Children of 2 years old are experts in smartphones and tablets
24 months of life are needed to unlock the screen of a tablet or Smartphone and access our favorite game. The study published in Archives of Disease in Childhood ' collected by the Sinc platform and carried out by researchers from the University of Cork (Ireland) has shown that two-year-olds could already be considered "experts" in the use of tablets and smartphones.
A survey of more than eighty parents was conducted to conduct the study. From the resulting study, it is concluded that at 24 months children unlock their parents' devices and that only a month later they understand the functions of the installed applications and easily access their favorite games. They are not born knowing how to handle tablets or smartphones but they quickly acquire the necessary skills to do so thanks, to a large extent, to the 15 minutes that, according to the study, we parents lend our phones to children.
Is it positive that children know how to use smartphones with only two years?
If we analyze a little the data of the study we see that the children learn to use the technologies before speaking fluently or having stopped crawling. Everything depends, as always, on the particular development of each one since it is already known that some children mature later than others. What happens according to the author of the study, Caroline Ahearne, is that you can not establish parameters that determine whether the use of tablets favors the educational development of the child or hinders their learning in other fields.
"Touch screen applications offer a level of interaction not previously experienced with other media and are more related to the traditional game," says Ahearne. "This opens a potential application of these devices, both for the evaluation of development, and for early intervention in children with high-risk pathologies," he says.
It seems that the use of devices of this type is much more positive than the mere viewing of television. The first is an active habit while the second requires a passive attitude. Although we can also access educational content on television, it is true that the child has no obligation to interact, which is easier but less productive.
Recommendations for the use of tablets and smartphones
Asked about the uses and abuses of television by minors, the psychologist Elena Villa told THISFAMILYWELOVE that it is convenient to choose for the child the programs that best suit their level of development. This advice can be transferred to the field of apps because not all of them serve us and as Caroline Ahearne says "there are many that are designed for babies and young children, but there is no regulation of their quality, educational value or safety". Therefore, it is advisable not only to limit the time a device is provided to the child on average, but also to be with them when driving them. The considerations that we have to take into account to let our children use tablets and smartphones before three years are:
- Search for children's apps that awaken your creative side
- Use the applications with them (for that we can download nine very useful apps for families)
- Limit the time of use
- Encourage your manual skill with ten apps to draw on the Tablet
- Give example. We can not be constantly hooked to the mobile because it is shown that children imitate our habits and that they feel insignificant when their parents are with the mobile
- Propose alternatives to new technologies to avoid being seen as the only form of entertainment
- Do not use tablets or smatphones to punish the child because we can be increasing their value
Like television, if the tablets are used properly, they can be very useful and contribute a lot of good things to our children.
Elisa García
