Everything has its time: it is one of the fundamental principles of pedagogy. Let’s see how to apply it to the use of technology in small children
The passages of life must be respected and here are some operational indications to face the challenges that digital places us as regards younger children.
Among the many operational indications that have been given to parents in recent years I fully share those recently exposed by the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Serge Tisseron, researcher of the University of Paris and expert in young people and families with the Internet.
From 0 to 3 years: prohibited screens
Childhood does not need video control, it doesn’t need a virtual reality. Before 3 years a child needs to develop skills by interacting with the environment through sensory experiences that use all five senses. Only this experiential interaction allows you to develop your neuronal resources. It has been shown that even just a heated television in the same room where a small child is playing disturbs its business, preventing you from developing that ability to carefully concentrate so important for its future. Goleman writes on “Focus”:
“Attention – in all its varieties – represents a mental resource little considered and underestimated, but which covers enormous importance compared to the way we face life. (…) It connects us to the world, shaping and defining our experience ». According to neuroscientists Michael Posner and Mary Rothbart, attention provides us with those mechanisms that underlie our awareness of the world and voluntary control of thoughts and emotions.
The touch screen is not a real sensory experience: there is a smooth surface that activates visual stimuli. Many studies document a direct relationship between the duration of exposure to the screens and the consequences on the attention of children and young people. A small child who benefits from one hour of TV a day, is at risk of developing attention deficits twice higher than those who do not watch it. (1)
To deepen the topic, in this article we talk about how the use of cartoons should take place by children.
It is then necessary, especially in this age group, that parents take care of their behaviors. You cannot work to be seen absorbed by television, by a computer or a cell phone, perhaps so distracted that they do not even notice the calls of the children. In that age, children are very inclined to imitation: if they see us perpetually with the mobile phone in their hands they will want one.
From 3 to 6 years: the time of the rules
Childhood is the time of the rules, which are not impositions but educational procedures to regulate time and common space. We put clear, transparent, essential rules. It is useless to scold our children because the hours pass in front of video games when we have put them. The international scientific-pedagogical community on this front is compact: In this age group half an hour of videohcks per day is more than enough, and internet access is prohibited. This is an important phase to develop some skills connected to the imagination or fine motor skills and to implement relational and social skills.
It is time for it to learn to quarrel well with success, even afterwards it is possible, certainly, but gradually it becomes more difficult. Direct experiences, manipulation, relational interaction must be privileged. Do children fight? Certain! That is their evolutionary task. Learning to be together, to accept frustration and bring out the creative resources with which, in this plastic age, they are incredibly gifted. Do not let themselves be anesthetize in front of the videohops, allow them to stay in the open air, in contact with nature, to make new body and mental experiences. Their future will draw immense advantage.
