2023-07-13 16:52:52
Up to the age of two, children do not need digital consumption, but rather more exploration to develop their cognitive, language, motor and emotional skills (Getty)
The use of screens in early childhood brings with it problems in language acquisition. According to specialists, the figures are alarming and indicate that 60% of children do not reach milestones in the development of verbal communication before the age of three, and this has been observed with more emphasis worldwide since the pandemic.
This was warned today by the pediatric neuropsychologist certified by Harvard University in Protection of Children’s Rights Carina Castro Fumero. “Before, we saw that due to the use of screens, children presented a minimum delay or that their comprehension and expression were altered, but post-pandemic numbers are alarming,” reflected the expert, who stressed that “both UNICEF and the WHO called to be alerts and requested new control and supervision guidelines”. “Before, it was recommended that children not be exposed to screens before the age of two; now they ask that it be extended until before the three of them, ”she assured.
The World Health Organization (WHO), in its first recommendations on the use of screens in early childhood, urged that children under one year of age should not be exposed to any type of electronic device. In addition, they ensure that children between the ages of two and four should also not have more than an hour per day of what they call “sedentary screen time”, which includes computer games or television.
“Studies continue to show associations between prolonged exposure in early childhood and cognitive-language and social/emotional delays” (Getty)
In this regard, Castro Fumero explained, in dialogue with Radio Miter, that “before the age of three is when language milestones are achieved; the child learns to speak through the observation of the other. When he watches another adult speak, neurons called ‘mirror neurons’ are activated in the child’s brain, preparing him to speak. That is why before the age of two, 11 months and 30 days, that is, before the age of three, children should not be exposed to any type of screen and should be exposed to life, to the world, to adults. that they talk to them, to the interaction, to go to a care center where there are no screens; That would be the ideal scenario and that is what the WHO recommends.”
Sonia Almada has a degree in Psychology from the University of Buenos Aires, an International Master’s in Human Rights for women and children, gender and intrafamily violence (UNESCO), and in a recent note for Infobae she cited a publication from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), which reviewed all existing evidence on the impact of digital media on children, including television, video, and mobile/interactive technologies, and the potential educational benefit and related health problems in young children (0 to 5 years).
“The conclusions were that children under the age of two need practical exploration and social interaction with trusted caregivers to develop their cognitive, language, motor, and socio-emotional skills,” said the specialist, adding: “This means being able to play with toys and various materials, such as plasticine or sensory dough, different textures and aromas, transferring liquids and interaction with food. Social interaction refers to the bonds that infants and toddlers develop with the adults around them and with other children.
60% of children do not achieve language development milestones before the age of three and this has been observed with more emphasis worldwide since the pandemic (Getty)
“Studies continue to show associations between prolonged exposure in early childhood and cognitive, language, and social/emotional delays,” Almada emphasized.
And following specifying that “at the age of two a child must say between 20 and 30 words”, the Harvard expert stressed that “there are children who reach the age of three and do not speak, speak badly or pronounce badly”. “They don’t seem to understand what they’re being told,” he said. And when developmental milestones are measured, we realize that they are not achieving them at two or three years old, and there are even five-year-old children in speech therapy.”
Asked regarding the applications that many parents offer their children, believing that they are educational, in the sense that they introduce colors, numbers, or words in different languages to children, Castro Fumero opined: “There is a broad consensus that none of these apps actually stimulate what they say they stimulate. In other words, they automatically teach numbers and colors, but children learn language from various places, not only by repeating, but it has to do with internalizing, it has to do with feeling, it has to do with neural connections that they are made in various areas of the brain; It is not just seeing and repeating, so the automatism proposed by these apps means that this child misses out on the opportunity to stimulate their neurons and generate good foundations for language development”.
“So, what happens to those children later on when they are four, five or six years old?” Castro Fumero wondered. And he replied: “Since they did not correctly learn language, comprehension and expression, they are children who have low reading comprehension, difficulty in correctly expressing their feelings, their thoughts, difficulty consolidating the second stage of language acquisition, so to speak, which involves the greater expression and understanding that is acquired the rest of the years”.
For the Harvard expert, “screens are the cheapest and most efficient lullaby; we turn them on and the child remains motionless” (Getty)
According to a poll At Parents Together, a parent-run organization with more than 2 million members, the vast majority of adults are concerned regarding a massive increase in their children’s screen time. Almost half of the children of those surveyed (48%) spent during the 2020 lockdown and part of 2021 more than six hours a day online, an increase of almost 500% since before the crisis.
And as if that were not enough, what specialists called “screen stacking” occurs, that is, the use of various devices —cell phones, television, computers— simultaneously, an increasingly common habit among the youngest. A study of researchers from the University of Leicester published in Pediatric Act revealed that 59% of girls use two or more screens at the same time during the weekdays following school. And this figure reached 65% on weekday nights. Meanwhile, more than two-thirds (68%) used two or more screens at the same time on weekends.
Asked regarding the negative effects of the pandemic on boys, the Harvard expert pointed out that it “significantly affected the language part.” “In addition, it was seen that what has to do with social skills is significantly affected, and that children who have been excessively isolated have an increase in a neurotransmitter that changes their DNA and makes them more violent,” he described. So we are seeing children who are more violent, more irritable, more aggressive, and all because of that excessive isolation because human beings have a social brain.
“There is an increase in the number of mental disorders of 48% in children under 14 years of age and they are mainly anxiety disorders, depression and suicide in adolescence,” warned Castro Fumero, for whom the most serious thing is that “the curve is ascending In other words, it is not that once the pandemic was over the figures stabilized and returned to the values prior to 2020; the numbers continue to increase because both at the government level and at the level of each family, children are not being contained because they do not know how to do it”.
In addition to the lost social skills, experts are concerned regarding the increase in sedentary lifestyles in children as a result of the use of screens
“Even televisions,” said the expert, and remarked: “When we talk regarding screens, they are all.”
It is that as he explained, “screens are designed to generate addiction because they produce high levels of dopamine.” And to make it clear, she gave an example: “When a child is beginning to speak and says ‘mom’ and the mother congratulates him, he produces dopamine; when he is starting to walk and his dad sees him and applauds him, he produces dopamine, but they are small doses of healthy dopamine, for the healthy development of his brain. Now, the screens set a very high dopamine level —much higher than healthy production— because the child feels good, is entertained quickly, and this is the beginning of the addiction circuit”.
“What specialists recommend is that before the age of eight, if the parents already feel that there is some kind of hook, addiction or obsession with this subject, what should be done is to eliminate it from the child’s life,” he advised. Of course she is going to ask for it, but the adult must somehow channel this request in a different way and accompany and validate the minor’s emotions at that moment (because of course she is going to get angry and cry).
Parents not only have to have the information regarding this, they have to be emotionally willing to do this”. In this sense, Castro Fumero recognized that “screens solve parenting”. “They are par excellence the most economical and most efficient nanny. In other words, at any time we turn it on and the child remains immobile and allows us to do everything,” he said, while explaining that this happens “because when a child trains his brain to pay attention from a very early age with activities like coloring, playing with masses, etc. that in the brain produces Alpha waves, while when they are in front of the screen they generate Beta waves, which are softer, slower, of hypnosis; That is why when the screen is removed they get irritated, because they are being taken out of a state of complete trance and attention is not being trained”.
Keep reading
The negative effect of screens in early childhood: fewer games and more problems in social interaction Children’s use of screens increased 500% during the pandemic, according to a study Two-thirds of children spend evenings and weekends watching up to four screens at the same time Screens in the crosshairs: why the WHO established new limitations on its use in childhood
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