We’ve all seen it, especially in these techno-dependent days. A harried parent, in a desperate attempt to finish shopping for groceries, hands a smartphone to a fidgety child. Or a child in a doctor’s office plays a game of Angry Birds while waiting for a sibling to finish his visit.
Young children are using technology at rapidly increasing rates. Smartphones are especially popular because of their portability and the tremendous number of applications—or apps, as they’re commonly called—that cater to young children.
Kids often get access to smartphones out of convenience or as a distraction, but sometimes parents use the technology as a teaching aid. Many apps claim to help improve a child’s learning skills, to make him or her smarter, or to simply help kids grasp concepts more quickly. There have been few studies on the effects of mobile technology on the educational development of young children—though there’s plenty of debate on the topic among parents, educators, and childhood development experts.
Many physicians who work with young children agree that while modern technology may not cause active harm when employed as a learning-enhancement tool, its tangible benefits haven’t been proven. Some physicians even argue it can be detrimental. Some experts point to the positive effects mobile technology can have on getting young children interested in learning. Others point to the negative effects of encouraging a more sedentary lifestyle, getting away from real life-experiences, and even possible long term effects on brain development.
The American Academy of Pediatrics and the White House Task Force on Childhood Obesity recommend a maximum of two hours of “screen time”—whether with a computer, television, smartphone, or video game console—for children age 2 and older.
A joint position statement released this year by the National Association for the Education of Young Children and the Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning and Children’s Media at Saint Vincent College said technology and interactive media are learning tools that, when used in intentional and developmentally appropriate ways and in conjunction with other traditional tools and materials, can support young children’s development and learning. The statement specifically calls out a revision to an earlier statement that referred to early childhood as ages 3 to 8. Now, they’re acknowledging the increasing accessibility of technology from birth to 3 years old.
The statement recognized conflicting views of young children’s access to screen-based media, citing several concerns about a lack of empirical research that demonstrates positive benefits from technology use and the negative influences and effects—like behavior problems, weight gain, or sleep problems—that can crop up from such exposure.
“Early childhood educators must be mindful of these cautions and concerns, particularly for children under 2 years of age,” the statement says. “Decisions about whether, how, and when to use technology with young children need to be intentional and based on developmentally appropriate principles and practices.”
Dr. Gwenn O’Keefe—pediatrician, official media spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics, and author of CyberSafe—said she isn’t convinced of the need for early exposure to mobile technology as a learning aid and said it simply adds to a child’s overall screen time.
“I’m not sure we need to introduce smartphones to young children when there are many other means of teaching,” she told the Sun. “If you want to teach kids numbers, teach them numbers. You want to teach them ABCs? Here’s a chalkboard. You want to teach them about nature? Take them outside.”
Robin Palmerston, director of Children’s House Montessori School in Orcutt, said her school uses minimal technology—mostly an iPad with a Montessori app that encourages sensory stimulation and interaction—but instead places emphasis on nature and spending time outdoors.
“At school, we want to make sure they have experience with real 3-D things,” she said. “Our job for teaching is to have children be involved with real things, by being outside with water and playing with real things.”
She said the students are already exposed to new technologies outside of school, so the educators don’t need to emphasize it in school.
“We know children learn from observing,” Palmerston said. “They can pick up anything flat and put it to their ear and it becomes a phone. When you take a picture with your phone, they know that it can be seen immediately.”
Palmerston has watched in amazement as her own 18-month-old granddaughter scrolled through a smartphone, looking for the picture she just took with her parents. The director said that though she believes in limiting what she calls “modern technology” in the school, she admitted that there are some fascinating learning tools that come with smartphones. She said the popular smartphone game Angry Birds—in which a player flings a bird with a sling shot, using the best trajectory to knock over a stack of blocks—is an exercise in geometry. And the Montessori app the school uses on occasion incorporates Montessori lessons and provides sensory feedback—sounds, to be exact—as a child counts or traces letters.
“I’m very excited about it,” Palmerston said. “It’s very innovative for somebody to invent a program like that.”
Karin Dominguez, school readiness coordinator at the Santa Maria Bonita School District, echoed Palmerston’s amazement with how children interact with smartphones, but also echoed her caution about their overuse.
“As with all technology, it can be used positively and negatively,” Dominguez said. “Parents should be careful to control the content as well as the amount of screen time. I have seen my grandkids—Jasdeep who is 3 and Nayana who is 4—use the smartphone. They both like Monkey Preschool. Their mom, Deidre, chooses learning games, but the kids often want the movie-style apps, such as Toy Story. I was amazed at the puzzles Jasdeep could do on that tiny little screen.”
Even with such learning enhancement tools, both educators believe less is more when it comes to smartphone exposure—but not all parents think that way. Some mothers and fathers believe they’re giving their children an advantage by early exposure.
Experts maintain that there’s no conclusive evidence to support either side.
Dr. Vic Strasburger—chief of the Division of Adolescent Medicine, professor of pediatrics, and professor of family and community medicine at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine in Albuquerque—said, in general, there’s no hurry for parents to expose their kids to new media, whether it’s cell phones, smartphones, or Facebook.
“I think parents often think that by doing so, they’ll make their kids smarter or more ready for school,” Strasburger said. “But teaching them to love books and to read is probably far more important.”
But it is the proliferation of learning and education apps that has parents handing over their smartphones to young children—even toddlers.
A report by the Sesame Workshop and the Joan Ganz Cooney Center, called “Always Connected: The New Digital Media Habits of Young Children,” looks at the data emerging from the study of new media habits of children, specifically from birth to 8 years old. The report showed that young children ages 2 to 5 still prefer television over mobile technology, spending an average of 3.5 hours a day watching TV, but their use of mobile technology has greatly increased in many cases as they imitate their older siblings.
According to the report, though few studies focusing on smartphone use and young children exist, the subject has caught the attention of educators and app developers. About 47 percent of the 100 top-selling education apps on iTunes are geared toward children, according to the report—despite the fact that children aren’t the primary target for iPhone or iPod touch devices.
Sometimes it’s not so much about providing a child with early learning opportunities as it is about keeping a child busy. The Cooney Center has termed this phenomenon the “passback effect.” Think of parents handing over their smartphones to toddlers and young children to entertain or otherwise occupy them.
Technology companies have created products to facilitate this. Griffin Technology and Playschool offer smartphone cases built for children. Griffin’s Woogie is a multi-armed plushy that contains a pocket for the phone so a child can hold it like a stuffed animal or even drop it without harming the sleek digital contents.
Fisher Price’s answer to the Woogie is due out this summer. Called the Laugh & Learn Baby iCan Play Case, the apparatus is shaped like a steering wheel that holds a smartphone in the middle. The case’s exterior features colorful rings and handles designed for teething, throwing, holding, or dropping.
Both products feature apps appropriate for the 1- to 3-year-old set. Since phones these days tend to have built-in gyroscopes and accelerometers, applicable apps can still work—even if all a child without fine motor skills or dexterity can do is shake the thing around.
Some experts believe it’s OK to hand off the phone to entertain a kid while Mom or Dad is waiting in line or at the wheel during a long car trip. In fact, some argue, it’s handy to do so, even if others believe it shouldn’t be necessary.
The American Academy of Pediatrics’ O’Keefe is upfront about her thoughts on giving a smartphone to pacify a child: “It’s setting kids up for bad habits. You are teaching kids you need a tool to quiet yourself.
“Before we had these devices, kids knew how to behave in certain situations,” she said. “They knew how to distract themselves without tools.”
O’Keefe explained that it’s important for parents to set an example to effectively limit their children’s screen time by “unplugging” themselves—something she and her own daughters do on a regular basis.
“Not a day goes by when I don’t see a child, waiting for a sibling to be seen, who is using a smartphone,” she said.
And while many app makers and educational software creators will argue differently, many people in the medical profession will say there’s a lack of proof that technology makes a child smarter or latch onto learning skills more quickly—and that, in fact, some studies show technology can do more harm than good.
“There are studies being undertaken by neuroscientists that show that, at a neurochemical level, early use of technology re-wires the brain,” O’Keefe said.
She cited work by Gary Smalls, author of the book iBrain, that discusses studies of modern college students—the first crop of students exposed to today’s ubiquitous technology early in their lives—and their lack of ability to focus without technological stimulation.
“Even if the [developers of learning software] say it’s fine, I question what the long term outcome will be,” she said.
But ultimately, a child’s exposure to technology comes back to the parents. Montessori’s Palmerston summed up the argument succinctly: “Technology can be positive and negative. It’s really important for parents to monitor time in front of the screen and the content of what’s on the screen.”
Contact Arts Editor Shelly Cone at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Jun 9-16, 2011.