Nowadays we live surrounded by electronic devices that absorb all our attention: tablets, smartphones, televisions, computers… This is not something cognitively beneficial for human beings, we spend many hours in front of these devices, which bring the world to us on the couch at home, but wouldn’t it be better Let’s go out and see the world?
Surely more than one person has been amazed at the great handling our children have of new technologies. The tablet has become one of the great allies of many parents This allows us to keep our child calm while we are having dinner with friends, watching a movie, doing housework or even on occasion they have helped us manage a tantrum. But… how do these technologies affect our children?
The effects of technological distractions on children
One of our main tasks as parents is to calm our children, that is, providing them with the necessary tools for adequate emotional regulation in their adulthood. Children do not learn these skills on their own and only through us will they be able to calm down.
Of course this is not an easy task. Sometimes we will be the ones who get even more nervous than the child. What will be the result? That we will be transmitting the discomfort to our child and he will not be able to calm down.
There are times when, at this point of frustration, we try to give them food, toys, a cell phone or a tablet. To our surprise this works; All those sounds, movements, images and colors make our child calm down and therefore we do too. Because this has worked for us, we will start using it every time we can’t get our child to calm down, transforming into excessive use at an early age and in full brain development of the little one
All this that makes us return to our calm, generates a series of long-term negative consequences for the child. What negative consequences does the use of new technologies have on children?
Isolation
We will not be connecting emotionally with what happens to our child and therefore we will not be understanding or helping to resolve what caused the tantrum or crying. We will be teaching the child to regulate her emotions through distraction, so adequate regulation will not occur in the face of negative emotional states.
Reward behaviors that do not solve given
The little one will learn that To get what you want you can do it through tantrums and anger As a consequence, we will not be promoting self-control in the child or his tolerance to frustration.
Imagine a tantrum in the middle of the supermarket because we haven’t bought him what he asked for. It can be an uncomfortable situation. Since we couldn’t calm him down, we left him our cell phone so that he could be calm during the time we had left shopping. In this case we will be rewarding their behavior and as I said previously we will not be promoting frustration tolerance. The child will think: “well, they didn’t buy me those sweets that I asked for, but in exchange I got what they rarely give me.” He has to take no for an answer.
Slows down your learning
At an early age, symbolic play is especially important in children. This consists of playing by imagining that you are a mother, a teacher or a doctor. Let him imagine feeding his doll or bathing him, and with a stick he finds he can imagine that it is a toothbrush. This allows them to understand and internalize the world in which they live and surrounds them.
On the contrary, television or video games do not allow this cognitive work, since there is no possibility of imagining and creating from what happens in the material environment.
In childhood, brain connections are still developing, and screen use generates addiction In this case, all the colors, movements and sounds generate a kind of fascination in the child, generating overstimulation in the child. That is why the child remains absorbed when he has one of these devices in his hands.
We may think that the child will be focused and attentive but the reality is that this is not the case. This is a passive attitude towards novel stimuli generating a disconnection of the frontal lobe in the child, which is responsible for attention, planning, problem solving or working memory, all of these functions being affected.
encourage the little one
We will also be sending an implicit message that it bothers us in certain situations. A child will always be moving, talking, touching things, etc. This is something natural in children, what we will be doing with the tablet is “anesthetizing” their behavior and preventing their cognitive development from taking its course.
It gives them a form of escape
Sometimes children with emotional problems They use the use of technologies as a form of disconnection Video games allow you to be in a parallel and unreal world, in which you do not feel discomfort. This encourages dissociation in children, that is, disconnecting from oneself and reality, this being an avoidance response, making all the discomfort chronic.
In short, different studies have shown that premature use of technologies can affect attention, learning, impulsivity, relationship problems, addiction and language problems.
How should we limit the use of technologies in our children?
First of all, we have to take into account that We are our children’s role models, so we will be the first to limit our own use of these devices We cannot scold our son when he is using his cell phone while we eat, if we do the same. If our son is with us, it is important to leave the cell phone away and spend that time with our son and attend to his needs.
It is important that there are no electronic devices in our children’s rooms. These must be in a visible place where we can monitor the use that occurs
In consultation, I meet many parents who turn on the television for their children so that they can eat. From my point of view it is important to remove the television during meal time. The intake may take as long as possible, and it is a moment that can be shared with the family.
Today we know that children They learn through real-world experiences and through interaction with adults and their peers. All the experiences that the child can live in his daily life, all interaction with nature, with play, a look, a smile, etc., are those that mark his development and will be decisive in the history and development of his life. . Of course this is something that is lost in the interaction with screens.
