Is Your Preschooler a Techno-Tot?

Author: Alison Johnson

Some days, I feel like a technological cavewoman compared to my 8-year-old son. He knows how to click around quickly on the computer to find any information he needs, from facts about tigers for a recent science report - which he typed up himself - to instructional videos on how to play his favorite Beatles songs and perform magic tricks.

I'm not sure exactly when he started using the computer, but I know he was familiar with the mouse and keypad by the time he got to kindergarten. That year, his teacher used computer time as an incentive for good behavior for all her students, and all her students wanted that time.

But as computers become more central at home, school and work, how young is too young for children to sit down in front of a screen? And how much time on the electronic devices is too much for kids not yet old enough for elementary school?

As with many other activities, moderation is the key, said Amy Behm, Education Director at the Downtown Hampton Child Development Center, a nonprofit preschool that serves 275 children at four locations.

"In today's world, you just can't tell children they can't use computers," Behm said. "You have to be realistic. It's part of our environment; it's in every household. Parents are using it, so young children are going to be curious, and they're going to want to see what their older brother is doing."

Before age 3, children generally don't have the hand-eye coordination needed to use a mouse, Behm said. They also tend to have very short attention spans.

Even once a child is ready, Behm and many other early childhood development experts recommend no more than 10 to 15 minutes on a computer a day for small children. Parents also shouldn't use computers as baby sitters or as a substitute for books, free play and more hands-on activities to build gross motor, language and social skills.

"It can over-stimulate children if used too much - it can make them unable to relate to the real world," Behm said. "There's NO substitute for the real thing. Toddlers learn best through their five senses, especially taste, touch and smell; computers only use sight and sound. Also, children learn so much better by doing and through play than on a machine."

Waiting until a child shows interest in a computer is usually best, said Shannon Northup, Hospital Teacher at Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk. Northup works with preschoolers who are patients at the hospital.

Parents who introduce machines to a child younger than 3 should stick to simple cause-and-effect actions - games that require just one click of a mouse to generate an exciting image, for example - supervise the activity and set time limits, Northup said. Young kids also can begin to learn to be gentle with computer parts, whether they're using a smaller, child-sized mouse and keyboards with large letters or regular equipment.

By the time children are 3 or 4, they usually are developmentally ready to begin exploring and learning on a computer, Northup said. Once they figure out some operating basics, most will enjoy simple software that teaches about letters, numbers, colors and shapes, especially programs with fun graphics and catchy music (adult games are too fast, loud and confusing). They also can look for letters and numbers on the keyboard.

"The benefits can be invaluable," Northup said. "Research has shown that 3- and 4-year old children who use computers with supporting activities that reinforce the major objectives of the programs have significantly greater gains when compared to children without computer experiences in similar classrooms. These include gains in intelligence, nonverbal skills, structural knowledge, long-term memory, manual dexterity, problem solving, abstraction and conceptual skills."

But again, time limits are important. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no more than one to two hours of screen time a day for young kids, which includes television and computer. "A good balance of activities is important," Northup said. "It is important to balance TV or computer time and physical activity time, so that your child is getting plenty of physical exercise."

Close supervision also continues to be a must, both because kids can stumble on inappropriate content and because - just as with reading books - they gain more with an adult discussing what they see and asking questions ("What color is the dog's fur?", maybe, or "What do you think will happen next?").

"A child will get so much more out of it if the parent is interacting with them," Behm said.

Parents should make sure they've backed up any valuable files they've stored on a computer with a disk or other safeguard, Northup added. There are programs that allow an adult to lock the contents of a drive so nothing gets accidentally deleted.

Or families can try what mine has done: pass along the big, ancient, semi-dying desktop computer to the children and store important files on an adults-only laptop. Just be sure to talk about the rules for using the big computer so the kids don't ever think they're in control of it.

I'm actually hoping my son and his younger brother will keep up their interest in computers, because I know Technological Cavewoman Mom will need their help sooner rather than later. Plus, one of them has pretty lousy handwriting.

Source: Tidewater Parent Magazine