Thinking twice before subjecting our children to too much technology

My mornings as a single mom are always interesting. Somehow, like clockwork, I wake up at 6:50 AM and my daughter wakes up at 7:00 AM. We go downstairs and I place her in her pack and play in front of the TV with a cup of milk and half of an orange. I kickbox for thirty minutes, grab her out of her pack and play, go back upstairs, get both of us bathed and dressed, and get both of us out the door by 9:30 AM. I drop her off at daycare before I go to school. One of the reasons I like and chose her daycare is because they dont allow the TV to babysit the children, the staff actually interacts, plays, and stimulates their minds throughout the day. They paint pictures and take the babies outside. As I picked her up that Monday and placed her in front of the TV yet again to tackle my homework before we went to the park, I couldnt help but think about how much brainless technological entertainment I was subjecting her to on a daily basis. I spend at least an hour on homework a day while she plays/watches TV and 30 minutes kickboxing in the mornings while she does the same thing which totals 90 minutes a day and 7 hours and 30 minutes weekly. I am comforted in the mornings as I kickbox and in the afternoons when I am completing my homework because she finds Baby Einstein and Sprout entertaining. She laughs and tries to imitate some of the sounds she hears from the TV. As I thought about the amount of technology she was subjected to I also began to wonder the kind of influence it was having on her. Busy parents who work full time/go to school should research healthy alternatives for entertaining their child rather than letting technology babysit them, because too much technology can stunt your childs creativity and imagination. According to Nancy Carlsonn-Paige, a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, children need first hand engagement. They need to manipulate objects physically, engage all their senses, and move and interact with the 3

dimensional world. The time children spend on screens takes away from the learning activities that have been proven effective. Researchers who have tracked childrens creativity for fifty years are seeing a significant decrease in creativity among children for the first time, especially younger children from kindergarten through sixth grade. This decline in creativity is thought to be due at least in part to the decline of play. Most children today would choose to play a game on an ipad over going outside and building a treehouse with dad. Play fosters emotional health, imagination, original thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, and self-regulation according to Nancy Carlsonn-Paige. A game is made to pre write shortcuts for your brain. The one track answer to most games decreases creativity and frowns upon thinking for more than one answer. This fact is crucial to my point. Children shouldnt be satisfied for one answer, but should be encouraged to be hungry for more. An increase in obesity among children has become an issue recently. Technology is thought to be a portion of the problem. Managing the role that technology use plays in rising child obesity levels is a difficult job for parents of kids who would rather exercise their thumbs on a video game controller than kick a soccer ball around outside. Obesity is complicated, but at some level its calories coming in versus calories going outand if kids arent active, theyre falling behind, explains Carrie Phillipi, a pediatrician at OHSU Doernbecher and a mother of four. She encourages parents to advocate for recess and free-play at their childrens schools, where children can get the person-to-person social interaction and the physical exercise they need. Building healthy habits such as exercising and interacting with your children physically at an early age is vital if you expect them to mature and maintain those habits. Implementing physical play will carry on with your child in the future and help maintain good health. Another negative effect that technology has had on children recently is an increase in aggression. Three-year-old children who are exposed to more TV appear to be at an increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behavior, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics &

Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Early childhood aggression can be problematic for parents, teachers, and childhood peers and sometimes is predictive of more serious behavior problems to come, such as juvenile delinquency, adulthood violence and criminal behavior," according to background information in the article. Various predictive factors for childhood aggression have been studied. These include parents' discipline style, neighborhood safety and media exposure. "After music, television is the medium children aged 0 to 3 years are exposed to the most." Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen media for children younger than age 2, studies have found consistent use of television in that age group. Jennifer A. Manganello, Ph.D and Catherine A. Taylor, Ph.D., analyzed data from 3,128 mothers of children born from 1998 to 2000 in 20 large U.S. cities to examine associations of child television exposure and household television use with aggressive behavior in children. Parents were interviewed at the time of the child's birth and at one and three years. At three years, they were asked to report time the child spent watching TV directly as well as household TV use on a typical day. Aggression also was assessed at 3 years of age using a 15-item aggressive subscale for 2- and 3-year-old children. Demographic information and other risk factors for aggression were also noted. About two-thirds (65 percent) of mothers reported that their 3-year-old child watched more than two hours of television per day. On average, children were exposed to an additional 5.2 hours of household TV use per day. In summary, even though it is recommended to not allow your infant to watch TV, many parents are resorted to using it, including myself. Increased household television use may also affect daily routines such as eating and communication patterns and may decrease time spent on other activities, further proving my point that if we have that research that proves that point, then technology is becoming a problem for our children. An early childhood development chain in Minnesota just held its first annual screen free week. The chain identified the problem that families are spending too much time with technology and not enough time with each other. Families pledged to turn off entertainment media and turn on

life! Families spent seven days unplugged and read, daydreamed, explored nature, and spent quality time with family and friends. As stated before, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children under two. Some of the distressing effects of these early habits can include poor school performance, obesity, problems with socialization and more. Most importantly, excessive screen time changes childrens fundamental connection to the world. By limiting childrens screen time, he or she will have more time for hands-on creative play, said Kelli Metcalf, Kinderberry Hill Operations Coordinator and Screen Free Week Planner. Play is essential. It promotes intellectual growth, critical thinking and problem solving. Children play to have fun, gain a sense of self and make meaning of their world. Participating families received a toolkit that included ideas for screen free week such as have an international dinner night and explore food from another culture, bake cookies and share with a neighbor, take a nature hike, make your own play dough, and more. Whats even more impressive is that the chain partnered with local companies who offered exclusive discounts to participating families including The Minnesota Zoo, Creative Kidstuff, the Minnesota Historical Society, Walker Art Center, The Minnesota Childrens Museum and Edinburgh Park. Two locations even offered a game night! I was beyond impressed by this chain and have sent multiple emails to the Department of Human Services to inform them of this event and to see if they would be willing to encourage centers in our city to do the same. We need to stop giving our childrens attention to be diverted to technology and start interacting with them ourselves. It is important as a parent to delegate technology free time. Some good rules to follow are not having phones at the dinner table and not checking email while helping your child with his/her homework. More good advice would be to limit technology time to only an hour each day and if you have an infant, to not give all of your attention to your phone, but to interact with your child at their young, crucial learning age. Technology is rapidly developing every single day; we can only take it in stride and still enable our children to learn the best ways they can.

Strauss, Valerie Is technology sapping childrens creativity? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/is-technology-sapping-childrenscreativity/2012/09/12/10c63c7e-fced-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_blog.html September 13, 2012 Grigsby-Rocca, Camille Technology and Childrens Health http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/health-and-fitness/kids-health-annual/articles/technology-andchildrens-health-may-2013 May 2, 2013 JAMA and Archives Journals http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102171413.htm Kinderberry Hill Child Development Centers http://www.kinderberryhill.com/index.php?/about/news