The claim that children should limit their smartphone usage time has been repeated many times.
Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are also well known for limiting their children's use of smartphones. The pioneers of the industry also knew how smart their phones were.
On the other hand, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that parents limit the use of smartphones by one hour per day for children aged 2 to 5 years, and that children who are 6 years of age or older are allowed to increase their time a little bit more.
The message that we want to convey at this society is not just to limit the use of smartphones by children, but it is good to have enough sleep at night through more meaningful activities such as playing with other children at that time .
So what about parents?
In a new study, we looked at how parents use smartphones to affect their children's development. But the results are not so good.
A lost conversation
Erika Christakis, an early childhood educator and writer, writes in an article in the Atlantic that if a parent is addicted to a smartphone, it harms the child's development.
Smartphone users average 85 smartphones a day. Nearly half (46%) of Americans say they can not live without a smartphone.
One of the serious problems with distracting parenting is that it damages the language development of the child and the language has the greatest influence on academic achievement.
Christakis mentions research that shows how important dialogue is to brain development.
"In the process of passing from infancy to infancy, all of the parent's voice patterns, such as the level of the sound, the simple grammar, and the emotions of the sound affect these children. Adults can ignore them, but babies do not According to one study, if you were constantly telling the story of your heart to an infant between 11 and 14 months old, you would know twice as many words when you were 2 years old compared to a non-infant. "
These important interactions are at risk of disappearing because of text messages, e-mails, or instantgrams coming into the parent's smartphone.
Loss of Opportunity
It is not easy for parents to teach their children words, but if you stop teaching them in the middle, it is likely to be in vain.
In an experiment with 38 mothers with a two-year-old, I asked mothers to teach their children two new words, one at a time. In the process of teaching the first word, I called her mother 's smartphone, and she stopped teaching and was called. I did not interrupt my mother while teaching the second word. As a result, the children learned the second word, but the first word did not.
Christakis also argues that children are trying to attract parents. In other words, if parents are distracted with their smartphones in their hands, children who want to attract parents' attention are more likely to act unconsciously and behave more and more badly.
Increased risk
Christakis points out that when parents are distracted, they put their children at risk.
According to another study by Christa Kiss, the number of hospital visits for children under the age of five has increased in urban areas where 3G communication is possible.
From 2005 to 2012, the number of injured children under the age of five has increased by 10% as 3G coverage has expanded. Researchers in the study say that parents often overlook smartphones, which makes them less likely to supervise children.
Parents who are addicted to smartphones
Many smartphone users are addicted. It's the symptom of trying to use your smartphone to check your smartphone, get angry if you can not verify your smartphone, or even if your smartphone is not appropriate or dangerous.
Therefore, smartphone addiction not only cuts off the relationship between parents and children, but also the symptoms of parents can become more serious. Christa Keith warns:
"Parents who are indifferent to their children (by smartphone addiction) tend to be more angry than those who do not."
But that does not mean that Christakis is over-protecting your child. It is better to play with the children at the time to look through the smartphone after finishing the task. You have to give your children independence, but the problem is that even when parents are together, they do not.
"We may be choosing the worst kind of parenting, because it does not always keep us from doing our child's behavior, but we do not share the emotional rapport we need."
This is not good for parents. Just as you do not have a chance to think while you can not take your hand off a digital device.
"It's time for the parents to forget the idea that they should interfere with every single act of their children, let them play at the playground, but the children are okay, but when you're with your child, please put that damn smartphone to one side. "
Source: World Economic Forum, "It's not kids' screen time you should worry about
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