With the widespread use of the internet and social media, our lives have started to become digital. So much so that our children are now raising by smart phone and tablet screens. Children, who have become captives of games, cartoons and many social media content, are tamed with phones and tablets just so that they cannot talk or play. However, since we left our children, who need the attention of their families the most in their developmental age, to be alone with the screens, it has become the new generation of tablets and smartphones. Our tablet and smartphone generation puppies, who face many health problems both physically and psychologically, are preparing for life with many problems, especially speech disorder, distraction and asociality. Speaking to our newspaper on the subject, Specialist Pedagogue İnci Aydın warned parents against raising children as prisoners of technology.
“THIS IS CHILD; CRIES, SHOUTS, RUNS, DOESN'T STAND STILL IN PLACE”
Drawing attention why parents give tablets and phones to their children, Specialist Pedagogue İnci Aydın said, “The child cries, shouts, runs, does not stand still. However, some parents are disturbed by their child's mobility and make use of technology such as a phone, tablet or television to make their children watch cartoons and videos for hours, or expose them to play games by making use of technology. The eye movements of the child who stays in front of the screen for hours become fixed, and an eye problem occurs. In addition, many problems may arise when the child does not receive stimulus from a cognitive point of view. We can encounter many problems in children, such as attention-focusing problems, communication disorders, speech disorders.”
“0-3 YEARS IS A CRITICAL PERIOD”
İnci Aydın reminded that even babies are raised with technology and said, “It is very important that children aged 0-3 are not exposed to phones, tablets or televisions. 0-3 years is a critical period, in this period, silencing the child, distracting or exposing the child to the screen for various reasons is very dangerous. Recently, many families have been worried about questions such as ‘Is my child with autism?’ and the number of applications to specialists has increased. Whether they are 0-3 years old or older children, staying in front of the screen for hours can cause a lack of stimulus. With this lack of stimulus, many other problems such as lack of communication, inability to make eye contact, inability to participate actively in games, problems in fine motor and gross motor development, and socialization problems may occur in the child.”
“OUR CHILDREN SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS”
Inci Aydın, who warns families to be careful about raising children against technology, said, “It is important for children to socialize a lot and to enter many stimuli in their minds. For this reason, our children should be included in social environments full of activities such as preschool and kindergarten. It is important for families to take care of spending quality time at home. It is necessary to increase family communication with activities such as in-home games without phone, tablet, TV, or parent children chat time. Phones and tablets should not be given to silence children. Since childhood life affects our psychology in adulthood, it is beneficial for families to act by considering their children's psychology.”