It has almost become unavoidable to integrate technology into our everyday life. There has become a serious crutch leading to a negative impact on upcoming generations. Children ages two to ten now rely too much on technology for the majority of their playing, which limits challenges to their development such as; their optimal sensory and motor development skills, their social language, increasing their use of imagination and even their eyesight can become a problem when using too much technology, also technology can cause children to become overweight.
Today we see children playing games in their tablets, in a cell phone, or sitting in front of a TV for hours. These types of technologies can take a big role in a child’s development. A child’s early years of life are very important. Every child has milestones to reach and they do it by being able to explore their environment they are in. Children’s optimal sensory and motor skills development are very important for children to develop at their early ages. Optimal sensory are the five senses; hearing smelling, taste, touch, and vision.
These senses involve the way children’s nervous system receives input from theses senses and then forms an appropriate motor and behavioral response. The two basic classification in motor skills are fine motors and gross motor skills. Gross motor skills are when children use their large muscles, whereas fine motors deal with smaller muscles in the body. Children practice gross motor skills by climbing ladders, tossing, catching, kicking, jumping robe, and even hula hooping, and when they use fine motor skills they are drawing, painting, finger painting, doing puzzles, using playdough, and even using a spoon and a fork.
Many of these motor skills children will not be able to develop when spending too much time playing games in their tablet. Brad Reed claims in his article Tablets Are Wrecking Kids’ Motor Skill, “Tablets are terrific tools that are also fun to use but there are definitely limits to how much you should let your children interact with them. The Telegraph brings us word that the U. K. -based Association of Teachers and Lecturers is claiming that children who spend too much time using tablets are unable to play with standard blocks or write with pens and paper”.
When children develop their motor skills they are also working their brain, such as like; when jumping robe, their muscles give a sign to their brain letting it know that the body will be using that muscle. Due to my research, I learned that by age five our children’s brain will have grown to 90% of its adult size, but even earlier than that by age three, its already researched 82% of its size. There are important factors that influence early brain development which include: daily experiences, parent’s responsiveness, nutrition, physical activity, and love.
According to PBS Parents article of Education, “a parent’s role in their children’s learning evolves as kids grow, one thing remains constant: we are our children’s learning models. Our attitudes about education can inspire theirs and show them how to take charge of their own educational journey”. Learning many different types of skills throughout early ages can be a big help when starting our education in a school environment because we are always learning in or out of school environments, and our parents are our number one role model, so many of the thing we know we learn it from them.
Our parents should always stay informed of the new things we learn day by day and looking for ways to help us improve in skills we might have difficulties with. When parents are involved in their children education, both the child and the parent are likely to improve their relationships. It is not always easy for parents to find time and energy to become involved or to coordinate with schedules for school event. Have you ever heard of the saying “It’s never too early to start reading to your baby”?
Speech and language are very important in a child’s development, and the best way for children to develop language and speech is where there is sounds, sights, and consistent exposure to speech. Also, children learn new words and there meaning by a human not by some cartoons on television. “Children under two years of age learn best from real-world experiences and interactions, and each minute spent in front of a screen-based device is a minute when your child is not exploring the world and using their senses, which is extremely important in their development process,” says Dr.
Carolyn Jaynes, a learning designer for Leapfrog Enterprises”. It be sad to know that a child at age two wouldn’t know how to pronounce a couple of words like; mom, dad, bottle, etc. all these simple words can make a difference in a child’s education future. Children having poor social skills when they don’t have social interactions with people other than just watching television or video playing is extremely useful because it sheds insight on the difficult problem of how technology is affecting their development.
It can also lead to problem in their education, many children won’t know how to ask for help when they need it or they won’t have a conversation with their friends. Many kids that don’t interact with their classmates can feel left out, because his/her classmates might not talk to them. When children start to be around their education environment it’s good for them to feel accepted by their peers and their teacher. “Childhood education is about setting task for the student to complete, to facilitate understandings, and setting tasks for the teacher to become a quality education”.
I agree, children best way to learn is going to school and ask questions when they don’t understand something. Technology wouldn’t be able to help a child with further understanding of a lesson. Also when children spend their time using technology they are not working on their fine motor skills. For example, in school they paint or draw, and they are working on their fine motor skills using small movements in their hands, fingers, and wrist.
Many will assume that children can do these activities at home with their parents, but many parents cannot afford buying paint, crayons, markers, or even paper, and many don’t have the time to sit down with them and do these type of activities, however at school the child has many opportunities to work on their fine motor skills. Today many parents can download an app that contains coloring pages for children, but with the app children aren’t able to feel or smell the paint or use their imagination. Also with their iPod or phone the child can’t use other tools like a paint brush, a sponge, or other art tools.
At the age of six children have moved toward a new environment in school, they enter elementary school where they learn more about math, new vocabulary, and reading. Child development Tracker asserts that “The language skills of six-year-olds become increasingly sophisticated throughout the year. In first grade, children transform into true readers. They apply their knowledge of how print works and practice strategies to decode unfamiliar words.
In mathematics, six-year-olds can typically count up to “200” and count backwards from “20. They understand the concept of “odd” and “even” numbers and can represent numbers on a number line or with written words”. At this age we can see big changes in children and what motivates them. If their motivation is being on their tablets or in the computer, they won’t have the same experiences as to a child that reads books and studies his/her vocabulary for a test. When a six-year-old gets motivated to studying and reading books to get a good grade in an exam he/she will have good outcomes in his/her education future and job.
