Topic: Can technology effect the growth rate of children?
Research 1
Technology is an ever present part of our daily lives and the amount of time we spend interacting with
our personal technology devices is only increasing as we feel the need to stay connected. As a result, it’s
nearly impossible to prevent our young children from also desiring these interactions.
It’s our job as parents to find the RIGHT ways for our little guys and gals to interact with technology.
And to do this, we need to understand the ways technology impacts our children, and how to encourage
the right use of technology. The goal is for tech to have a positive effect on their behavior and
development, as opposed to a negative one.
Technology, when used correctly, can actually have a very positive effect on a child’s development.
Studies have found that our ability to identify key information buried within a cluster of characters and
visual stimuli (advertisements) has increased as technology has become more integrated in our lives. In
addition, regular interfaces with technology can lead to improved hand-eye coordination, multi-tasking,
and reaction time. However, when screen time is not properly controlled, there can be negative effects
of technology on child development.
Excessive amounts of technology time during a child’s developmental years are likely to have an impact
on growth. Although some technology exposure can be good, here are a few different areas where a
child could encounter difficulties as a result of too much screen time
Not surprisingly, studies have shown that the increase of technology has led to a decrease in daily
reading. In addition, it’s been argued that because many blocks of text you encounter on digital devices
are written in 140 characters or less, children are not challenged to think critically, or to expand on their
thoughts.
To counteract this, and encourage critical thinking, be sure to set aside time every day for reading where
no electronics are present. Critical thinking can be developed through conversation expansion, which is
when you help your children learn to build on conversations by referencing past experiences or things
they’ve read.
Attention span development is affected by environmental factors. With the various forms of technology
available, children are often more distracted and less likely to focus on something else when it is
present.
Also, when there is a great deal of visual stimuli and a lack of story reading, this can impact a child’s
development of imagination. To counteract this, it is important that children have the opportunity to
explore old-fashioned imaginative play and to let their imaginations run wild in storybooks
As advances in technology lead to increasing levels of connectedness, we must consider the effects
that social media and the internet can have on our child’s mental outlook, as well as their privacy and
safety. It is important to know what activities your children are exploring online as well as cultivate an
open relationship where your child feels comfortable discussing any concerning behavior they come
across online.
Children in these settings can often be exposed to various degrees of bullying, which can have lasting
impacts on a child’s social and emotional development as well as their self-esteem.
While social media can be utilized as a way to strengthen existing relationships, it is important to give
them the opportunity to practice conversational and social skills without technology. Children that are
constantly using technology may be hesitant to interact with other children in a social environment,
which can have negative long-term effects.
Make sure you give your child plenty of opportunities to practice in social settings by modeling these
conversational skills yourself.
Here are a few important parenting ideas to help limit the negative impacts of technology on children:
Be informed and involved in current digital trends your kids may come across.
Be aware of what your child is using technology for.
Encourage using screen time for games or shows that are educational.
Develop and open relationship to discuss any concerns.
Create “unplugged” time on a regular basis – which applies to everyone in the family.
Encourage use of imagination and relationship building with others in real life.
Be a strong role model yourself when it comes to technology use.
We must make sure that social media does not dictate the expectations and rules for our children.
Technology is undoubtedly useful in our daily lives, but both parents and children alike need to
understand that technology should be used as a learning tool, and should not substitute real world
interactions. To see ideas on how technology can be used to support early childhood development,
please read my other article How to use Technology to Support and development
Research 2
Nowadays, information and communication technologies increasingly make up children’s daily routines.
Data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) state that, among Brazilian
children aged 10 years and over, internet use rose from 69.8% in 2017 to 74.7% in 2018. Exchange of
messages, voice and or video calls and, finally, watching videos, such as series and movies, are the most
frequent activities performed requiring internet services.
Studies on digital technologies have been carried out in several fields, since the contents of activities on
the internet may vary, reflecting the broad range of information available online. From this perspective,
much has been questioned about the impacts of information and communication technologies on
children’s physical and psychosocial development. In the cognitive sphere, the influence on sleep,
memory, reading ability, concentration, the ability to communicate in person are commonly cited, in
addition to anxiety symptoms when children are away from their cell phones. 2,3
This construction of self-image by means of technological tools results in potentializing a phenomenon
of modernity and the emergence of large cities: placing intimacy as the focus of spectacularization.
Furthermore, intense consumption of content can cause anxiety, panic and even depression. In the case
of children with previous mental health conditions and who require monitoring, these effects can be
even more intense. 4
With this in mind, the World Health Organization (WHO) published a series of recommendations to
parents regarding the exposure of children of different age groups to digital technologies. Children
under the age of 5 should not spend more than 60 minutes a day in Passive activities in front of a
smartphone, computer or TV screen. Children under 12 months of age should not spend even a minute
in front of electronic devices. The goal is for boys and girls up to 5 years old to change electronics for
physical activities or practices that involve interactions in the real world, such as reading and listening to
stories with caregivers. 5 These guidelines are part of the strategy for awareness on sedentary lifestyle
and obesity by the Organization of United Nations (UN).
Thus, it is clear that this spectrum of influence can culminate or intensify various pathologies. Therefore,
the aim of the study was to identify the positive and negative consequences of technology overuse in
childhood.
Go to:
METHOD
The selection process and the development of this systematic review were based on the Preferred
Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (Prisma) protocol. 6 This review was
registered with the International Prospective Registry of Systematic Reviews (Prospero), under number
CRD42021248396.
The National Library of Medicine — National Institutes of Health (PubMed) and Virtual Health Library
(VHL) electronic databases were searched from March to July 2020. The purpose was to systematically
analyze original studies addressing information technologies and communication (Internet, social media,
etc.) in child development based on a guiding question: what is the impact of information and
communication technologies on childrens physical and psychosocial development?
The Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) was used to define the search term. Then, an exploratory
investigation was carried out with the purpose of identifying keywords within the theme. The terms
“internet”, “child” and “growth and development” were used, in English language, along with “AND”, to
combine them. Additionally, the bibliographic references of articles selected were checked.
For the articles to be included, the following aspects were considered:
Original articles.
Studies conducted with children.
Research regarding information and communication technologies (Internet, television, etc.) related to
child development.
Published from 2015 to 2020.
Articles written in English, Portuguese and Spanish.
Studies carried out with adolescents, adults and the elderly, as well as theses, dissertations,
monographs, duplicate studies and case studies were excluded.
The search and selection of articles took place at two different times. The articles were selected first by
title and abstracts and, then, the full texts were accessed and evaluated.
Studies that met the eligibility criteria were fully analyzed by two independent researchers, whose
evaluations were then compared to verify common points. In cases of uncertainty about the eligibility of
the study, a third evaluator took part. Then, the data was extracted and input in predefined data tables.
The methodological quality of observational articles included was assessed according to the initiative
Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (Strobe), based on various
evaluation criteria for this type of studies. The maximum score is 22 points, which are distributed over
several items: title and/or abstract (one item), introduction (two items), methodology (nine items),
results (five items), discussion (four items), and funding (one item). 7,8 All observational studies were
evaluated, and each item, when present, added up to 1 point; then the sum was scored according to
Table 1.
Hand a smartphone or tablet to a toddler, chances are they’ll figure out how to open it and make some
in-app purchases in a matter of seconds. The technological boom means that children are becoming
computer experts at a very young age. Elementary school kids have classes on computers, and many of
them have been using their computers and tablets at home well before they started school. As kids are
learning from a very young age about technology, they’re making huge strides as they grow in being
prepared for schooling, future careers, innovation, and more. Your kids may even be able to help you
with your online coursework at WGU!
However, with all this constant immersion in technology, there are some very real concerns about how
this tech impacts childhood development. We are wandering into unknown territory as generations past
have never had this same kind of constant technological immersion. But experts are starting to see what
technology at this level can do to children and their future. Many of our WGU students are parents, and
we want to help you
THE problem with much mobile technology is that it's not really designed to
be used while you're actually mobile – or at least, not if being mobile demands
that you concentrate on something other than your mobile technology.
Like driving, for example. There's a reason why the use of handheld devices
behind the wheel is banned in the UK: research shows the response time of a
driver using a smartphone to access social media, emails or texts slows by
around 37.5% (far more than after marijuana or moderate alcohol use).
But we're not very good at using mobile technology while walking,
either. YouTube has armies of unsuspecting texters slamming into doors,
colliding with lampposts, tumbling down stairs or tripping into fountains.
In America, towns have started fining pedestrians who use smartphones while
they're walking. Here, London streets have hosted experiments that have
involved attaching pads to lampposts and bollards in an effort to reduce
injuries from "inattention blindness".
There is even an app, CrashAlert, being developed at the University of
Manitoba in Canada that uses a distance-sensing camera to scan the path
ahead and alert smartphone users to hazards by flashing a red square on to
their screen.
The issue is that the human brain can only pay attention to about three things
at a time – and concentrate effectively on just one of them. Even though the
consequences of smartphone distraction are sometimes amusing, they can also
be serious.
The number of children admitted to hospital after accidents in public
playgrounds has climbed by about a third in five years, according to NHS data.
Experts in both Britain and the US – where a similar rise has occurred –
suggest some of the increase may be a result of parents being too distracted by
their phones to supervise their offspring properly.
When already distraction-prone children get their own phones, the
consequences can be catastrophic. Katherine Littlewood, 15, was hit by a train
and killed on a level crossing last year; her iPod, headphones and the the
BlackBerry on which she had been texting friends were found next to her
body.
And now comes evidence that shows that 11-year-old pedestrians are three
times more likely to be hurt or seriously injured on the way to and from school
than 10-year-olds – and also, since 11 is the average age at which children
receive their first mobile phone, six times more likely to be sending a text
when it happens.
A quarter of children surveyed admitted that they had been distracted by
personal technology while crossing the road. "There is," the report concluded,
"a clear correlation between the use of technology and the time of serious
accidents with children". We, or mobile technology, need to evolve.
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