I read an article where a journalist equated not exposing your child to screens to not exposing them to indoor plumbing. No screen exposure, in his mind, is illogical because there are screens everywhere — televisions in the pediatrician’s waiting area, smart phones in the hands of everyone you encounter, and something blinking, talking and flashing everywhere you turn. Screens are ever present, and even if you take a “no screen” stance, your child will inevitably see, watch, or interact with one at some point.
Now that I have an infant, I understand how difficult it is to take a no technology stance. My husband and I both have smart phones that we check often, so do his sisters, his grandparents, his uncles and aunts. We have a television in our home.
So what is best in terms of technology? What is screen time, and is it going to harm or help my baby? I’ll defer here to the actual experts about using technology with children from birth to age 2.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated their stance on media use with young children. There are twelve new guidelines that you can find in this article. You may have heard their prior recommendation of no screen time for children under the age of two. But times have changed, and so has their opinion, because so much of the newest technology allows parents to have active engagement with their child.
The key word here is “active.” Children learn best from interaction with a caregiver — talking, reading, singing, and playing. These are the fundamentals of early learning. You can use quality apps and games, but children learn best if they are used as a tool for interaction between you and your child. Passive screen time, i.e. plopping a baby in front of a video for hours or giving him a screen to mindlessly swipe and poke with no person-to-person interaction, does not translate into learning, no matter what the app or video claims. You are his first and greatest teacher, and it is science, not just my opinion, that young children learn best from live interaction with a caring adult.
The statement about technology use with young children that resonates strongly with me comes from the Fred Rogers Center. Their Digital Media and Learning initiative tells us that, “Cognitively, children under age 2 are still learning to mentally represent their environment. Until around 18-24 months of age, children represent information and experiences through physical action…Children may also find it more difficult to learn from television’s representations of real-world objects, which offer a much richer perceptual experience.”
I had never thought of it that way. A baby’s world is what he can see, touch, taste, and smell. He sees trees, and they are massive! The dog is furry. Daddy smells yucky after rugby. These real world things, these experiences, are rich with learning opportunities. A screen doesn’t smell, offer tactile learning or perception of size because it is all contained to the hard rectangle of our phones or tablets. Real world experiences are so important in those first few years of life where everything is brand new and full of wonder.
It goes on to state, “instead of focusing on whether young children are able to learn their ABCs from an app, we should be looking at what child development research has been telling us all along and asking whether the warm, language-rich interaction between young children and their caregivers that is so critical for developing the cognitive, social, emotional, and linguistic skills children need for school and life success is happening when they use digital media.”
Well, is it? That seems like a great question to ask ourselves when thinking of how, when, and if we want to use technology with our young children.
So what am I doing after reading the research, watching early learning happen daily at the library, and being a huge advocate of books and literacy?
I don’t turn on the television when we’re together, and I don’t give him my phone as a toy, even though he is attracted to it if I have it out (which I often do, but I’m trying to do better!). We read good books, go to storytime, make faces at each other in the mirror, talk CONSTANTLY. I feel like my life is a musical because I make up a song about everything we do.
We read, talk, sing, and play without using technology because that’s our choice, and that is what works best for our family right now. I also know that there will be plenty of time for him to encounter screens and to use technology to supplement his learning when he is older. I often come home to find my son and husband cuddled on the couch with a football game on, but I don’t panic because usually they are talking and wrestling and doing their “guy stuff” together. It is definitely active screen time.
I’m under no illusion that I can prevent my baby from seeing a screen, and I’m in no way judging parents who hand that screaming toddler a phone so they can make it through the check out line at the grocery store. I also understand that sometimes Mommy needs to get ready, and a 30 minute Daniel Tiger session will occupy a child long enough for that to happen. I get it. And I’m sure as my child becomes older, we may do things differently. But for now, we are screen free-ish, and I’m going to enjoy being unplugged as much as I can.
