Screen Time for Young Children- the Ins

Now for the first installment on that series of articles I mentioned about screen time for young children. Today I will focus on how using screen based learning opportunities can help young children- the "ins" of screen time for young children. BTW- if you have a moment, please respond to the screen time poll to your right.

Knowing what the "ins" are for screen time and young children (ages 0-8) is tricky. Besides TV, computer/video games didn't enter my home until I was 10, the age my son is now. (Dark Castle on the MacPlus, anyone)?  I know that I enjoyed playing video games and reaching the elusive "end" of the game. My brother and I would have "friendly" competition to see who could beat the game first, (Super Mario- 1-3). We share simpatico to this day involving the goal setting and surmountable challenges posed by early video games. My brother and I both have wicked hand eye coordination and ability to problem solve with trial and error. (Thanks Mario and Luigi)! We otherwise are high functioning humans (both valedictorians and hold Master's degrees), but how much did video games actually have to do with that?

Spending a couple of hours on video games a day at age 10 was one thing, but what about children in those sensitive developmental years, particularly ages 0-8? Nowadays, 5-year-olds who play Minecraft are not hard to find. I haven't watched PBS Kids with my son for a while, a time-tested, excellent screen based learning opportunity in its own right,  but at the time ABCMouse was running infomercial after infomercial about their early learning software, featuring 2-year-olds who had learned to read. What will this mean for our future?

Because technology has developed so quickly, it's not surprising it has made its way into early learning classrooms as well. For instance, when I taught Kindergarten, I would use and recommend that parents use the BOB book app. I'll admit it, I loved everything about BOB books- the app as well. Besides that, however, I didn't have a computer in the classroom or a computer lab at my school for general student use. Time spent working in schools as a music teacher/early childhood assistant meant seeing the occasional computer learning station, and computer lab, but not much more than that. Most of my work was for private preschool and K-8 schools, however.

Sending my son to public school Kindergarten - 2nd grade meant getting codes for RAZ Kids and Dreambox. Students used the apps twice weekly in the computer lab. At age 10, my son is both reading and doing math above his grade level- doing great academically. However, so was I at his age, and I didn't have any of that. Somewhat based on data gleaned from these two apps, along with some assessments taken on the computer, teachers were able to determine his reading and math level, and give him supplemental help if needed. I can tell you for sure from some of the research I have done for my Technology for Leaders of Learning class that schools nowadays can store and track student data more than ever- using learning management systems to mark the upward trends created by being more responsive to student needs.

Let try to summarize the "ins" of screen time for young children then, shall we? First, they are a bit of an enigma. It's not easy to give a personal opinion because not only did most parents not have the same type of screen based learning opportunities that their young children do, they haven't been around long enough to really show their long term effects. Learning apps seem to help teachers know how to help students better, which in turn drives student achievement, definitely an "in." Hand-eye coordination, problem solving, creativity- these are skills children can develop on a wide variety of early learning apps. Let's not forget kid friendly TV for early learning, such as PBS Kids. And yes, a 2-year-old can even learn to read and practice basic math skills with software like ABCMouse. That's pretty good, isn't it? Or is it? Tomorrow, I'll write a bit about the "outs" of screen time for young children, in search of a happy medium of course. Stay tuned!

Check out these blogs for more info on screen time for young children:
DigiParenthood
Fred Rogers Center Blog
Jump in for Healthy Kids