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Medical Video: What is the most important influence on child development | Tom Weisner | TEDxUCLA
Try to look at your left and right. How many small children and toddlers you see who are still glued not far from their parents, painstakingly holding tightly to their tiny hands a tablet or smartphone - whether owned by their father or mother, or even their own - whose screen size is even larger than the size his head.
A pretty familiar scene, right?
Smartphones and tablets are the favorite weapon of parents to keep their children sitting calm and not fussy, especially for those who are super busy and have many things that are more urgent than taking care of their children. Electronic gadgets can also be used as a bribe tool that is quite effective. Parents use their smartphones or tablets to make their children behave well in public places, sit obediently in cars, ride on strollers, or even for successful potty training.
Experts say, even though the impact of television and video on young children is well understood, the public's understanding of mobile devices in pre-school children has been greatly overlooked by how many and often these children have used them.
Bad effects of smartphones or tablets for children
Parenting, psychological, and even child welfare experts are concerned about the effects of smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets with touchscreen in children under the age of three who like to use them. They believe that playing time spent glaring at the gadget screen may have a negative effect on the developing child's brain. They further warned that using a tablet or smartphone to distract children could harm their social-emotional development.
Did you know that a child's brain will grow threefold - so much learning happens even before the child turns five - even before he can smoothly say his first words?
There is a presumption that playing time in front of mobile devices can be an alternative learning, but the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that children under the age of two do not have the cognitive ability to understand such a program. What is actually done by "educational" games is to cut the time of parent-child interaction, which results in language delays for children. In fact, children need time to face-to-face interaction with their parents, not with gadgets.
In addition, excessive exposure to gadgets has been linked to focus deficits, cognitive delays, and learning disorders. The use of interactive screens in children under the age of three can also damage children's growth and development from the skills needed for mathematics and science, researchers found.
This electronic device can replace the activities of motor skills involving handwork, which are important for the development of sensomotor and visual-motor skills - important for the learning and application of mathematics and science. Babies and toddlers learn better with material that they can touch, touch, and hold, compared to what they see on a screen. Exploring concepts in three dimensions is better than understanding only two dimensions for more comprehensive cognitive development.
A 2014 study by the Children's Digital Media Center of the University of California, Los Angeles showed that when busy playing gadgets beat the chance of face-to-face interaction, children's social skills might be negatively affected, and this might blind them from understanding other people's emotions. insight, empathy, how to know themselves, and involvement in healthy human relationships. Social and emotional intelligence is very important for success in life.
However, not all gadgets have a bad impact
On the other hand, the researchers also cited several previous studies that showed the benefits of using mobile devices in toddlers, including early literacy skills, or better academic involvement in students with autism.
Researchers at the University of Washington revealed that modern gadgets are not needed in the stability of the process of growth and development of children - children can develop well by continuing to be talked to and read stories from children's books. However, there is evidence that sorting out and choosing children's TV shows to help the learning process early on, e-books, and mobile applications to learn to read can help expand vocabulary and understanding reading material, but only for children who approach preschool age.
Children can develop talent for technology, which is the most important skill today and even more so in the future. Like it or not, technology will take a big part in learning at school later. It's natural for your child to explore the world online at an early age. Tips, parents must first try all applications related to children before considering allowing children to play it.
No one can stop the development of technology. Parents cannot tell their children to let go of their gadgets, because they will definitely need them when they grow up. However, parents must understand all the benefits and risks behind the scenes. When monitored and regulated, gadgets can help the growth process at the right age, but too much exposure to technology (and too early) will only delay children's learning abilities and place additional burdens on their psychological health.
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