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How much tech can children take?

Posted on 18 Nov 2011 at 10:24

“Technology is only one aspect of children’s lives,” says Stephen. “We have evidence about how the traditional toys are still the dominant toys for children. Most four-year-olds aren’t spending all their time on computers.”

While most experts shy away from setting actual targets for things such as screen time (arguing that every child is different), a Europe-wide programme called Developmentally Appropriate Technology in Early Childhood did lay down boundaries in a 2000 report, although these only relate to desktop computers.

“Typical use of any desktop computer application by a child should be comparatively short, usually no more than ten to 20 minutes for three-year-olds, extending to no more than 40 minutes by the age of eight,” the report, Children using ICT: the seven principles for good practice, found.

Increased interactivity makes it no more acceptable to leave a child sat in front of a computer for hours on end, than it did for today’s generation of parents to be babysat by the Blue Peter presenters, however. Parking young children in front of a LeapPad or the CBeebies website and expecting them to gain anything useful from the experience is futile, experts warn.

Making the child independent at the screen is possibly the worst thing you can do

The idea that technology will teach children comes partly from manufacturers and developers that have pushed independent learning. “Companies have tried to produce things that make children as independent as possible, when we know that young age groups need the technologies that provide possibilities for interaction between children and adults,” says Siraj-Blatchford. “Making the child independent at a screen is the worst thing you can do.”

Schooled in new technology

By the time children hit primary school, they’ll certainly be using computers in the classroom, and may even need technology at home for homework, keeping in touch with friends and exploring their interests. Many will have their own phone, too: 80% of eight to 15-year-olds own a mobile phone, according to a survey conducted by TNS earlier this year.

Yet arguments against the use of technology extend into this age bracket, and even within the education system some believe children should be kept away from gadgets until they go to secondary school.

“Computer skills of all types are becoming more necessary in today’s world, but we don’t believe it’s appropriate or relevant for children to become involved with them from a young age,” runs the philosophy of the humanist Steiner schools, which focus on improving children’s concentration and getting them physically and emotionally ready to learn. “In Steiner schools, computers aren’t generally introduced until secondary school.”

It’s a vastly different take from the Department of Education’s curriculum, which sets goals for what children should be getting from ICT in Key Stage 1, from ages five to seven. According to the current criteria: “Pupils explore ICT and learn to use it confidently to achieve specific outcomes. They start to use ICT to develop their ideas and record their creative work. They become familiar with hardware and software.”

E-learning experts argue that withholding computers at a young age could actually deprive children of modern communications skills. “One area of literacy that’s changing is the order in which things are presented – it isn’t linear, it’s organised spatially, and often some meaning is carried in the design, layout, images, sounds, movement, subtle changes in colour in a game – it’s all part of what literacy is in today’s world,” says Flewitt. “These are fundamental changes to operational literacy, the biggest since the printing press.”

According to Flewitt, the web also pushes critical analysis up the educational agenda – in a world moving away from textbook learning, critical analysis is more important. “You’re never too young to start thinking about things critically,” Flewitt says. “Children need to be thinking: ‘If I do this or read this screen, is this an advert or is it propaganda? What are the messages behind what I’m looking at here?’

“These days, with all the advertising that we have on screen-based media, it’s going to be increasingly important that they make up their own minds about what it is they’re reading, and not to just accept things. They have to learn that Wikipedia isn’t necessarily reliable, whereas with an old encyclopaedia you never doubted it.”