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SAN DIEGO - More than one-third of babies are tapping on smartphones and tablets even before they learn to walk or talk, and by 1 year of age, one in seven toddlers is using devices for at least an hour a day, according to a study to be presented Saturday, April 25 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego.
SAN DIEGO - More than one-third of babies are tapping on smartphones and tablets even before they learn to walk or talk, and by 1 year of age, one in seven toddlers is using devices for at least an hour a day, according to a study to be presented Saturday, April 25 at the Pediatric Academic Societies (PAS) annual meeting in San Diego.
Wow! IMHO, those children are not getting off to a good start. "Parents of children ages 6 months to 4 years old who were at a hospital-based pediatric clinic that serves a low-income, minority community were recruited to fill out the survey." I wonder if the results would have different if the survey was given in a more affluent area? I am speculating that most parents would be better educated and have read more about the damage of too much screen time on young brains, OTOH, it is likely that more of the wealthier parents would have Smartphones, tablets and computers.
I guess it's cheaper than a baby sitter and more convenient than actually taking care of the child themselves. Before that, these same parents parked the kids in front of the TV to be raised by Barney and Elmo.
My mom used to give me her keys to play with. I hope you folks who are letting your 6 month olds use your smart phones are monitoring their useage. Hate to see babies making prank calls or watching porn!
My mom used to give me her keys to play with. I hope you folks who are letting your 6 month olds use your smart phones are monitoring their useage. Hate to see babies making prank calls or watching porn!
lol all babies love phones though. My 17 month old has a pretend phone that she says hello into all day lol.
I used to think this was an awful thing, but now I realiZe it's just the way of the future. Technology is not going away, and it's only going to continue to evolve at an extremely rapid pace. Now everyone has touch screen smart phones capable of answering any question you can think of..10 years ago it was flip phones everyone had. They weren't fancy at all.
Now kids are being introduced to this at a very young age. They basically grow up with it. It's what they know. These same kids are going to grow up being experts on this type of technology, and will be able to improve it even more when they grow up. In 20-25 years it will be completely different still.
I'm sure there are instances when these devices are abused, similar to tv. However, I can think of many times when my children have "used" smart phones or tablets at various ages. At 6 months, no child is getting anything out of a smart phone other than lights and sounds. How is this different from any other toy?
Not every parent is handing their kid a phone to babysit. My children are allowed to watch shows on a tablet because I have more control over what they were watching and they aren't exposed to awful commercials for both merchandising and other terrible tv programs. Its funny when we ask them what they want for birthdays or Christmas. They get pretty creative because they have no idea about all the junk that's pushed on kids from TV.
Several videos and apps have been very helpful in preparing for reading. Admittedly purely anecdotal, but my four year old can focus for an hour or more on an activity (not screen based) and has been reading for the last 6 months. I have seen no ill effect from "screen time". If anything, he is behind in technology compared to his peers and will need to catch up in Kindergarten next fall.
I used to think this was an awful thing, but now I realiZe it's just the way of the future. Technology is not going away, and it's only going to continue to evolve at an extremely rapid pace. Now everyone has touch screen smart phones capable of answering any question you can think of..10 years ago it was flip phones everyone had. They weren't fancy at all.
Now kids are being introduced to this at a very young age. They basically grow up with it. It's what they know. These same kids are going to grow up being experts on this type of technology, and will be able to improve it even more when they grow up. In 20-25 years it will be completely different still.
lol all babies love phones though. My 17 month old has a pretend phone that she says hello into all day lol.
True, but they put their mouths on stuff too. Nasty ( for the baby's sake) and if that drool kills the phone.. You're SOL. Lol
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