With the spread of technology in all areas of life, the time spent by children on screens such as television, tablet, computer, phone has started to increase, just like everyone else.
Exposure to screens. early childhood, although it affects everyone from seven to seventy; It is a very critical period for the basic developmental building blocks that we call the cognitive, language, social, emotional, self-care and psycho-motor development areas. The reason why the 0-6 age period, which is expressed as early childhood, is critical in child development is due to the fact that all kinds of stimuli with which children interact have a strong effect on laying the foundations of their development.
As a result. The 0-6 age period, which includes critical developmental stages for children, becomes a question that parents wonder whether screen use should or should not be used in early childhood.
How is the Screen Time in Child Development Need to Adjust?
Parents should consider the full implications of screen use when seeking answers to questions about their children's screen use.
In today's conditions, although screen use in early childhood is generally considered with its negative effects, gradually turning screen use into opportunities in various forms comes to the fore. Especially with the pandemic period, we have felt the effects of the digital age even more in our lives, and almost all of us have used the screen as a tool for education, social opportunities and games for our children. When they can distinguish between ensure the child to spend quality time and to allow the child to kill time, they can no longer benefit from the positive effects of screen use. could also be mentioned. However, in order to talk about the positive effects of using the screen, first of all it is necessary to make a professional distinction between seeing the screen as a "tool" rather than a "purpose".
What is the Difference Between Aiming the Screen and Having a Tool?
We can explain the biggest difference between these two concepts as follows. When you use the screen as a purpose, our children turn into asocial beings that serve the contents of the screen, while when we use the screen as a tool, it turns into a tool that serves our children and maintains their social aspects. For this reason, it is necessary to first understand what children who use screens spend time on the screen and how these affect our children. Thus, we can only answer the question of how much exposure to the screen should be by knowing this. Because being exposed to all platforms and games that make the child lazy, cause the child to become asocial over time, and trigger the shift to screen addiction, and being exposed to the negative effects of the screen mean the same thing. Opening an age-appropriate video, watching a movie or playing a game on the screen in a limited time, to meet with individuals who provide socialization for a certain period of time or to have fun after the child spends active time in social environments such as school, park, friend groups, online home studies that support social development and skills. The ability to do online activities that provide learning enables the child to use the screen as a tool. Thus, since the child uses the screen as a tool that serves his social development, it is thought that these can be tolerated without causing addiction in the child. For this reason, on the contrary to the addictive content, exposure to the screen with educational content further reduces the negative effects of the child's cognitive, emotional and behavioral processes. How Long?
Experts do not recommend that children be exposed to screen use for more than 1 hour a day in early childhood. However, 1 hour of screen exposure for children is not an absolute rule. This time may be less than 1 hour depending on age.
For example, 0-2 years old� Screen use for babies is a much more sensitive issue. In this age range, the screen should only be used as a tool to reach the content that supports the sensory development of the baby, such as lullabies, songs, fairy tales, dance, and music. It is definitely not recommended to watch. Instead, activities such as listening to the music that supports the social development of the baby through the screen, hearing the sounds and keeping the rhythm with the parent, singing, imitating the sounds of animals and emotions, are recommended. p> Therefore, screen use between the ages of 0-2 should be done only by parents and the baby should not see the screen in the parent's hand for a long time. Because this situation can increase the baby's curiosity about the screen. Therefore, screen use for children aged 0-2 should only include a very limited short period of time based on simple tasks that support the baby's development. For this reason, in this age range, the screen should only be in the hands of the parent and should always remain under the control of the parent. If there is a lively individual who tries to communicate with him and actively uses his tone of voice, body language, gestures and mimics in a baby-specific way, the baby can be allowed to look at the screen for a short time under parental control after the age of 1, as this can support the baby's communication skills and may involve mutual interaction. . Exposure to a screen for one hour at a time, usually between the ages of 2-6 in early childhood, is not recommended for both eye health and psycho-social development of children.
Children between the ages of 2 and 6 whose communication and eye contact skills are well developed 4 times a day for 15-minute periods or 2 times a day for half-hour periods, depending on their age. exposure to the screen as a maximum of 1 hour in total is usually the ideal time recommended by experts. Of course, this time management
However, when there are timeouts for screen exposure and the child is not actively using the screen at the time, it will be longer than the screen time.
For example, when a child passively watches non-educational videos for 1 hour, both the screen and the screen will be supported. In order to neutralize the negative effects of the virtual environment for the child, it may be necessary to create a social environment where the child can play and communicate actively for at least 1-1 and a half hours. It is tried to prevent the negative effects of the child's psycho-social development by supporting the skills that are suppressed in the child during its use with the achievements of active play. For this reason, it is very important to use the screen consciously and to use the screen as a tool.
In line with all this information, although it is sometimes seen as in the hands of the parents to use the screens for children, when the conditions of the digital era are taken into consideration. The use of screens can be considered as an inevitable end, and even a necessity at some points.
However, in this case, parents should not decide whether to use screens in early childhood or not, but rather on how and how much screen should be used. Focusing on screens may be a healthier and more realistic decision.
Parents should be informed about the research on screen use before explaining the answer to the question of how screens should be used by children.
After examining the results of the research on screen use in early childhood by parents, choosing the functional use of screens helps children to climb the developmental stages safely. Because being aware of the scientific research results about the developmental effects of screen use in early childhood helps parents to obtain the most accurate information on this issue.
In this way, appropriate limits are determined in screen use based on scientific realities, not based on personal preferences or experiences. After examining the screen use in early childhood in the light of scientific research, the information to be given about what the age-appropriate limits should be for children will answer the questions in the minds of parents.
What Researches About Screen Use in Early Childhood Say?
While researches based on conscious screen use in early childhood reveal positive results, unconscious and intense screen use causes negative results in the developmental process of children.
<Positive Studies on Screen Use in Early Childhood:
Conscious Screen Use Can Support Children's Psycho-Social Development.
According to one of the views that screen use can be turned into an opportunity when appropriate conditions for interacting with technological devices are met; technological applications developed to support children's developmental needs and learning styles; states that after using it under parental control and in interaction with the child, progress has been observed in the areas of language, cognitive, psycho-motor, self-care, social and emotional development of children. It Can Play a Role.
According to a different study, which argues that technological opportunities and technological devices can be evaluated as opportunities under the right conditions, children, through various technological devices using the internet, can meet people and people they may never meet in real life. They can interact with situations.
It is seen that these interactions increase children's self-confidence along with opportunities to gain social experience. For example, through the screen, children can get to know the person who created the cartoon character they like, or the artist or singer who composed the song they like.
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