Monitoring Toddlers and Technology

Monitoring toddlers and technology is an important issue to me and which is driven by the need to control amount of time children spend in technological devices. My aim is to prevent the technology from becoming risky to children and at the same time encourage parents to make use of modern technology. Digital devices are becoming part of our daily lives and are not expected to leave. Our children are growing up in a digital surrounding whether at our schools, offices and homes and they are adopting at a high rate. We have held much hope that these technologies including media will bring educational benefits for our children but there have also been fears that overusing them at time o rapid development of the brain may have negative effects (NAEYC, 2012). However, there is limited research on this crucial area.

It’s our obligation to monitor how kids use technology and impose guidelines that will ensure that the right balance is attained so that the devices can be beneficial to their growth and development. Children below 2 years need social interaction and hands – exploration with us as care givers so that they can experience general growth in terms of social-emotional, language and cognitive skills (American Academy of Pediatrics, n.d). If technology will be used to curtail such childhood experience and growth, then we have a reason to worry. We should allow children to interact with devices or applications that will identify when toddlers are responding accurately and thereby, tailor their responses and provide support that is appropriate at their competence levels. There is growing evidence suggesting that children care able to learn different words through chatting with a responsive adult using video-chatting when 24 months old (American Academy of Pediatrics, n.d).

 As care givers we can ensure that children use only those devices that provide an interactive platform and hence enhance social connection with our children who are far from us. On that note, I think it is important to use technology that is well-designed to improve cognitive ability and social outcomes for the toddlers. However, I would be very cautious in using the various digital books and Apps that are normally advertised as being educational. The effectiveness of majority of these technologies has not been proven, and the devices do not facilitate co-play and co-viewing that is known to help the learning process in young children. The various skills that we can instill in children and which will ensure their learning success at schools  and social life like emotions management , creativity , impulse control and flexibility in thinking can be learnt best  when they engage in social unstructured play with us (NAEYC, 2012).

I also consider what would happen if I were to allow toddlers to spend much time on these devices without limits and rules. Allowing children to use technology passively is not a good we can replace active engagement and play with them. Moreover, if we lack digital and technology literacy or skills, we risk coming up with inappropriate choices and we may end up using the devices in ways that negatively affect development and learning in our children (American Academy of Pediatrics, n.d). There are also health concerns when children use much time in passive use of media or technology.  It has been suggested that using media and technology heavily in pre-school years can lead to small but considerable increment in BMI for children (NAEYC, 2012). Therefore, I consider that toddlers should be offered with the right technology but within set boundaries to prevent risks in their overall growth and development.

References

NAEYC (2012). ChildrenTechnology and Interactive Media as Tools in Early Childhood Programs Serving Children from Birth through Age 8. Retrievd from: http://www.naeyc.org/files/naeyc/file/positions/PS_technology_WEB2.pdf