I am researching the pros and cons of Technology in the early years of children. I want to know everything there is to know on putting a child in front of a computer and what affects it will have on a child. I also want to know about letting children sit in front of a TV and watch it for a few minutes or hours and what lasting effect it will have on them. Playing on tablets as a young child if that is healthy for their brain and if the education games on the tablets are actually teaching the children anything or if it is doing more damage to their brain than anything.
The use of computers and Technology in early childhood programs is beginning to rise in early childhood programs. Family childcare settings however have the least amount of computers and the use of technology in their programs however most of childcare programs director does use some type of computer for their book keeping, and other childcare relating tasks. One of the pros to teaching young children to learn how to use the computer is that technology is their future and so introducing it to them a little bit as a young child will help them in the long run.
Many educators and parents are trying to figure out a happy medium of integrating technology into the classroom but not over doing it and giving the kids too much screen time and enough unstructured play time in classroom. The biggest factor is that children can learn literacy using their computer or their tablet however this is not saying it is ok to put your child in front of the tv and give them meaningless screen time that their brain will shut down and they will just be in trans watching the tv and not be learning anything.
Technology should only be used when it is appropriate for the age of the child and not as a babysitter. Under the age of two screen time should not be used as there is many other things that the child would benefit from doing. From age 3 to 5 technology should only be used when the child is able to do it with open ended exploration. Meaning there is no right or wrong answer and they can look at and discover what they want to discover. From ages 5 to 8 they are moving forward and are able to start researching more and using technology to start getting answers to there question.
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