Are Kids Becoming Tech Savvy Too Young?

Kids living in the modern age of fast paced gizmos are much smarter, sharper and faster than their counterparts five years ago; forget making the comparison with a generation, only a decade older. Toddlers now are asking for iPads instead of teddy bears or any board game sets.  All the three words, ‘smarter’, ‘sharper’ & ‘faster’ have mixed connotations of progress in human evolution and potential self-destruction.

According to Nielson Co., the iPad was the most wanted holiday gift for the second year in a row in 2011.

According to Forrester Research Inc. (FORR), 29 percent of tablet owners regularly share the device with their kids. Among mothers, it’s 65 percent. 

BlueKai Inc. has estimated that about 61% of iPad buyers are parents. As a supply and demand effect of this more companies ranging from Walt Disney Co. to small startups are developing games, interactive books and other software to appeal to children.

During the launch of the iBook, Philip Schiller (Apple’s senior vice president) said, “Textbooks aren’t the most ideal learning tool. They can be cumbersome, they get dog-eared, they suffer from wear, they’re not interactive, and they’re certainly not easily searchable.” 

Ningthoujam Nivedita is a Kindergarten teacher at British School, where iPads, laptops, desktop computers and ‘Beebots’ are used for stories, free drawings, flipcharts and presentations.  She said, “Children naturally take a liking to technological tools like iPads and laptops as they see it at home and are especially very good with touch technology and hence, makes teaching easy and convenient to some degree.”

Three-year-old Jonathan was initiated to technology very early, much like many kids of his age. Daisy Mate Munluo, his mother, said, “He can figure out a lot of things on his own via the laptop and I’ve seen that it has made him much faster than many other kids of his age who don’t have such exposure”.

Jonathan, at age 2, watching cartoons on the laptop

Professor Nandita Babu, a Child Development Psychologist at Delhi University, talks about digital tools serving as cognitive stimulants. “They can definitely influence cognitive growth in the right direction and enhance skills like abstract reasoning that interactive tools are more effective in inducing than static objects. Moreover, technology serves efficiently to children with physical, social and mental disabilities.”

Arti Seengal, mother of five year old Avisya, keeps a strict watch on her television viewing to not more than an hour a day.

“She likes to listen to the iPod and occasionally we let her use the iPad but she insists on playing fun games rather than educational ones as she feels fatigued by homework”, said Arti.

Satindra Sen, Father of a seven year old daughter, said that he and his wife make conscious efforts to reduce their daughter’s interaction with technology. “Not any more than 30 minutes to an hour a day. She is mostly occupied with her cooking classes, ballet and singing lessons besides her studies”, he said.

Talking about the positive side, Satindra said, “The easy access to information is the biggest advantage as every child now knows Google and Wikipedia. When I was young, I would have to hunt for a specific book at home or in a library to get some particular information”.  

Despite the enthusiasm and the great potential that technology has to offer to gen-x kids to learn more things faster, there are many reasons to equally worry. Especially in metro cities like Mumbai and Delhi, because of the lack of space, more and more children are spending more time on xbox games, wii, laptops or iPads cutting into their play time of physical activity and active exploration of their environment. Especially ages 3 to 8 are key formidable years learning lessons for life whether it is their social relationships, physical growth, mental exploration and imagination or the understanding of the environment around you.

“Tools like media or internet applications are only additives to the existing structure that it cannot replace. The risk to a child’s socio-emotional development is the greatest if there’s excessive usage and absence of human interaction like with peers and teachers”, said Professor Babu.

If not cautiously moderated by the time preschoolers grow up to elementary level, they might develop problems of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Attention Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Obesity and lack basic social skills like making eye contact or enhanced skills like social adjustment in situations.  Professor Babu said, “If the child already has ADD, then it can worsen the problem. But if the child doesn’t, even then, his or her attention span will suffer and can become a risk factor”.

Satindra agrees with the disadvantages. He said, “You’re letting the system do the work. For e.g. on games like ‘Air Guitar’ or ‘Bake a Cake’, you don’t actually learn how to do either of the skills. Also, learning to lose is something that children can not learn out of technological games and apps”.

There is also the additional yet equally valid concern that children at younger ages are entering the race to ownership of more and more advanced and expensive gadgets and products bringing an unhealthy trend of blind consumerism that the youth in the country are already much in the grip of.

Besides being a Corporate Trainer, Satindra also runs a kids adventure camp called Inme. “The situation now with these brands is that if I throw 10 brand names at my kids, they will probably recognize all of them. But if I ask them to name 10 kinds of flowers or trees, they will hardly come up with any”. 

Arti said, “There’s a lot of peer pressure among kids in schools or social gatherings where other children will be busy on their parent’s smart phones. And seeing other kids, Avisya also wants to play on my phone”,

The Waldorf style of Teaching followed by schools, attended by the offsprings of Silicon Valley Executives (where Google, Facebook, Apple and Yahoo are based out of), believe that computers inhibit creative thinking, movement, human interaction and attention spans. A Waldorf trained teacher, who typically use tools like pencils, mud and knitting needles, said, “I think early childhood is the most important time for learning and establishing how we relate to the world. Exploring the real world, interacting with people and nature is how we learn about ourselves and develop character. I really don't think technology is a necessary part of this process and can be detrimental to it.” (Source: MNN)

While the Waldorfs may advocate abstinence at an early age, professors from the BYU School of Family Life report that even though technology can be a great tool in your children’s learning, it’s still important to take children out to play because too much exposure to electronics at too young of an age can cause problems.

Arti agrees. “Educational and interactive games on the iPad are good alternatives but cannot be completely depended upon or replace the traditional methods of teaching”.

Nivedita advocated the practice of a balanced approach. “We do use traditional toys like blocks, puppets and even books are also used as a part of the school’s balanced approach to education.” 

As children of an older generation will share, space has hardly been the constraint for children who have invented games out of stones, rubber bands and chalk drawings on floors. These games like stapoo, five stones, gallery etc. do not require much space and although they relatively involve lesser physical exertion than sports and athletic games, they still are better alternatives to sitting on a chair or a couch.

As Professor Sarah Coyne of Boston University puts it, “Maybe stifling imagination, obesity concerns if they’re stuck in front of a computer all day or an iPad or whatever. They’re not running around playing tag, chasing. [That's] some of the stuff that we know that kids need”.  

According to Victoria Nash, a researcher at the Oxford Internet Institute, said some parents use gadgets as a “digital pacifier”. Parents and teacher interviewed for this article agreed to this becoming a trend in metro cities with parents busy in their careers or social circles. Admits Daisy, “Videos or games on the laptop keep him engaged and gives me some time to attend to my house hold duties although I wish he’d be rather engaged in physical activities”.

However, Professor Coyne is optimistic in the current trend as the present parents are raising “the most technologically savvy generation that we have ever seen” and that these kids have “the potential to move the field of technology forward”.

Do you agree?