Christmas has just come and gone and with it the plethora of gifts and toys our children have received from family members far and near. In our days we received plastic or rubber toys, shoes, books or annuals, dolls, building blocks, items of clothing, board games like scrabble etc. but not so today. Technology has changed everything, such that most toys and gifts children request today are gadgets with one form of computer software or the other. They want different hand-held games, computerized toys, tablets in different shapes and sizes fully loaded with apps, games and images to keep even a 4-month old infant engaged for hours on end. They come in fancy colours, child-friendly covers and are user-friendly with child-centered technology, such that even a 12-month old child can figure it out. Over the holidays, I watched my 20 month old niece pick up an iPad and without any tutorials from anyone, set about unlocking the screen to access the content.  She swiped the screen to the right to access the password screen and as it came up, she tapped it exactly four times, in an attempt to unlock the screen, except that she didn’t know which numbers to input! When the screen was finally unlocked for her, she knew the app to click on and interacted with it so easily, apparently delighted to play the games and watch programmes on it. I was amazed!

Technology has indeed come a long way, and the truth is that it has been and will continue to be of tremendous help to us. It offers such vast opportunities and places the entire world at one’s feet, such that you can achieve anything from anywhere in the world. Being able to do your grocery shopping from the comfort of your home, without going to the store or market would have been considered impossible twenty odd years ago. Bagging a degree without leaving the confines of your home or homeland, or sitting your exam via Zoom, Skype or any of the trending virtual conferencing platforms is an advantage that is simply priceless. Being able to keep your child engaged for hours on your ‘tablet’ while busy getting your house chores done as a housewife or cooperatively strapped to a stroller while you shop, without being worried about him or her throwing a tantrum (except your battery runs out), is absolute bliss. It even gives you more value for your money when the same gadget doubles up as your phone, tablet for sending e-mails, recipe book, virtual boutique, supermarket, virtual classroom for your executive MBA lectures, library for both leisure and professional books and your ‘go-to place’ for everything! That certainly is ’20 for the price of one’ (Buy One Get Twenty Free)!

As advantageous and indispensable as technology has become, it is necessary for us to sit back and weigh its pros and cons, particularly as it concerns the development of today’s child. We have to be aware of some of the remote consequences of technology on the learning abilities and ultimate development of our children, otherwise we will be doing them and ourselves a disservice.

I had stumbled on a short TED Ex teaching session  by Dimitri Christakis, a Pediatrician, Researcher and Parent who had carried out a research on “the effect of Television watching on the brains of children” and was amazed by his findings. Christakis whose research was based on brain development concluded from his experiments that even from the first day of life, there is a discernible physiological reaction to what children can hear or are exposed to. Pet scans of the brains of children from different environments (deprived children in care homes and children in regular homes) revealed that inadequate or inappropriate stimulation of the brain of a very young child within the environment has untoward consequences on the developing brain. The hypotheses he set out to prove was not just that under stimulation was detrimental to brain development (and ultimately affects other areas of development), but that inappropriate or over-stimulation of the brain particularly through technology (TV & Tablet screens) has equally, if not more damaging effects on the brains of very young children, which may affect them later in life.

Children today are being technologized at a relatively alarming rate, compared to about 45 years ago. Statistics show that in 1970 an average child started watching TV at about the age of 4years, today they start at 4 months and even watch these screens for longer! The average 5 year old today is spending about 40% of their waking hours watching TV or  one screen or the other, and may I add that even more, if they are in a pre-school where cartoon watching is part of the daily schedule or routine for want of nothing else to do!

The over-stimulation hypothesis claims that prolonged exposure to rapid image change during critical periods of brain development (the early years), would pre-condition the mind of the child to expect  high levels of stimulation, which would lead to low attention levels in later life. For such children, school work and regular activities become too boring because there is no frenetic activity taking place or things popping out from the screen. It further explains that what we are doing inadvertently, is conditioning the minds of children to a ‘reality’ that doesn’t exist. I remember the classic case of a child in one of our preschool classrooms who loved the ‘Ben-Ten’ cartoon character so much that his parents obliged him the entire cartoon character paraphernalia, including the ‘Ben-Ten’ wrist watch. Half-way through the teacher’s presentation or his independent work, this child would slap his wrist watch and repeat ‘Ben-Ten change’, making growling sounds and apparently expecting to change into something else! For this child inattention had set in and this obviously made the teacher’s job more difficult! This is one of the reasons why Montessori philosophy does not advocate the exposure of children to fantasy before the age of six years, rather it encourages the fostering of the child’s imagination through exposure to real things.

Christakis’ research showed that the things we expose our children to, will either impede or enhance their attention later in life. The research revealed that the more children watch TV before the age of 3, the more they are likely to have attention problems at school age. For each hour of TV they watch before the age of 3, their lack of attention is likely to increase by 10%, compared to a child who doesn’t watch TV. Entertainment programmes increase inattention by 60%, while violent programmes with more rapid sequence increase inattention by 110%. Conversely, cognitive stimulation (reading, visiting educational places, or playing educational games with children etc.) has been proven to reduce inattention problems later in life. The same research revealed that each hour of cognitive stimulation reduced inattention in children by about 30%.

We can therefore conclude that it is good to expose children to technology because it is the future, but the question is “can there be too much exposure?”. Please judge for yourself.