Meet the new neighbours on the other side.
Jj is for Jottings: 7. Effects of Screens on Children – My Observations, Part 1.
During the 35+ years that I have worked as a speech pathologist in education, technology has made its way into our children’s everyday lives at an ever-increasing pace. At the beginning of my career there was just television, and children were generally likely to have a reasonably balanced leisure time between playing outside, playing inside, and watching some television. If you missed a program there was no way of catching up, which automatically cut down the amount of television time. Then came videos followed by DVDs, so people were able to record programs and catch up later. Then along came all the various forms of electronic screen games, personal computers with their accompanying games, smart phones, tablets and so on. I have compiled a list of some of the changes I have seen in children and families, partly as a result of this technological growth.
Conversations with teachers in the various schools where I work reveal that their observations exactly match mine. One very experienced primary teacher even commented that she has had to dumb down her teaching over the years, and that she used to be able to have stimulating conversations with her year 6 students, but that is a rarity these days. Obviously this is all generalisation and there are many bright and well-stimulated children out there, but it is an overall trend.
Stay tuned for the list next time in Part 2.