Six months into Covid-19 pandemic, one undeniable truth has emerged --- for kids of all ages, screen time has skyrocketed. Children are spending far more time in front of the screens now because of school closure. Classrooms have been replaced by online learning. Time on the playground is now spent playing video games and watching videos. Certainly, all that screen time is not good for our children.
A wider intervention of technology over the last decade not only has changed the way we behave, think and interact but also shaped and shifted the paradigm in which we lived. We are living in such a digital paradigm where our children grow up in a world surrounded by technology and the internet. Over the last six years, Bangladesh has seen a dramatic increase in the amount of technology available to and used by children.
Here children no more play with the toys, rather they are increasingly getting addicted to smart-phones, tablets, computers, laptops, game box and so on. Thus technology is consuming a significant amount of children’s growing-up time while helping them develop an identity and connect with the virtual world. Although technology does provide many positive benefits for learning, it also affects overall development of a child in a negative way.
With the innovation of new technologies, today’s children can learn many things we have not even dreamed of. Children’s access to technology poses both negative and positive impacts. The virtual world helps children to exploit a new communicative paradigm. Experts are of the opinion that today’s children are able to ascertain between competing facts more accurately and make decisions more quickly. Also access to technology helps children increase their cognitive and analytical skills.
Parents, teachers and policymakers should endeavour to
limit recreational screen time and prioritise healthy daily
routine throughout childhood and adolescence
One of the biggest differences in the way that children live today is that they don’t get as much exercise as their previous generations used to do. This is because technology such as computers, smart phones and television encourages them to be sedentary.
However, on the other hand, the impact of prolonged screen-time could change how a child brain develops. Also, prolonged screen-time can lead to stress because chronic stress created from looking at a screen changes hormone levels which increase irritability. This change in hormone levels can lead to depression. It is found that those who use too much technology are more likely to develop the same brain chemistry as substance abusers. International Journal of Child Health and Human Development said kids have a lack of motivation for activity due to overuse of technology. Hence, leveraging the usage of technologies in child has become the need of the hour.
A recent study reveals that children who spend more than two hours a day looking at a screen have worse memory, language skills and attention span. Considering the situation, parents, teachers and guardians should become more concerned and compel the children to spend less screen time using digital technology. Parents, teachers and policymakers should endeavour to limit recreational screen time and prioritise healthy daily routine throughout childhood and adolescence.
There is a significant amount of support and interest in the early childhood education sector for incorporating ICT in meaningful and authentic ways into the curriculum and day-to-day practices of early childhood education, to pave the way for unprecedented learning opportunities. But at the same time, several early childhood professionals, parents and child advocacy groups are talking about the detrimental effects of using computers and other digital technology at early childhood level on children’s cognitive, social and emotional development.
Some critics have argued that passive use of technology may replace active play, social interaction among children and relationship with adults. These opinions are contradicted by many research evidences, which show that ICT alone cannot facilitate learning and development of children to their full potential.
For effective and successful integration of ICT in early childhood years there should be active engagement of children, interactivity between teacher and children, opportunity for peer-to-peer learning, positive feedback by parents or teachers, group participation and scope of using technology in real life context.
Sayeed Hossain Shuvro is Editorial Assistant, Bangladesh Post
