As my “About Me” states I am a first time father of a current 16 month old. It has caused me to look at the world differently, and I now have a greater sense of awareness of the world my daughter will eventually inherit.
I am a frequent listener to NPR, which might seem odd to people my age. I especially like to listen to their programming during my commutes to and from school. I usually catch the first hour of the Dian Rehm show and this morning’s show was “Touch-Screen Devices and Very Young Children”
The early portions of the show surprised me when the guests for that day qualified most of their arguments with the fact that there were no studies on the effects of these devices on young children.
This would have probably freaked my wife out, but I pride myself on being the more rational one in the relationship. As I usually do during the show, I started commenting to myself and working through how I felt about the topic, and here’s where I ended up.
We own a Kindle Fire of which my daughter has played with a little and enjoys watching her favorite cartoon when the opportunity presents itself. As previously mentioned she is only 16 months, so she is not far enough along to really enjoy and utilize the games and puzzles available.
However, she is fast approaching the age where she will become more interested in the device as well as be able to play with it as it were intended. She has already learned some picture word associations from using a touch screen device, so I can already see what benefits touch screen devices have on young children.
As more research is conducted we will have a better understanding of what goes on in children’s mind when they use touch screen devices, but no matter what the results are I am still going to let her have access to it.
For one reason I want my daughter to use and understand technology. The world we live in is becoming more technologically advanced every-day, and she needs to keep up with the ever evolving world around her.
I want to prepare her for school the same way school prepares us for entering the workforce. Schools are becoming outfitted with more electronic devices, and I want my daughter to go in with a basic understanding of different technologies.
Lastly I want her to understand moderation. She will never know a world without computers and microprocessors, so it is important that we start her at a young age. Demonizing useful devices because they can be abused is not the way I want to raise my daughter.
There is still an importance for learning in the classical style that I took part in. No matter what the results of future studies may prove moderation will always be the best policy.
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