Time to unplug then.
"Parents urged to limit TV for young children" October 19, 2011|By Benedict Carey, New York Times
Parents of infants and toddlers should limit the time their children spend in front of televisions, computers, self-described educational games, and even grown-up shows playing in the background, the American Academy of Pediatrics warned yesterday. Video screen time provides no educational benefits for children under age 2 and leaves less room for activities that do, like interacting with other people and playing, the group said.
That's why I do not watch news programs on television anymore.
The recommendation, announced at the group’s annual convention in Boston, is less stringent than its first such warning, in 1999, which called on parents of young children to all but bar television watching for children under 2 and to fill out a “media history’’ for doctor’s office visits.
I told them I read the newspaper, and that I was ashamed at that.
But it also makes clear that there is no such thing as an educational program for such young children, and that leaving the TV on as background noise, as many households do, distracts both children and adults....
And there is the cause of your Attention Deficit Disorder.
Dr. Ari Brown, a pediatrician in Austin, Texas, and the lead author of the academy’s policy, which appears in the current issue of the journal Pediatrics, said the new policy was less restrictive because “the Academy took a lot of flak for the first one, from parents, from industry, and even from pediatricians asking, ‘What planet do you live on?’ ’’ The recommendations are an attempt to be more realistic, given that, between TVs, computers, iPads, and smartphones, households may have 10 or more screens.
The worry that electronic entertainment is harmful to development goes back at least to the advent of radio and has steadily escalated through the age of “Gilligan’s Island’’ and 24-hour cable TV to today, when nearly every child old enough to speak is plugged in to something while their parents juggle iPads and texts. So far, there is no evidence that exposure to any of these gadgets causes long-term developmental problems, specialists say.
Only if you watch news programs.
Still, recent research makes it clear that young children learn a lot more efficiently from real interactions - with people and things - than from situations appearing on video screens. “We know that some learning can take place from media’’ for school-age children, said Georgene Troseth, a psychologist at Peabody College at Vanderbilt University, “but it’s a lot lower, and it takes a lot longer.’’
What a shock, 'eh?
Unlike school-age children, infants and toddlers “just have no idea what’s going on’’ no matter how well done a video is, Troseth said.
Not if you watch cable news programs.
The new report strongly warns parents against putting a TV in a very young child’s room and advises them to be mindful of how much their own use of media is distracting from playtime....
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"Silicon Valley school sticks to basics, shuns high-tech tools" October 23, 2011|By Matt Richtel, New York Times
LOS ALTOS, Calif. - The school’s chief teaching tools are anything but high-tech: pens and paper, knitting needles, and, occasionally, mud. Not a computer to be found. No screens at all. They are not allowed in the classroom, and the school even frowns on their use at home.
Schools nationwide have rushed to supply their classrooms with computers, and many policy makers say it is foolish to do otherwise. But the contrarian point of view can be found at the epicenter of the tech economy, where some parents and educators have a message: Computers and schools don’t mix....
Yeah, we wouldn't want the kids investigating received orthodoxy for themselves.
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"In digital era, children’s books a refuge for print" November 21, 2011|By Julie Bosman and Matt Richtel, New York Times
NEW YORK - Print books may be under siege from the rise of e-books, but they have a tenacious hold on a particular group: children and toddlers. Their parents are insisting this next generation of readers spend their early years with old-fashioned books.
I have a confession to make, readers. I wasted money on books when I should have been playing video games.
This is the case even with parents who are diehard downloaders of books onto Kindles, iPads, laptops, and phones. They admit to their digital double standard, saying they want their children to be surrounded by print books, to experience turning pages as they learn about shapes, colors, and animals.
Mothers and fathers also say they like cuddling up with their child and a book and fear that a shiny gadget might get all the attention. Also, if little Joey is going to spit up, a book may be easier to clean than a tablet computer.
“It’s intimacy, the intimacy of reading and touching the world. It’s the wonderment of her reaching for a page with me,’’ said Leslie Van Every, 41, a Kindle user in San Francisco whose husband reads on his iPhone.
But for their 2 ½-year-old daughter, Georgia, dead-tree books stacked and strewn around the house are the lone option. “She reads only print books,’’ Every said, adding with a laugh that she works for a digital company, CBS Interactive. “Oh, the shame.’’
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"Trying to gauge the impact of growing up digital" October 18, 2011|By Michael B. Farrell, Globe Staff
For many children, plain old books aren’t enough.
Sigh. That wasn't what the above article said, sigh.
Companies are rolling out an ever-growing line of products, from apps for learning ABCs to toddler-size tablets, that are giving rise to a generation of digital natives. The trend is just emerging, and many specialists can’t say how much technology is the right amount and whether it will hamper child development. But there is little doubt we are seeing only early stages of a hyperconnected world that is changing childhood.
“We are conducting the world’s greatest experiment in real time on our children,’’ said Liz Perle, editor in chief at Common Sense Media, a San Francisco nonprofit group that helps parents manage media and technology....
Now roll up that sleeve, kid.
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Time for me to shut it down for the night.
