Talking about a gadget for children’s development, can gadgets have a positive impact on children’s development? In this digital era, experts believe it is impossible to prevent children from gadgets at all. If at home he is not given, he can be lent by his friends at school. Yes, you might not be able to keep your child away from gadgets. But no need to worry first.
The use of gadgets in children does not always have a negative impact. If applied correctly, playing gadgets also has benefits for children in stimulating growth and development.
The benefits of gadgets for children’s growth and development
Stimulate motor skills
Motor skills are abilities related to movements of body muscles such as lips, tongue, hands, and feet. Well, this child’s motor skills can apparently be trained through educational games available in gadgets, you know.
When holding a smartphone or tablet, your child will involve eye coordination and the movement of his fingers to open the application until successfully playing the game. He will follow the direction of the cursor when playing, press the right or left button, or point to the desired objects. This proves that indirectly, the presence of gadgets can train a child’s motor skills in his infancy.
Practicing ways of thinking
Experts agree that the development of existing technology can actually help to improve children’s cognitive abilities faster and better. Cognitive skills are abilities related to ways of thinking, remembering, making plans, to solving problems.
Now there are many interactive media, video games, or other educational programs that can stimulate thinking skills in children. Take the example of a puzzle game, children are stimulated to focus and find ways to arrange random pieces of the picture into one whole picture.
Stimulate children’s creative thinking
Make no mistake about a gadget for children’s development, letting children play gadgets can be one way to stimulate children’s creativity. Because, now there are many applications that can train the balance of the left and right brain of children, one of them through drawing and coloring activities.
As technology develops, new gadgets are now available that combine conventional drawing methods (with paper and pencil or crayons) with digital technology methods. That is, you can teach children to color without using crayons, but all they have to do is touch or move the cursor on the screen.
With coloring activities, children will be interested in thinking creatively by combining various colors into one child’s favorite picture. This method can help children express their ideas and creativity in new ways that they have never done before.
Guide to using gadgets so that the child’s growth and development is maintained
0-2 years
- Infants younger than 18 months should not be exposed to digital media. For parents with babies, truly cutting technology can be a challenge. However, this prohibition is very important for brain development and healthy relationships between parents and children. Sounds and activities from the screen can distract children. Other effects, excessive stimulation can cause distress and sleep problems.
- If you are forced to be introduced to gadgets at the age of 18-24 months, choose digital media that has good programming quality.
- Accompany children when using gadgets. Avoid using the gadget alone and pay attention to the time.
- Actually, kids aged 0-2 years don’t need a gadget, likewise for children under five. Occasionally may be shown, but by limiting the time, ideally 15-30 minutes, especially on weekends.
2-5 years
- Limit the use of gadgets 1 hour per day for good quality programs. If at school the child has been using a gadget for 1 hour, at home, he can’t use it anymore.
- Accompany children when using gadgets or screen time. Help them to understand the content viewed. If the content is not appropriate for development, for example, is quite aggressive or exposure to sexuality, then you should tell this to the child.
- Only describe good quality educational programs that are also entertaining. Generally, such content is far better than standard TV shows because there are no advertisements that tend to over-stimulate children.
- Choose content that is suitable for children. This includes the language used in the content. Because bilingual content will make Little One experience confusion in interacting with friends in Indonesian.
Over 6 years
- Digital media should never replace a child’s healthy activities, including sleep, social interaction, and physical activity. Parents need to teach them how to use digital media as a tool for learning and connecting families.
- The amount of daily screen time depends on the child and family, but a maximum of about 2 hours. Children also have to prioritize productive time, especially for physical activity over entertainment.
- Discuss the risks of cyberbullying, sexting, and the possibility of online predators.
Those are everything about gadgets and children’s development
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