Kannass, Oakes, and
Shaddy (2006) corroborate this research. They found that at 31 months of age, children who are
effective at ignoring distracters are better able to maintain attention for longer durations during
multiple object free play. The results also indicate that typically developing preschoolers across
development are more effective than preschoolers with attention deficits at maintaining sustained
attention in tasks. Therefore, at around 3 years of age, typical development should show children
possessing more focused, sustained attention even when presented with distracters. In examining
iPad use effects on attention, this study hypothesizes that due to the many exogenous interactive
stimuli and constantly changing visual stimulation in iPad apps and games, children may not
learn to inhibit visual distracters, which may slow their development of visual spatial attention
span in circumstances without rapid exogenous stimulation.