to determine the effects of educational media on children's language development. The questions asked during the interview were converted into statements and will be discussed further.

Ethical Considerations
This research posed no danger to any participants. The parents who were interviewed returned duly signed copies of consent forms and agreed that their answers will be analysed and used thoroughly in this research. Researcher explained about the research in detail. No recordings were taken because the parents were uncomfortable being recorded, everything spoken were written down by the researcher. The parents/ respondents names were kept confidential throughout the research. The respondents in the interview were labelled as Respondent A, Respondent B, Respondent C, Respondent D and Respondent E.

Summary
In conclusion, descriptive research/case study was undertaken. Convenience sampling was selected for this research. It took 4 weeks to complete the interviews to find out the effects of educational media on children's language development. only 5 samples were chosen due to time constraints. Interviews were conducted during data collection phase. The data collected from the interview would be analysed and interpreted accordingly.

Introduction
The data of the interview have been gathered. Parents should not over exposed their children to educational media programs. The time should be controlled. There must always be interactions between parents and children to ensure their language skills are in active use. Since children find multimedia learning as fun, thus learning from the educational media brings some positive outcomes to a child's vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures. Some of the children are able to relate what they saw and heard with the real world. Some parents believed that educational media programs guidance from parents are very important. One way communication will not benefit the child. However, educational media programs can be another tool for learning, it is still better to have parents guidance and tutors to guide the children. Another parent suggested that educational media program should be exposed to children because it is a good way for learning and children can learn faster from that. There are about 5 parents from which 2 of them are mothers and the other 3 are fathers. Their age range from 26 years old to 40 years old. Respondent A is a working mother with a Degree qualification, she has a daughter age 2 years old, her occupation is a teacher. Respondent B is a father who is working as an Engineer with a Degree qualification who has one daughter aged 3 years old. Respondent C is a father working as a Manager with a Master's qualification, he has two children age 3 and 5 years old. Respondent D is a housewife with a SPM certification who has three children age from 6 ,10 and 12 years old. Respondent E is an Electrician with a SPM certification, he has two children age 2 and 4 years old .

Findings on Research Question 1-The perceptions of parents on the types of educational media used by their children
The number of gadgets owned by the parents inclusive of smartphones, tabs, computer and laptops.
An average of 3 gadgets can be found in each of these family homes. Children who have accessed to the gadgets. All of the 4 parents did allowed their children to be exposed to the educational media whether it were games, programs or applications only 1 of the parent did not allow. Name of educational programs the children are exposed by the gadgets (laptop, smartphones and tablets These were the few applications, games, and programs via you tube channels that these parents download and allowed their children to be exposed too. Children who watched educational program via television. All of the 5 parents did allowed their children to watch educational program via television. Name of educational programs the children are exposed via television. (titles) a) Mickey Mouse and Friends b) Barney and friends c) Baby TV cartoons on learning alphabets, numbers and colours d) Upin and Ipin e) Sesame Street f) TV IQ / Tutor TV ( Astro) -Oh My English g) Nick Jr -Bob the Builder h) Poli the Robocar These are the educational television programs that these parents exposed their children on an everyday basis.

Findings on Research Question 2-The Results of the Educational Media's influence towards the children's language development
The first research question addresses to what extend does the education media programs influences the child's language development. Researcher wants to know whether are there any positive or negative outcomes of educational media to children's language development. The researcher intends to find out the parents views, ideas, and thoughts on the educational media programs via television and gadgets. During the interview there were about 5 questions the researcher focused specifically to answer Research Question 1.
To answer Research Question 1, parents were asked the reasons as to why they allowed their children to be exposed to educational media programs through gadgets or television. Some of their reasons are according to Respondent A, pointed out that her child would be able to learn better using this platform because children learn better with moving objects, colourful pictures and animation. According to her, her daughter was able to learn better with music and movement kind of shows. Respondent B believed his daughter learnt alphabets and number through the educational media programs because of the music and movements genre. As quoted by him "the colour from the shows attracted my daughter, she would sit attentively and respond to the programs accordingly". Respondent C, highlighted that he did not believe in giving any form of gadgets to both of his children to learn. He still preferred in the traditional method that are books and interactive toys, but if his children wanted to watch the programs via televison, he would not stop them. As quoted by him "if my daughter wanted to watch the particular educational program on television, I won't object." However, he tries not to over expose and make it a habit for his children to watch the educational programs. Furthermore, Respondent D stressed out that the exposure to educational media programs using gadgets and television allowed her children to sharpen their IQ and gained basic knowledge of simple grammar, vocabularies and sentences. Respondent E highlighted that he is neutral with the exposure to the educational media programs, his focused were more on nursery rhymes because both of his children liked music.
In conclusion, these parents are comfortable exposing their children to the educational programs. They are positive about it since their children like the programs and are happy with it.
The parents were also asked about the timeframe that they allow their children to watch the educational programs whether it is through gadgets or television. In an average, each child gets to watch the programs, use the educational applications or play the games for about 2 hours daily. The parents tried not to over expose their children. They are responsible in keeping the time frame accordingly. In conclusion, it is important to control the time to build up discipline and to ensure the children are able to do other hands on activities like practical life skills.
Parents were also asked the main purpose and their motives for allowing their children to use/exposed to these educational programs, applications and games. Respondent A pointed out that the main motive she allowed her daughter to be exposed to the educational shows was because she was a working mother and needed so time to do the house chores , so when her daughter is engaged with something appropriate , it allowed her to get the free time to complete her chores. She quotes "Sometimes toddlers get bored playing with toys and the exposure to the educational media programs makes her happy and she loves it, especially the nursery rhymes and alphabet songs, so it is a good move giving her the opportunity to watch the educational programs". Respondent B highlighted that children learnt better with animation and interactive presentations thus educational media programs give children the privilege to understand better since it is fun and enticing. According to Respondent C stated that he still preferred the traditional method but if his children insisted to watch the educational programs, he would allow them for relaxation and to fulfil their free time with something informative. As quoted by him, "Children need to relax and feel stress free too". Respondent D believed that exposure to educational media will broaden her children's mindset, her children are not so good with the Bahasa Malaysia language, thus when they are exposed to certain Malay cartoons like Upin and Ipin they would be able to pick up the language. It is also a good platform for her children to relaxed their minds. Respondent E quotes "the main motive I allow my children to watch the educational media programs is to keep them occupied when both me and my wife are busy".
In conclusion, most of the parents allowed their children to watch the educational media programs because they wanted to keep their child occupied or that their children loved the shows and were learning something educational which could be observed by them. Some of the parents believed colours, movements, animation and interactive shows motivated their children to learn better. Children's language development were affected by the educational media programs in a positive or negative way. According to Respondent A, she was very positive about the educational media programs, she noticed her daughter could talk certain words/sentence structure (imperfect). Her daughter could relate to the things she learnt with the surroundings. She quotes "my daughter could relate the alphabet B with the fruit banana, it was amazing, I was shocked, I never taught her B is for Banana but she pronounced the word exactly the same and could relate to the real world". Certain vocabularies were learnt from the educational media programs. Respondent B was positive too, he highlighted that his daughter could say some alphabets and basic words although without relating to the real world. She was not specific with the words. Respondent C stressed out that his children were able to imitate and talk like the characters in the educational media programs that they watched, but it would be on a temporary basis. They could not understand certain words and did asked the parents for clarification. Respondent D stated that her children especially the youngest who is 6 years old was able to pick up the vocabularies and sentences from the programs that she watched. Some of the words learnt needed explanation and definition from the parents. She could sing the nursery rhymes and do the movements as the characters in the program that she watched. She learnt numbering and colours after she played certain games but needed guidance. Respondent E stated that his children did not learn much from the educational programs because they were too young and it was just for fun, not for learning. His children did not pick up any grammar, vocabularies or sentences structure from the educational media programs. He quoted "I remember teaching them how to talk and giving them some extra exercises on grammar to complete, we did not believe in the educational media program because some of it were too unrealistic and out of topic. We even hired a tutor for our children to learn the four skills." In conclusion, the educational media programs did bring some positive outcomes in the children's lives and parents noticed the changes. there are some parents who are strict with the usage of gadgets and television. The still wanted the traditional way of learning that is through books. Another concern of the parents were the content of the programs, whether the programs are realistic and suitable for the children's age. However, there were still challenge experienced undeniably.

Findings for Research Question 3-Parents interaction with their children during coviewing
This research question is aim to prove whether interactions during co-viewing between parent and child is crucial or not.
To answer Research Question 2, parents were asked whether were there interactions between parent-child while co-viewing these educational media programs/games/applications. According to Respondent A pointed out that she sometimes co-view with her daughter, otherwise her daughter will be independently watching the programs alone. Respondent B highlighted that he always co-view with his daughter , that was the best time he would get to interact and spend quality time with her after working for long hours. Respondent B quoted "She also wants me to sit with her and watch the programs, she will look at me for explanation at times". Respondent C stated that he would monitor but not co-view and interact. He monitored his children because he did not want his children to change channels and ensured that they were focused to one program. Respondent D pointed out that she would monitor her elder children from afar but as for her youngest daughter, she will co-view and interact. She was also always ready to guide her children when they ask her the definition of words and often corrects their grammatical mistakes. She quoted "I always try to encourage them to speak with correct sentence structures and will correct their mistakes accordingly." Respondent E highlighted that he and his wife both do not co-view or interact with his children. As quoted by him "No, we do not co-view or interact with them, because we are either busy or we just want to give them their space, you know how children are". In conclusion, most of the parents believed in interactions during co-viewing. But if they are busy then they would let their children watch the programs/play games independently. Some children wanted the parents to coview with them because they wanted to understand the content that they were watching. Some believed that monitoring from afar was good enough because they wanted their children to have their own free time.
Interactions during co-viewing can emphasize knowledge on vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure. Some of the parents interviewed saw positive outcome from their child's language development but certain mistakes needed to be corrected by them. So when parents interact during co-viewing the correct usage of words can be emphasise there and then, rather than correcting later. Most of the children needed guidance to correct their sentences later on. Parents still had to get involved. Some of the children learnt certain words and could not understand it while some forgot the words that they learnt. There are still parents that believe the educational media programs are just for time passing and relaxation rather than a tool for learning. Some even emphasised that educational media programs are also a one way communication which may results in passive vocabularies. Sometimes parents are not present at that very moment to correct the grammar mistakes made by their children which may impair the language development. Educational media is just another tool for learning but required supervision and interactions to make the things learnt active and children can relate to the real world. Parents play a very big role in their children's language development.

Findings on the Results of the Educational Media's influence towards the Children's Language Development and Parents Interaction during Co-viewing
Parents were asked if educational media programs benefited their children and their thoughts on educational media and children's language development. Respondent A was positive with the usage of educational media programs, she believed children can learn independently but required parents guidance at times to make the passive words that they learnt active. She stated that although she do not always co-view and interact with her daughter, she often questioned her daughter, for example to asked what did she learn today from the program that she just viewed. Asking questions will help monitor the child's language development and progression in a certain language. She also believed that all parents should exposed their children to educational media because it can improve children's language skills. Parents have to be vigilant and ask questions whenever possible and there should be a time control of watching these programs too. As quoted by Respondent A "educational media programs are just a tool for learning, parents must play a role as a teacher too, the world is competitive, parents need to guide their children as much as they can". Respondent B was very positive about the educational media programs because his daughter gained advantages' from it in terms of nursery rhymes and recognition of alphabets. His thoughts are, children should not be overly exposed to any sorts of media because it might cause health issues, perhaps eye problems. He believed the teaching-learning method is still the best because sometimes learning from a particular media program can be one way communication. He pointed out that exposing young ones to educational media should be controlled and should not become a habit of parents. Although his daughter learnt basic words, vocabs and simple sentences, monitoring the language proficiency was crucial. Interactions do play a big role. Respondent C stressed that educational media programs do not benefit children unless parents were fully interacting with their children but it is not possible everyday because parents are busy with work most of the time. His thoughts were educational media have both positive and negative outcome in children's language development. Children liked to imitate what they had watched and hear thus parents must always be the centre point to be able to explain and filter the messages. Time spent watching the programs was also an important issue. Respondent D stressed that her children benefited from the educational media. As quoted by her "when children learn something new they will tell their parents , parents will applaud and praise them making the children happy and have the habit to learn." Her thoughts was educational media had benefits but still need parents interaction.

Introduction
There were many positive and negative outcomes from the parents. Some were very happy and encourage their children to view the educational media programs, while they are some who still believed that educational media programs are just another tool for learning. Educational media programs were also seen as an entertainment platform for children to relax their minds. The types of educational media chosen were appropriate to the children. Nonetheless, parents interactions during co-viewing was important to some and some of the parents believed it was not a problem letting their children to watch a program solely. The limitations the researcher face is not enough of samples. This is due to time constraints. The data analysis is only on five samples which may be not enough to determine the effective results.

Recommendations
A quantitative research should be carried out since this is a qualitative research study. A larger sampling size can further concur with the study. In the future, the researcher plans to carry the research across the states in Malaysia.

Conclusion
In conclusion, the types of shows, applications and games chosen by parents were appropriate to the children. The programs were all educational enough for the children to learn. Most of the parents are positive about the educational media programs and are supporting it. these parents believe that educational media can help their children in their language development. The findings supports the literature review, according to Smith (2014) [14] medical editor from The Telegraph, stated that a survey was carried out amongst 65 families and all of them believed that the games and apps in these gadgets were actually educational enough and is helping their children's language development. According to Kirkorian et al; (2008) [7], it is believed that a proper design with suitable age of educational programs brings benefits to children of pre school age. Since most of the parents have chosen the right programs for their children as stated in the findings research question 1, it supports [7] Kirkorian et al;(2008) statement. The parents also believed that educational media could help their children learn and talk accordingly. This supports Zimmerman, Christakis and Meltzoff (2007) [19], a studies that they conducted between age 8 to 24 months, a small amount of vocabulary was learnt by watching the educational programs like Brainy Baby and Baby Einstein series in average an hour a day. Although some of the parents were worried about the exposure, thus stated that educational media will be a another platform for learning but should not become a habit of the parents. Sometimes it may hinder the language development which supports this statement, 'exposure to these medias will lead to passive learning of vocabularies but only with interaction these vocabularies will become active'. Lastly, most of the parents interacted with their children during co-viewing. Adults co-viewing will mostly have a positive effect on the children's language development because the activity becomes active since vocabulary, grammar and sentence structures are put into use. Thus, parents-child interactions will bring advantages to the child's language development. They will be able to differentiate the rights and wrongs. From the results obtained from this research, the data proved that parents interactions and co-viewing played a crucial role in a childs' language development. Some of the parents gave positive remarks about educational media while some gave negative remarks. It would be recommended that the future research could investigate the amount of time children should spent a day watching these programs even with supervision. Even though the analysis showed that the average time the children spend time watching the educational programs were 2 hours, there's not enough data to prove that the time is fixed daily, it might vary according to the parents schedules. The amount of time children spend watching these programs could also be a key point in their language development. More investigation must be carried out. The content and context of the educational programs must be chosen wisely too. Parents must choose the type of programs which are most suited for the children according to their ages. Sometimes choosing the wrong programs could be the cause to hamper the children's language development. Results: Positive and negative outcomes for the effects of educational media on children's language development. Interactions during co-viewing would reduce most of the negative outcomes.