This is a subject that I feel pretty passionately about
because more and more parents are letting the ‘tube’ become the babysitter in
the home. Children need to be actively engaged and have human interaction. They
need stimulating toys- and no, this does NOT include apps on your ipad, phone,
or other electronic devices! I was sitting in church one day when I noticed
that a parent handed over their ipad to their child who was not even two years
old yet. Really?! Whatever happened to fruit loops and board books? Anyway,
this led me into trying to research the effects that ipads and other such
devices have on children and this area has much less research. I did find one
article that I really liked (link here) that says that some apps can
actually help children quite a bit, but is usually recommended for older
children and not infants. It also talked about how ipads can either be
beneficial or harmful if it is either encouraging ‘talk time’ with the parent
or taking away from it. In other words, if you and your child are interacting
together with the device, it is much more beneficial than if the child just
uses it alone.
Perhaps I am extremely old fashioned in my views on this
matter, but I just don’t agree with exposing your children to media at such a
young age. I definitely do not wish to offend anyone, but I do think that if you
are a parent than you should research this for yourself so that you can make an
educated decision. ‘Baby Einstein’ got away with claiming that their dvd’s were
educational since 2004 before anyone called them out on it. It is highly likely
that parents believed them and actually think they are helping their children
become smarter. This is definitely not the parents fault. I think that most
parents do the very best they can, they just don’t know any better. So if you
are a parent, I would ask that you make yourself know better and educate
yourself before you let something educate your children for you. And that’s the
end of this soap box rant. Ta ta for now.
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