Do you let your children use phones, tablets and devices all day?

[Chris Daley]

It is it true that the tablets and phones rot your child's mind?  Human interaction is important during the critical period ages 0 to 5.  If you try to talk to the child they hold the phone and just drool.  When the phone is gone they start speaking more and socializing.

 

The devices give an illusion of learning but this is not how children learn.  They need social interaction and feedback.

 

I have noticed that devices hinder large motor skills, fine motor skills and speech development.  One also has to realize that reciting the alphabet and singing songs does not build speech.  There are also behavioral problems.  One mother in my Thai family, puts the phone next to the child so it falls asleep.  As soon as it woke up the child refused to talk to anyone and started crying so she stuck the phone there again 3 inches in front of its face.  Perhaps even more frightening is many children refuse to eat when the phone is in front of them.  I have watched parents try to feed their child and they child just stares at the screen and doesn't eat.

 

I would often teach the child using worksheets and objects.  The parents would come in and turn on a huge 50 inch television with cocomelon playing on a loop.  The child was unable to do the lesson or even move its hands anymore.  Even the most basic tasks such as coloring didn't happen.

 

Research done by Patricia Kuhl involved teaching mandarin to an American child using a TV Screen and it showed no result; however, doing the same material with a human teacher brought the child up to the same level as a Taiwanese child.

 

Do you let your children use phones, tablets and devices all day?

 

 

Edited October 24, 2023 by Chris Daley

[fredwiggy]

Phones can help with speech and learning but need to be used moderately at most. Children are addicted to them and don't interact enough with peers unless at school. Laziness and overeating follows, which is already a huge problem with the youth. Up to parents to enforce, but problem is many are also addicted.

[recom273]

I teach chinese students, they have digital protection which allows them to play online games for only one hour on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. The parents are brainwashed into thinking that the screens burn out their retinas. They restrict their kids from using TV, tablets and phones, I’m not sure this is good as some kids watch bbc world or documentaries to learn, but generally convention doesn’t allow for this kind of simulation, it’s usually books, read and memorize.
 

However, I was appalled by my builders 10 year old daughter who spent all day on her back holding her phone 6” away from her face watching an endless stream of total crap. I could only hear, but it was relentless game show, boing boing, the most horrid 4 bar video game music played over and over, it sounded like kids were being taunted over and over, the shows were so fast paced, who could know what was going on. I took it as some Thai version of tizwas. It was weird, that she was allowed to spend all day doing it, it was also strange that she had the focus to hold her phone like that for the whole day. I don’t know the answer to your question, but if I had kids, they wouldn’t be doing that. Thai kids do over consume digital media, but a lot has to do with parental guidance. 
 

ETS: I do teach Thai kids online too, not many, they have a total different characters, they often walk off and get something or take you for a tour of the house, maybe totally unconnected to the lesson. It’s endearing in some respects. Chinese students don’t do this even when the lesson requires it. “Show the teacher the contents of your fridge” no have .. ok, no problem. Often Thai kids have a short digital focus, however, I have never had a Thai kid take a dump during class. With Chinese, I have been placed on the floor and the student just pulls down their underwear and mounts the throne on numerous times. So Thai kids do have a little more digital savvy, I have seen more than I would ever want to at times.

Edited October 24, 2023 by recom273

[richard_smith237]

There seems to be a 'Tablets are the enemy' mentality amongst many....   there is also a somewhat extreme attitude that those parents who allow their children to use tablets are lazy....    Both are easy judgments to make and use the extreme cases to pass judgement on every day normal situations and often do not consider the many factors that parenting involves.

 

Firstly - all children are different and will respond differently to varying stimuli. 

 

In our household we have hard limits on how much our son uses his iPad, we know that if we place time limits and specific usage plans on tablets all we are really doing is creating 'scarcity' and through that 'additional demand'.... 

Our son knows he can pick up the iPad whenever he wants, as such he's just not that bothered about it and while he uses the iPad quite a lot, he also does plenty of other things (i.e. yesterday he was on the iPad for 3 hours in the car, once home he didn't use his iPad and was making stuff out of tape & cardboard).

 

 

The iPad is an amazing learning tool, its not just a device to watch cr@ppy u-Tube videos... there is an incredible wealth of resources. 

 

My Son can also watch utter rubbish on his iPad.... because he needs his 'down time' too....  but he's also learned so much from the many educational games, videos and resources. 

 

The iPad works wonders when travelling... OR, IF we are out in a restaurant and he's the only child, then why not let him enjoy his iPad while the adults are taking etc... (rhetorical).

 

 

There are of course extremes....   but those extremes are present on both sides of the iPad debate. 

Children whose parents will not let them anywhere near an iPad are likely to subject to more stress, rules etc...  and they'll miss out on what is very good educational tool. 

Then there are those whose parents allow kids to be on an iPad all the time, and those kids develop dependency issues.

 

Reasonable balance is required and with that teaching responsibility - we encourage our son to manage his own time on his iPad and he can tell when he's been using it too much, or we'll ask him the question.