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Technology and Childhood Development: Friend or Foe? In Swipeout, Brian Braiker, Parenting Magazine, Feb. 2013
Facts:
· 41% of children age 8 and younger have access to mobile devices at home, including: smartphones, iPads and iPods.
· The most popular age category for iTunes educational app purchases is toddler – preschooler
· 72% of iTunes’s top selling educational apps are designed for preschool and elementary school-aged children
What does this mean for families?
· Online and offline worlds are now merging into one big learning space
· In one survey of teachers, by Common Sense Media, over 70% of teachers felt students’ at-home screen time has had a negative effect on their attention spans and classroom performance
· Some developmental skills have been delayed, as a result of children’s time spent using technology (e.g. bike riding, shoe tying)
· Educational software is providing our kids with creative opportunities to solve problems, become critical thinkers, learn about physics, fashion, the arts, and more.
· Educational software is offering children with developmental disabilities new ways to learn concepts that have previously been challenging.
What can parents do?
· Encourage a balance between your child’s active play, reading, and screen time.
· Between birth and age 5, engage in a childhood developmental screening with your child, to ensure she is developing on track. The Ages and Stages Questionnaire(ASQ) is a standardized tool that parents can use with their children. Ask your child’s health care provider, child care provider, or home visitor about the tool, or visit http://es.easterseals.com/site/PageServer?pagename=ntlc10_mffc_homepageasq to do an online screening.
· Parents can find ratings for learning games, apps and websites at commonsense.org. Make sure your child is using educational software that enhances his learning as he’s having fun.
Why do Children Need Free Play? According to The State of Play, Carolina A. Miranda, Parenting.com, July, 2013.
Facts:
· Free play is spontaneous, child-driven play (not adult-directed)
· Over the last fifty to sixty years, there’s been a continuous decline of children’s freedom to play on their own.
o Almost half of all U.S. school districts have reduced or eliminated recess
o Children’s ability to roam has been severely restricted, due to parental safety concerns. In the last century, children could explore for miles around their home sites. Now, we provide children approximately 300 yards of roaming space.
· Children spend almost 7.5 hrs. each day using electronics and technology
· Free play helps children to problem-solve, resolve conflict, share and negotiate. It also sparks creative, imaginative play because there are no instructions, rules, or guidelines.
· Free play helps children develop motor skills. When they have large play areas, they tend to engage in gross motor activity. Studies have shown that favored free play objects are a stick, a ball, and a box.
· One study by the University of CA, Berkeley (2011) revealed that children who receive less instruction about how something works will spend more time exploring
What can parents do?
· Play, like everything else in life, is about balance. If you don’t have wide open play space, make sure you take your child to a park, beach, a gym (Boys and Girls Club), or playground regularly to provide an opportunity for free play.
· Arrange play dates with other families that involve open spaces for free play. Take turns transporting the kids.
· Talk with school administrators about availability of free play during recess, gym class, or in after-school programs.
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