Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Pre-school Computer for almost-3 year old?

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn19560-too-much-screen-time-is-bad-for-active-kids-too.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19403489

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090803173127.htm

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/health/19babies.html

Okay, this is something!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,253360,00.html

But overall I don't think we have the science yet to distinguish between the effects of apps and educational games and TV/DVDs/vidoe games, as is admitted here:

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/201...tphones-and-ipads-mush-my-toddlers-brain

I can see how active creating seems different. But how much time do kids actually spend doing this, vs. the other "junkier" stuff, and how much might we justify a lot of junk with some (not much) educational stuff?

This is an interesting piece:

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/11/more-screen-time-for-kids-who-create-instead-of-watch/

I guess there is and probably always still will be a part of me that feels the flat world of screen creating is inferior for most things, too. DD is very artistic, but we haven't found anything online that gives the thrill and result of real-life materials. My observation is that these programs limit you or cookie-cutter you in all sorts of ways.

Just read this:
http://www.essentialpublicradio.org/content/ipad-storybook-apps-and-kids-who-love-them

I guess my bias is showing, but that bugged me. So many of the beautiful kids' books we love and have loved are surely not available on the iPad. There are likely a few good ones, but I bet a lot are junk, written to make money by people who are likely not even really authors but programmers and designers. This kid is going to increasingly prefer it, though, I'm sure, and I bet paper books will be a harder and harder sell. Why not, when things jump off the page and talk to you?

My take on this is that immoderation in any form is bad for you. I mean, few people would argue that reading is bad for you, but spending an excessive number of hours with a face in a book limits ones exposure to the real world, and more importantly, other people. Few people would argue that exercise is bad for you, but excessive exercise, particularly the repetitive kind, leads to injuries. Sunlight helps promote positive mood and vitamin D production, but too much leads to sunburn and melanomas. I could go on and on.

All things in moderation... including moderation.

For anything dynamic, the screen is superior to clay, stone, paint, or pencil, and for me, that makes the screen the more thrilling option.

I posted something on the section Big in Education about how television and Sesame Street relate to your points on screen viewing and addiction.

Joan Cooney Ganz created Sesame Street to help children learn using television. She saw how television caught a child's attention and how children were hooked on moving images. Her idea was simple. If she caught a child's attention, a child could learn. Generations of children have learned how to read, write, or do math from it.

Today, this generation has the Internet.

Yes, a computer screen can not replace a tactile learning experience. You cannot replicate thumbing through a physical book with an e-book.

There is a lot of creative stuff on the web. Yes, some things are pre-formatted. Keep looking if you haven't found what you like, I say. It's there but you might have to hunt for it and really dig. Go on livebinders.com. There's plenty of sources posted by teachers and librarians that have what you're looking for FREE.

http://drscavanaugh.org/ebooks/libraries/ebook_libraries.htm - is one source for FREE ebooks but there are many others.

iPad storybook - that's sensationalism. This is going to happen when parents are not using the best judgement. It's like going to bed with the television on. Stop and think.

Here's an alternative - http://skypeanauthor.wetpaint.com/ - skype an author for FREE!

Yes, I agree with you on programmers, designers, and businessmen being more interested in profits and revenues. Non-profits are on the web but Google's retrieval system is aimed at advertising and generating profits. So you have to enter terms like free or non-profit or create into your search terms. Otherwise, you'll get the companies trying to make money and sell you a product or service you don't need.

What is your daughter trying to find? Can you be precise in words? That's a tip and trick.

My daughter honestly isn't trying to find anything in terms of art stuff. She's happy with her 3-d materials. She likes to design avatars and fashions online sometimes. I don't mind her doing this occasionally--we all need time to have fun--but I don't consider it high-quality creating.


Do you mean you find the screen more thrilling than real-life artists' works? Or that you find it more thrilling to screate on-screen?


With all due respect, why? When we have so many other things DD enjoys and that excite her (Legos, art materials, outside play, books), I can't get motivated to dig for the good stuff. I have some things bookmarked that look nice, but as yet we have found nothing that really excites her and is educational and has staying power. She likes birds, and there is some nice bird stuff, but as with so many other things on the web, I find it isn't curated all that well. There's a site with videos of birds from all over the world, but many are not that great and so you sit there and spend time watching 5 enh 2-minute videos and one good one. It doesn't feel like a good use of time. Same with YouTube and stuff for my ocean-obsessed 3yo. I have to watch a lot of enh stuff to find something really good.

It's not that I don't appreciate a really good website or really cool tool. I am extremely grateful for Wikipedia and Khan Academy, believe me! But I think sometimes that people love this stuff BECAUSE it's on the computer and is pretty and shiny and multi-colored and bells and whistles. That isn't enough for me.

My guess is that when she's older, she'll find her own challenging info online - at least that's what has evolved with our ds12. (Sorry, I can't remember how old your dd is). Our ds is *really* into Legos - he's been building things since before he could sit up (or so it seems lol!)... and eventually got into Lego robotics etc. Starting sometime last year he started looking at other people's Lego creations online. My first thought was, this isn't all that intellectually stimulating, but he spends enough time everyday studying etc, so it was ok with me to let him spend time googling Legos. This fall he asked for a Lego train set for his birthday. We almost didn't get it for him because he seemed to be getting a little old for a train set, but hey, I'm his mom and he's not going to be home for all that many more years and yep, I got him that Lego train set for his birthday. Sooooo... it wasn't long before he was online checking out other Lego train setups and suddenly he was spending all his free time contemplating the physics of trains... and I'm not talking simple physics either - I'm a phycisict by profession, and he was genuinely using a heck of a lot of brain cells on the concepts he was applying to his train set. All inspired by and benefiting from a chance to google and look at other people's creations.

He's moved on now to building a Lego robot he's going to house in a bubble, also an idea that came to him after googling. Who knows what he'll be doing next week. But whatever it is, being online seems to have helped him explore his creativity in a good way. I have an artistic bent, and I never could have developed it by living in a bubble (ie, not going to museums or looking at other art). Seeing what other people are doing, being exposed to other people's ideas, doesn't make us less, it spurs us on to think more creatively ourselves. And that's an area that I think the internet has really opened up for kids like my ds.

Anyway, I got a little off-track lol... my original point in replying was that I haven't really had to ever seek out much for my kids, they tend to find it on their own. We watch, and we have parental controls, we aren't letting them run wild online, but we've given them some freedom to roam and in return we (parents) have found a lot of cool things also

polarbear

Yes, she is young--just turned 8--and not given a ton of access yet. I would say that she likes the computer but isn't really extremely jazzed about it yet. I'm sure as heck not worried that she won't be into it eventually, though.


Yes, I see this. I wouldn't have a problem with my kids using the computer like this. I guess the issue is that there are so many ways to use it and a lot of them seem empty-ish to me. Even most of the educational games I see seem light on content and long on noise, gimmicks, and arcade-style stuff. DD isn't terribly into the arcade-style click and pop and shoot and catch stuff, so a lot of it seems boring to her. Anyway, she picks stuff up so fast that I am pretty sure she'd rather get a pen and paper math lesson and pick up a new skill in 20 minutes, then go play freely, than spend an hour clicking about and registering and learning how the game works for what equates to a smaller piece of learning in the end. I remember her K teacher commenting with vague bewilderment that DD "wasn't into the computer like the other kids were." I asked her about it and she said it was fine for a bit but got boring and she would rather go read. It was probably all grade-level stuff.

I don't know--do we know they "all turned out okay"? None of them had ADHD, or obesity, or depression, or aggression problems, or anxiety? They certainly turned out SMART--but gifted does not, of course, equal "okay"...

Totally anecdotal - my kids - all gifted - have had access to computers since they were born. We never limited screen time, but we did filter content. The two older kids are both adults. Neither are obese, aggressive, depressed or anxious. Both kids have ranked as youths in the top ten in the nation in their sport and served as team captains and coaches, both have held down part-time jobs while attending college (my son works for me creating mobile apps for businesses) and both have received awards within their own creative interests. And I've recently discovered that my older son is in the top 100 out of millions of players on Call of Duty, yet it's never inspired violence or inappropriate behavior in real life.

Computers are a tool. Each of us as parents get to choose what fits best within our parenting style and lifestyle choices, but it isn't black and white that we should all eschew computers or that we all must adopt technology at a vigorous rate.