Wednesday, January 16, 2008
How young is too young?
As I re-read the Kaiser study on electronic media and young children for our first class, I kept thinking about a product I saw before the holidays: the Fisher-Price Easy-Link Internet Launch Pad. It's suggested for 3-5 year olds. Do 3-year olds need to surf the web? Should they? I haven't decided yet; what do you think?
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One of the students in a class I was taking last semester worked with a daycare helping kids (many very young ones) using "Squeak" to show them how to use a mouse and identify numbers and images, etc. in an interactive program.
It can do a lot more than that, but here's more info in an article on a similar project:
Squeak! Illinois Computer Science Outreach Program Uses Technology to Inspire Kids to Learn Through Play
I really struggle with this question myself, as I buy CD-ROM games for 1 1/2 - 3-year olds and watch 2-year olds play on the library's educational game computers for an hour (or more). Sure they're learning hand-eye coordination and will likely have better mouse skills than I do, but are we doing harm to their little bodies? As one who has struggled with tendonitis due to too much mousing (I worked my way through college as a CAD operator, which means a lot of clicking), I wonder about 3-year olds sitting in chairs designed for 8 year olds.
Of course that's just one issue - I still don't know about 3-year olds surfing the internet, but I do know that my friend's 18 month old son wants to go to the Thomas & Friends website whenever he sees anyone near a computer.
I get kind of excited when I think of the prospect of having kids one day and showing them how to use the internet! I am definitely more concerned about the amount of time spent on the internet rather than the age of the child. Maybe I'll splurge on a child-sized chair, desk, and wrist pad so my kids won't end up with early arthritis :)
Usually I'm pondering questions like "Hmm, what age will I let my kid play a first-person shooter?" Because you know, the family that surfs-the-internet-and-plays-games-together stays together. Or something like that.
Well, there were no first person shooter games when I was a kid, but I did get my first real gun when I was 10 (and I still have it). That point has little to do with technology, but it does make for an interesting cultural comparison of some kind...
My niece and nephew who are 3 and 2 respectively are so inundated with media all day long with the tv on from the time they wake up until they go to sleep. Sometimes the tv is muted and they are listening to music. I find it so difficult to be at their house, I feel worn out when we leave from all of the media overload. The idea of either of them on the internet concerns me mainly for the same reason that my sister-in-law has the tv on all day - "it's educational and they are learning." Sometimes I wonder if parents are so concerned about their children "falling behind" that they buy into the advertising for these things.
My niece and nephew who are 3 and 2 respectively are so inundated with media all day long with the tv on from the time they wake up until they go to sleep. Sometimes the tv is muted and they are listening to music. I find it so difficult to be at their house, I feel worn out when we leave from all of the media overload. The idea of either of them on the internet concerns me mainly for the same reason that my sister-in-law has the tv on all day - "it's educational and they are learning." Sometimes I wonder if parents are so concerned about their children "falling behind" that they buy into the advertising for these things.
I can add that my 3- and 4-year old nephew and niece love playing computer games, such as "Cat in the Hat" and "Blues Clues" games. My 3-year old nephew has a Leapster (handheld) game system that he also loves playing. Those games are all "educational," but he just likes driving the car around and crashing into things, not necessarily crashing into "the letter that ends the word 'bag'" as he is supposed to. Not that everything needs to be specifically teaching "school skills," but it doesn't seem to be teaching him things.
Another point to think about is even if kids do play software games, do they need to be online? I wonder why its necessary.
I also thought the parent reviews of the Fisher-Price Launch Pad were interesting. One even said her 2 1/2-year old had her own computer. Over and over, parents seemed so happy that it holds kids' attention for hours on end. What are the parents doing? Do we really want our very, very young children already spending hours at the computer screen?
I'm reading this as my 6-year-old daughter and 4-year-old are playing Diego's Rescue Game on noggin.com. They have never had any of the Fisher Price, Leapster or other types of kid computers, but when we purchased a new desktop computer, we kept our old computer and set it up in clear view for the kids to use. They access the internet, but only to play games on a few websites like Noggin, PBSKids, Playhouse Disney or Nick Jr. The games on those sites are pretty tame and nonviolent.
Our biggest challenge is to limit the time they spend on "screen time." Screen time includes television, computer, etc. We are a little more lenient when it is 9 degrees outside, but we try to make sure they don't spend "hours on end" and turn into screen potatoes.
I just wanted to add a note to Becky's comment about whether kids need to be online. When I was ordering CD-ROMs for our library's collection, I actually started to run into problems finding new games to buy because so many companies either decided not to compete with the online game opportunities (or the Wii, Playstation, etc., where games can't be copied and passed around), or they decided to turn their software into fee-based online games (JumpStart is an example of this). In the future I wonder whether CD-ROM games will be limited to a very small market.
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