Technology Can Help Child Development

Does your 2-year old seem to love the TV remote even without understanding the concept of television shows? Maybe your child grabs your smartphone at every opportunity. That’s because children have an affinity to technology. In the last few years, companies have launched a range of kids tablets, websites and smartphone apps that have been designed especially for children of different age groups. With these tools at hand, children are increasingly seen using tablets, gaming consoles, laptops and phones.

Most parents wonder how much exposure to technology their children should have and whether screen time would impact their normal development. Technology can be extremely bad or exceptionally good depending on how it is used, says a report by the US National Association for the Education of Young Children. Technology is not harmful, it is the unregulated use of technology that is the cause for concern.

While technology can help during the various stages of child development, it should not completely replace human interaction or physical activity.

The Essentials of Proper Child Development

Broadly speaking, there are four critical elements that contribute towards a child’s overall development:

• Human Interaction: This helps in a child’s social and emotional development. Children who grow up in a loving environment are seen to be more secure.
• Parents who are encouraging and motivating have kids with higher self-esteem and confidence.
• Nutrition: A well-balanced diet is essential to the various stages of child development. Parents often include a fortified milk powder like Enfagrow A+ in their children’s regular diet to ensure they receive the essential nutrients and macronutrients for proper development.
• Physical Activity: This plays a significant role not only in the physical, but also the social development of a child.
• Mental Stimulus: Technology can provide this through what is known as scaffolding, which is very important in the various stages of child development of cognitive skills, says an article in Education.com

How Technology Can Help Child Development

Experts say that technology meant for children should be interactive. So, it’s a good idea to replace their television watching time with something like a kids tablet. Such a device can help in the following ways:

1. Improves Language Skills: These are apps that read out stories, helps learn and trace out the alphabets and increases vocabulary.
2. Improves Hand-eye Coordination: When there are moving objects on a screen that children need to touch or shift, hand-eye coordination is enhanced.
3. Promotes School Readiness: Games motivate children to learn and also encourage them to follow instructions.
4. Increases the Capacity for Visual Attention: Children need to pay more attention to complete tasks in learning games.
5. Enhances Social Skills: Through interaction with different elements (such as children or animals) in a game, social skills are honed.
6. Increases Motivation to Complete Tasks: Apps usually have an applause and/or a virtual reward at the end of each tasks, which encourages children to complete them.
7. Hones Problem Solving Skills: Games based on solving problems or making decisions can significantly boost cognitive development.

Technology also encourages the spirit of exploring, increases exposure to diverse information and help a child develop more dynamic spatial skills.