February 17, 2018

Did you know that today's parents give their toddlers tablets, smartphones and video game consoles to play with? It's true! What happened to playing and talking with babies? Social games, pretending, reading, nursery rhymes, cause and effect toys, singing, and finger plays are where it's at for young children, if you want to foster their development! Yes, I agree that technology is important and necessary in our world today and that we couldn't live without it. But children need first to learn to talk, communicate, play and interact socially. They cannot learn these skills through technology. At the risk of offending some other speech-language pathologists, I personally don't even like most of the speech therapy apps that have flooded the app world. I'm sure that they have a place, such as for homework with older children, but for me, they just seem to fall short of providing quality interactions and dynamic therapy activities for my clients. That should come as no surprise to my friends, as I am not a big fan of using a lot of technology. I just recently bought a smartphone that I could actually enjoy using and I am ....oh, never mind how old I am!

A new survey of U.S. parents commissioned by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) has found a significant number of parents reporting technology use by very young children. More than half of the parents surveyed have concerns about the potential negative impact of technology use on the ability of the young to communicate. Recently I was an exhibitor at my local YMCA for Healthy Kids Day, and I can corroborate this fact. Most parents with whom I spoke wanted to reduce the amount of time that their children spend using technology. For more information on how to cut down your child's time using technology, please see an earlier blog, "Time to Unplug: 10 Tips for Managing Kids’ Tech Time".

Conducted this past March, the survey polled 1,000 parents of children ages 0–8. Its release occurs during Better Hearing& Speech Month, a national observance that raises awareness of speech, language, and hearing disorders—and spotlights the importance of communication health. Sixty-eight percent of surveyed parents' 2-year-olds use tablets. Meanwhile, 59% use smartphones, and 44% use video game consoles.

Two year olds do not need tablets or smartphones. They will get plenty of exposure when they are older, believe me. And then you will be like the parents I spoke to at the YMCA a couple of weeks ago, wishing that they could cut down the time their kids are using technology. The danger is that without the talking and interacting time, their development will be delayed. We are in unprecedented times, and really have no idea of what impact this technology will have on society. We do know, however, that talking and human interaction, lead to better social skills and communication skills, which are the essence of being human.

Thanks for reading,

Cindy McCallum, M.S.c., R.SLP, SLP (C), CCC-SLP

Registered Speech-Language Pathologist

Source:

American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA)