Playtimes HK Magazine September 2017 Issue | Page 45

often these claims don’t stack up. It
says, “Most apps parents find under
the ‘educational’ category in app stores
have no such evidence of efficacy,
target only rote academic skills, are not
based on established curricula and use
little or no input from developmental
specialists or educators.” The only way
to know how ‘educational’ an app or
game is, is to research it yourself.
Tired eyes
without the human interaction that
makes them such valuable develop-
mental opportunities. For example,
when a parent and child cuddle up for
story time, the child has to process
the parent’s voice, tone and meaning,
visualise the characters and scenery,
and work out the storyline. When a
screen tells a story, the words, sounds
and pictures are perfectly synchronised
into one easy-to-digest package, so the
technology almost does the thinking
for the child. Children also need to see
faces to start the complex process of
working out expressions, which can
help with developing empathy and
social skills.
Brain training?
Another potential downside of our
gadgets might be that they are just
too good – if a screen captivates and
soothes our children so reliably, it
might become the go-to tool every
time we need to divert our children
from potential meltdown situations, or
even if they are just a bit fidgety and,
well, childlike, when out in public. In the
journal Pediatrics, Dr Jenny Radesky,
clinical instructor in developmental-
behavioural pediatrics at the Boston
University School of Medicine, asked, “If
these devices become the predominant
method to calm and distract young
children, will they be able to develop
their own internal mechanisms of
self-regulation?”
Others have speculated on whether
the emphasis on rewards in games
could skew our toddlers’ expectations
when it comes to completing real tasks
in real life. In the digital world, children
usually get an exciting audio-visual
reward when they master a task, which
stimulates the reward pathway in the
brain and gives a buzz of achievement.
But how will that child find real-life
learning when it doesn’t come with a
reward at every step of the way?
When it comes to learning, many of
the games and apps that our littlies are
engrossed in claim to be ‘educational’.
However, a 2016 policy statement from
the American Academy of Pediatrics
(AAP) cites research that shows that
When it’s time to tuck our little ones up
in bed, we may find that screen time is
shortening their slumbers. While sleep
is crucial for children’s development, a
study of 715 families done by Birkbeck
College, University of London, found
that every hour of a child’s touchscreen
use was linked to 16 minutes’ less
sleep, and those who used screens
most took longer to fall asleep.
The study, in the journal Scientific
Reports, couldn’t pinpoint exactly
why this was the case, but possible
explanations include that blue light
from the device disrupted the child’s
body clock, or the content had an
over-stimulating effect, or that the child
was up later playing on the device and
this had eaten into bedtime, or that
those who sought out longer screen
time might be more likely to suffer from
other conditions such as hyperactivity.
More research is needed, but for the
time being, it seems that more swiping
equals less snoozing.
September 2017
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