Your child and electronic devices | Integrated Learning Therapy

Most parents are aware of the debate raging around the pros and cons of allowing children use of electronic devices, including cell phones, tablets, computers, electronic games, TV and so on. Many schools are encouraging this by prescribing tablets for use in and out of foundation phase classrooms. Is all the negative hype exaggerated or is there a realistic need for limiting time spent with technology? Let’s have a look at some evidence relating to this difficult question.

The arguments against young children being allowed early access to devices[1] centre around possibly negative consequences for their neurological development. The early years see rapid brain growth which is fueled by stimulation from the environment. Overexposure to devices has been linked to intellectual delays, impaired learning, decreased concentration and memory, executive functioning and decreased ability to self-regulate (leading to lowered emotional control as seen in response to temper tantrums). In addition, too much time spent sitting with devices leads to less time engaged in physical movement, which can affect development as well.

Secondary effects also occur, such as sleep deprivation in children who are allowed devices in their bedrooms, addiction to technology and mental disturbances such as aggression, depression, problem behaviours and more.

Then there is the question of radiation emission. The World Health Organisation (WHO) published a cautionary warning in 2011 against young children’s use of cell phones and other wireless devices because of the possibility of the emissions being carcinogenic. In 2013 a researcher from Toronto’s School of Public Health recommended that, based on newer research, radio frequency exposure should be regarded as a probable carcinogen.

Effects on family life

Some families labour under the misconception that technology brings the family closer together. This can be true of families who have members living far apart: Skype, Facebook, Whatsapp, Messaging and other apps make it possible to maintain relationships. But what of the daily life of a family who lives together?

Some families are being driven apart by a wide emotional gulf between parents and children. This happens when each member is preoccupied by their phones, TVs or computers; unable to resist almost constant checking of a device to see what is happening in the world so that they don’t miss out on anything. There is evidence to show that internet use reduces the time parents and children spend together[2]. Another study found that teenagers who spend more time playing on the computer (not for homework) or watching TV were less attached to their parents than youngsters whose time in front of screens is restricted.[3] The key seems to be the reason for using the Internet. While online gaming seems to hurt parent-child relationships, using the Internet to study or research homework topics does not.

The reason for the negative effect on family life is simple. Interactive, amusement-based technologies and social media does away with the need for interaction with the family. Gaming and life beyond the home with friends and other personalities is very seductive. Children retreat to their own spaces to engage with digital entertainment so shared time with parents is lost. Even if the family is present, members are ignored when the child concentrates on the device.

Adults add to this by being equally obsessed by the possibilities presented by the Internet. Some claim that being able to work at home in the evenings gives them more time with their families but this is not true. Time spent at home on the Internet and phones is not time spent with quality family interaction. One academic[4] finds a generation of children who often have to cope with parents ‘who are close, tantalizingly so, but mentally elsewhere.’ In the words of one child: “My parents are always on their computers and on their cell phones …It’s very, very frustrating and I get lonely inside.”

All caregivers, be they parents, grandparents, teachers and others, need to consider that children’s brains need parental involvement to develop. How children are treated will determine who they become and how they will develop. Nature needs nurture so leaving children for hours at a time in front of the TV are prey to what amounts to under-stimulation that can adversely affect their brain development.

Children with healthy attachment to parents are better able to regulate their emotions, score better on measures of intelligence and academically and have higher self-esteem than children who are less attached. Behaviour problems are fewer, depression is less common and school achievement is higher. Drug abuse is less and children from close families seem to have the will to venture into and take on the world.

Don’t be misled by cultural perceptions that portray hi-tech children as competent, happy and successful. The truth is that many are struggling emotionally and socially.

Impact on education

Those children who use devices to help with schoolwork show benefit. But research shows that time spent on video games, online gaming, watching TV, texting and engaging in social networks hinders school success. High school learners tend to spend more time playing with their gadgets than they do actually attending school, studying and doing homework.

The bottom line is that, unless exposure time is strictly limited, the potential overuse of screen and phone technologies, which are actually entertainment providers, threatens children’s connection to family, academic effort and other important activities. In very young children, added to this can be the danger of developmental delay, leading to learning and behaviour problems.

Considering that we live in a technological age, it is important that children do learn how to use these devices. The problem is not their use of technology but it is their overuse of entertainment technologies that have the potential to disrupt the experiences that create a strong mind and a happy, successful life.[5]

Many professionals believe that children under the age of 2 years should not be allowed any access at all to electronic devices; 2-5 year olds should not spend more than one hour a day on devices and older children and youths restrict use to 2 hours per day.

This is a subject definitely worth thinking very seriously about – and also considering your role in modelling behaviour. If you spend every available moment at home or in public places on your devices, you can’t expect your children not to follow suit. You may excuse your obsession by saying that you need to stay in touch for business purposes but this is usually another of the many modern myths that have been created around technology.

[1] www.huffintonpost.com/cris-rowan/10-reasons-why-handheld-devices-should-be-banned

[2] Mesch, G.S. & Talmud, I. 2010. Wired youth: The social world of adolescence in the information age. Routledge, p.31.

[3] Richards, R., McGee, R., Williams, S.M, Welch, D & Hancox, R.J. 2010. Adolescent screen time and attachment to parents and peers. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 164(3), 258-262.

[4] Turkle, S. 2011. Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from each other. New York: Basic Books, p.267.

[5] Dr Richard Freed, 2015. Wired child: Reclaiming childhood in a digital age. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.