Sample Work
High Quality Learning Experiences
I have served as the curriculum expert and learning experience designer on many top interactive pieces, such as Ruff, Ruff, Repairs. Advancing the development of content by identifying learning objectives, developing creative proposals, reviewing creative pitches, wireframes, script, and content builds.
Featured: Ruff, Ruff, Repairs lets little builders play with literacy activities while interacting with Rubble and his family to repair buildings in Builder Cove.
Designing Experiences for Families
Caregivers can more directly influence learning when they choose to engage with their child. To that end, I have created caregiver resources to complement digital interactive content which supports caregivers in making the most out of shared experiences with their child.
Featured: As the learning lead on Noggin Knows Books, I leveraged best practices identified by academic researchers to develop the next generation of interactive stories. Our unique books leveraged dialogic questions for caregivers to facilitate deeper conversation during shared book reading and support their child’s oral language skills.
Featured: My accompanying blog for Noggin Knows Books provides techniques to make the most out of shared reading with both digital and print books.
Read MeImpactful Formative Research
As a lead researcher, I have carried out formative learning impact evaluations for linear and interactive content and provided ongoing recommendations to quickly improve content at various phases of development on an iterative basis, like our award-winning Blue’s Clues and You game.
I designed testing protocols, conducted 1-on-1 Zoom sessions with children & caregivers, and presented findings with design recommendations.
Featured: Noggin’s award-winning Blue’s Clues game brings players to Blue’s world and teaches them about caring for animals!
Creating for Belonging
My lived experience navigating bilingualism and multicultural contexts plays a key role in ensuring content I work on supports children in feeling they belong while being culturally, linguistically, and developmentally appropriate.
I have led the development of resources, trainings, and workshops designed to enhance client capabilities for creating content that reflects the diversity of the world that children play in.
Featured: Family Picture Maker empowers children to create their family portrait while the roulette-style game-play encourages thinking about physical similarities and differences.
Featured: Juego de las Estatuas helps children learn to distinguish between different sounds of music from various cultures while moving their bodies.
Read MeAcademic Research and Expertise
I am dedicated to understanding how children make sense of technology and digital media, how digital tools affect cognitive development & learning outcomes, and to developing approaches that support young learners in today’s digital landscape.
My areas of expertise include children’s symbolic development, best practices in educational media, and interactions between culture, language, and technology.
Publications:
- Hwang, J. K., Mancilla-Martinez, J., Flores, I., & McClain, J. B. (2022). The relationship among home language use, parental beliefs, and Spanish-speaking children’s vocabulary. International journal of bilingual education and bilingualism, 25(4), 1175-1193.
- McClain, J. B., Mancilla-Martinez, J., Flores, I., & Buckley, L. (2021). Translanguaging to support emergent bilingual students in English dominant preschools: An explanatory sequential mixed-method study. Bilingual Research Journal, 44(2), 158–173.
- Russo Johnson, C., Flores, I., & Troseth, G. L. (2021). Do young children of the “selfie generation” understand digital photos as representations? Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(4), 512–524.
- Troseth, G. L., Strouse, G. A., Flores, I., Stuckelman, Z. D., & Johnson, C. R. (2020). An enhanced eBook facilitates parent–child talk during shared reading by families of low socioeconomic status. Early childhood research quarterly, 50, 45–58.
- Flores, I. (2020). The Role of Symbolic Experience in Learning to use Scale Models [PhDthesis]. Vanderbilt University.
- Hwang, J. K., Mancilla-Martinez, J., McClain, J. B., Oh, M. H., & Flores, I. (2020). Spanish-speaking English learners’ English language and literacy skills: The predictive role of conceptually scored vocabulary. Applied Psycholinguistics, 41(1), 1–24.
- Rasmussen, E. E., Strouse, G. A., Colwell, M. J., Russo Johnson, C., Holiday, S., Brady, K., Flores, I., Troseth, G., Wright, H. D., Densley, R. L., & others. (2019). Promoting preschoolers’ emotional competence through prosocial TV and mobile app use. Media Psychology, 22(1), 1–22.
- Troseth, G. L., Flores, I., & Stuckelman, Z. D. (2019). When representation becomes reality: Interactive digital media and symbolic development. Advances in child development and behavior, 56, 65–108.
- Flores, I. (2017). Language brokering during shared ebook reading [MastersThesis]. Vanderbilt University.
- Strouse, G. A., Flores, I., Stuckelman, Z., Russo Johnson, C., & Troseth, G. (2017). Built-in questions support parent-child talk during shared reading of an electronic text. Poster Presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Cognitive Development Society, Portland, OR, USA. Available at: https://osf.io/Mr5d9.
- Troseth, G. L., Mancilla-Martinez, J., & Flores, I. (2018). Bilingual Children: Active Language Learners as Language Brokers. Active Learning from Infancy to Childhood: Social Motivation, Cognition, and Linguistic Mechanisms, 233–259.