Expanding into Early Childhood Is Good for Edtech Companies. Is It Good for Kids?

For years, the global learning platform Kahoot has been growing its foothold in the K-12 space through acquisitions and add-ons to its popular quiz platform. On Wednesday, Kahoot expanded its reach even further, launchinga product designed specifically for children 2 through 7.

And no, it's not more quizzes. Instead, the Norway-based company-which counts Disney as an investor-revealed a new suite of digital games, called Kahoot! Kids, to introduce young children to foundational skills and concepts like social-emotional learning, math and reading.

It's the latest example of an established K-12 education company moving into the early childhood space. In the last several years, more companies have expanded their existing offerings or launched new apps and features to suit kids as young as 2 or 3.

Whether these executives are seeing dollar signs hovering over the heads of tykes or finally waking up to the wealth of research that exists on the importance of learning and development in the early years, there exists a kind of new energy in this corner of the education market.

"I want to think that it's a lot of the science over the last 20 years finally convincing organizations," says Isabelle Hau, an impact investor who studies the field of early childhood. "My perception is [companies] were seeing 0 to 5 as this highly highly fragmented market where they could not build demand for their products or services in a cost-efficient manner. And now, this is getting more and more structured."

The prospect of national universal preschool and affordable child care on the horizon-both of which will need curriculum and learning tools-certainly isn't hurting, she adds.

Small class sizes may be a feature of lessons for younger learners. At Reconstruction, a company that launched less than two years ago to teach "unapologetically Black education," the ideal class size is six students to one teacher, says Rachel Etienne, the company's curriculum lead.

Similar to Outschool, Reconstruction offers online classes that help children as young as 4-the company calls them "Shorties"-learn to recognize sounds and letter symbols and, eventually, learn to read.

"From a content perspective, it's not much different than solid, research-based instruction," Etienne says. "But they're learning through songs, poems and dance" related to Black history and Black life. In one reading class, the lesson is built around 10 Stevie Wonder songs. In another, the instructor uses historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) to teach letters of the alphabet-for the letter "f," the kids discuss Fisk University.

In math classes, the "Shorties" are learning counting, numeracy, addition and subtraction, "but in the context of famous Black inventors and Black-owned businesses," she says. "Every content experience is embedded in a cultural or community framework."

Beyond straight academics, Reconstruction classes often feature "brain breaks" and "body breaks," Etienne says, since young children need frequent movement and typically have shorter attention spans. One class has "boogie cards" that the teacher can pull when kids are struggling to focus. The teacher will play music and invite everyone to dance-"just something to get them out of their seats and interacting."

Etienne, too, has been impressed with 4- and 5-year-olds' ability to learn and participate in the classes, young as they are.

"Oftentimes we underestimate young kids-what they can do, what they can feel, what they can perceive," she says. "I've been inspired by the level of engagement of our youngest kids."

The nonprofit Khan Academy launched its own early learning app, called Khan Academy Kids, back in 2018. It's an adaptive app for children ages 2 through 8 that covers early literacy, math, social-emotional learning, creativity and physical activity. Like other early education products that EdSurge researched, it seeks to balance academic learning like reading and math with movement, feelings and fun.

Since the app's launch, Khan Academy has seen 475 million books read by children, 854 million math lessons and 59 million minutes of physical activity such as singing and dancing.

Taking Technology Precautions

The interactive elements of these products are key to keeping them engaging and appropriate for such young kids.

Concerns around technology use and screen time are "valid and important," says Caroline Hu Flexer, part of the Khan Academy Kids team and CEO and co-founder of Duck Duck Moose, an early education company that is now a subsidiary of Khan Academy.

"We never intend for our apps to be taking away time from other things kids are doing in the sandbox or outside," Hu Flexer says. "We have designed apps that will give kids a different type of learning experience-play-based and interactive. They're not just passively staring at a screen."

She adds: "There's a big difference between an active learning experience versus that glazed-over look kids get."

At Outschool, a screen may be facilitating the classes, but there are still real teachers on the other side of it, Nathoo points out. "Our classes are intended to be engaging, with teachers using the same techniques that they would in person-not artificial triggers," he says.

For kids ages 3 and 4, parent supervision and support is almost necessary, even if it's just to log in to the classes. Around age 5, most kids are able to do more on their own but still may benefit from parent involvement. Most apps, such as Kahoot! Kids and Khan Academy Kids, rely on heavy imagery and read-aloud technology to meet the developmental needs of young children. "At older ages, kids start shooing parents away," Nathoo says.

Kahoot, Outschool and other companies say they have in-house early childhood specialists, including pedagogical experts, to help them design and vet content for young children.

Meeting the Demand

Since the start of the pandemic, usage and engagement of the early childhood classes and products has soared, edtech leaders say.

Prior to 2020, Khan Academy Kids saw about 500,000 monthly active users. When the pandemic began, that soared to 1.5 million and has held steady since.

The vast majority of that usage is happening in homes, among families. But an increasing number of teachers are starting to use Khan Academy Kids with their students, and Khan Academy has developed teacher tools to support that shift, especially because, as Hu Flexer points out, "there are not a lot of strong early childhood resources for teachers to use in the classroom effectively."

She's proud of that sustained growth, since it means Khan Academy Kids is helping children build foundational skills that they otherwise might not even be exposed to until kindergarten.

"Other companies understand the research and know that these skills-and introducing children to learning early on-is critical," Hu Flexer says, seeking to explain the reason behind edtech's growing interest in early childhood. "It's harder, later, for children to catch up when they start school already behind."

Outschool's online marketplace also saw a surge in demand during the pandemic-across its entire user base, yes, but especially concentrated among its youngest users.

Before 2020, Outschool classes taken by children ages 3 to 8 accounted for 20 percent of the company's overall business. Now, they account for 40 percent.

If other education companies are seeing numbers on par with Outschool and Khan Academy, then Nathoo says he understands why so many companies might be moving into early childhood. But the question is, will they adapt their products appropriately when they make that leap?

"There's a lot of business incentives for a business to do this. Are they doing this for business reasons or for learner-centric reasons?" Nathoo asks. "It would be bad for customers if businesses say, 'Oh, the early childhood market is blowing up, we want to be there,' without asking, 'What is the valuable, unique experience we should offer for this age range?'"