Pacifying and distracting via Dora the Explorer (etc) games on the ipad doesn’t teach them to control their emotions.
Dr Jenny Radesky, clinical instructor in Developmental-Behavioural Pediatrics at Boston University, said of the findings that increased screen-time in children can lead to a negative impact on the development of a child’s language and social skills – including the development of empathy and problem solving skills, as well as motor skills. This is especially true when it replaces face-to-face contact.
“If these devices become the predominant method to calm and distract young children, will they be able to develop their own internal mechanisms of self-regulation?” Radesky told The Telegraph in the UK.
However while there has been much research into how screen time affects development, the true consequences of overloading on screen time is still not yet realised.
“Mobile devices are everywhere and children are using them more frequently at young ages. The impact these mobile devices are having on the development and behaviour of children is still relatively unknown.
“It has been well-studied that increased television time decreases a child’s development of language and social skills. Mobile media use similarly replaces the amount of time spent engaging in direct human-human interaction,” said Radesky.
While some apps and games on the iPad can be educational and helpful for a child’s development, these findings, published in the journal Paediatrics, also found that it’s better if the parent works on the game with their children, with a hands-on approach.
So when it comes to iPads and screen time there’s a key lesson for children to learn about the real world, and that’s that just about everything is only good in moderation.
Which is perhaps one of life’s trickiest, and most important, lessons.
