Tablets And Smartphones May Affect Social And Emotional Development Scientists Speculate Technology The Guardian
3/28/2015
Tablets and smartphones may affect social and emotional development, scientists speculate | Technology | The Guardian
Tablets and smartphones may affect social and emotional development, scientists speculate Journal commentary warns that using a tablet or smartphone to divert a child’s attention could be detrimental to “internal mechanisms of self-regulation”
Joanna Walters in New York
Monday 2 February 2015 16.28 GMT
Using a smartphone or iPad to pacify a toddler may impede their ability to learn selfregulation, according to researchers.
In a commentary for the journal Pediatrics, researchers at Boston University School of
Medicine reviewed available types of interactive media and raised “important questions regarding their use as educational tools”, according to a news release.
The researchers said that though the adverse effects of television and video on very small children was well understood, society’s understanding of the impact of mobile devices on the pre-school brain has been outpaced by how much children are already using them.
The researchers warned that using a tablet or smartphone to divert a child’s attention could be detrimental to “their social-emotional development”.
“If these devices become the predominant method to calm and distract young children, will they be able to develop their own internal mechanisms of self-regulation?” the scientists asked.
Use of interactive screen time below three years of age could also impair a child’s development of the skills needed for maths and science, they found, although they also said some studies suggested benefits to toddlers’ use of mobile devices including in early literacy skills, or better academic engagement in students with autism.
Jenny Radesky, clinical instructor in developmental-behavioural pediatrics at Boston
University School of Medicine, published her team’s findings. She urged parents to increase “direct human to human interaction” with their offspring.
Radesky encouraged more
Tablets and smartphones may affect social and emotional development, scientists speculate | Technology | The Guardian
Tablets and smartphones may affect social and emotional development, scientists speculate Journal commentary warns that using a tablet or smartphone to divert a child’s attention could be detrimental to “internal mechanisms of self-regulation”
Joanna Walters in New York
Monday 2 February 2015 16.28 GMT
Using a smartphone or iPad to pacify a toddler may impede their ability to learn selfregulation, according to researchers.
In a commentary for the journal Pediatrics, researchers at Boston University School of
Medicine reviewed available types of interactive media and raised “important questions regarding their use as educational tools”, according to a news release.
The researchers said that though the adverse effects of television and video on very small children was well understood, society’s understanding of the impact of mobile devices on the pre-school brain has been outpaced by how much children are already using them.
The researchers warned that using a tablet or smartphone to divert a child’s attention could be detrimental to “their social-emotional development”.
“If these devices become the predominant method to calm and distract young children, will they be able to develop their own internal mechanisms of self-regulation?” the scientists asked.
Use of interactive screen time below three years of age could also impair a child’s development of the skills needed for maths and science, they found, although they also said some studies suggested benefits to toddlers’ use of mobile devices including in early literacy skills, or better academic engagement in students with autism.
Jenny Radesky, clinical instructor in developmental-behavioural pediatrics at Boston
University School of Medicine, published her team’s findings. She urged parents to increase “direct human to human interaction” with their offspring.
Radesky encouraged more