Repeat After Me: Tablets for Toddlers are Toys.
Am I looking slightly concerned-slash-glum in the screen shot above? That’s me yesterday on Fox & Friends, debating Dr. Jeffrey Gardere on the subject of toddlers and tablets. You know, two year olds with iPads or those kidified tablets from Leap Frog and Nabi and VTech. The good doctor’s approach was that these aren’t at all bad; that, in fact, he said — citing research I’d love to get my hands on — kids who use tablets have better vocabularies than their counterparts by age five. (For more, watch the whole three-plus-minute clip, here).
My thoughts on toddlers and tablets? See the title of this post. They are toys. Plain and simple. A cool toy that beeps, sure, and on which they can play games that may have some connection to “education,” matching shapes and identifying letters and doing simple math and whatever else.
After our far-too-short segment, I shook Dr. Gardere’s hand. After all, we mostly agree that tablets, like all tech for kids, needs monitoring (there’s a wide ocean of difference between letting a little one play an ABC game for 10 minutes and distractedly handing him your iPad and losing the next five hours to endless screen swipes and many Angry Birds). But I can’t get behind the idea that kids “need” a tablet to learn, well, anything other than using a tablet. Which is in itself not a bad thing, either.
Tech is part of their world and a tablet is the tip of whatever amazing iceberg they’ll live on someday.
But let’s just say I’m glad — very, very glad — that this didn’t exist in the mere blip of tech-time it’s been since I had infants and toddlers:
Fisher Price Apptivity Gym
What we have here, my friends, is an iPod-holding “activity” “gym” for babies. Never too young, it seems, to begin to worship at the altar of Steve Jobs’ ghost, amirite?
Then there’s this:
Fisher Price Apptivity Seat
…because what baby wants to swat at rattles and those lame squeeze toys when there’s a screen to swipe?
What I told the Fox & Friends producer on the phone (a conversation that lasted probably twice the length of the actual segment, naturally) was this:
- Is a tablet something I’d keep from my toddler? Probably not. It’s a a reality of their lives, and I think it’s a fairly classic cat-out-of-the-bag situation. Though I wouldn’t buy one for a two year old. Or hand mine to my kid as a distraction or a time-killer. This is so hard, because handing a kid an electronic gadget is far easier than teaching them what patience is, what the passage of time feels like, and the value of boredom. My kids are far past being toddlers, of course, and we’re still working on it.
- Are tablets educational? Well, beyond reinforcing the kind of things toddlers are learning through other means, no. And any parent who is buying a tablet or app thinking it’s more okay than Angry Birds or Candy Crush because it’s educational? Is fooling herself. (See: Baby Einstein).
- Should tablets be monitored like TV? You have to ask?
What do you think?
December 28, 2013 @ 6:47 pm
I generally agree with you. Those tablet-holding BABY seats/mats are disturbing. I don’t know who would think that is a good idea, besides the manufacturers. We bought our daughter a Leappad for her 3rd birthday….I also think technology is going to be the world they live in. I have to admit that I have been thankful for it on plane and long car rides. Patience is not part of the egocentric 3 yr old’s vocabulary (or just mine anyway).
December 28, 2013 @ 8:38 pm
When he kept insisting that five year olds with tablet access have better access, I wanted to scream. There is SO much more to development than reading and math. As I mentioned before, my SIL is an elementary school teacher who gets kindergarteners reading at a second grade level that can’t cut paper because their fine motor skills have been neglected. And I just saw an article somewhere that some doctors are concerned that the ease of tablet and phone use doesn’t force kids to learn the basics, like how to hold a pencil correctly.
We have an iPad and the kids do use it, but in the end it belongs to ME and they need MY permission to use it AND their use counts towards screen time.
My kids got new bikes for Christmas, and my son also got new ice skates and a tee to hold his football, because at ages 9 and 7, I feel that being outdoors getting exercise and fresh air is far more important than doing math facts on the iPad.
December 28, 2013 @ 8:39 pm
That should say kids with access have better vocabularies.
December 29, 2013 @ 8:38 am
I serve in a family restaurant. Many parents hand their child a tech toy as soon as they sit down, and the child plays it until they leave. They don’t join in the conversation or order for themselves. So much for learning to behave and wait patiently. If the game gets taken away, they go into full meltdown. Last week,I saw two moms play a movie (with sound) at the table for their big boys. The moms cut their food and fed them, while they stared at the screen.
I’ve heard parents say their kids are hyperactive so it is just better this way. What’s wrong with people?
December 29, 2013 @ 11:41 am
Marianna, that’s just scary. I’ve seen it myself and it just… I have no words.
December 30, 2013 @ 11:37 am
Yes! This.
:-O
December 30, 2013 @ 6:21 pm
I will allow my 5 year old daughter to play on my iPad (key word is “play”) as well as watch tv or surf around on my computer. I agree that learning how to use the technology can be a good thing.
I do wonder what people would think of kids who sat and read books during dinner rather than watch a tablet (or perhaps read a book on said tablet). Even as an avid lover of books, I still think that engaging in human conversation over a meal is a family-building event and I am more capable than any tablet of being able to enhance my child’s vocabulary. Electronics have no place at the supper table.
That being said, I’ve seen some pretty neat tv shows and even games on the iPad that I have watched my daughter learn about spelling, counting, and logic. I’ve seen her develop some pretty cool hand-eye coordination, engage her creativity designing clothing or taking care of a baby, drawing pictures or playing “doctor.” Still, I am happiest when she plays “pretend” without the technology. I am prouder when she draws me a picture than when she colours one in from a colouring book. Maybe I’m just old-fashioned. In the end, I think moderation, monitoring and reasonable expectations for the what the technology is for should rule the day. Before the tablet, lots of parents used television as the baby sitter. What the heck did they do before that??
Technology, whether television, tablet or computer, can certainly enhance a child’s learning when used judiciously, but they are *tools*, not an end in and of themselves and certainly not vital to learning. Many a great mind has thought incredible thoughts with nary an iPad in sight.
December 31, 2013 @ 1:18 am
My son and I enjoy playing Angry Birds and Cut the Rope together, but I would never call it “educational”. It’s a fun activity we do together along with reading and fort building and all other manner of indoor activities during the long, cold winter in The.Frozen.Tundra.
We’ve found a couple of simple math/ABC games that I do find quite good. I work from home, so we’ve used them when he’s home sick or on vacation and I can’t take time off work (and lack a sitter), but I feel we do a good job balancing his “screen” time.
I do think he gets more out of those games than he does watching movies, so I’m glad that – at 5yrs old – I have another option to occupy him. We also have his favorite books on our tablet, which is so much more convenient than lugging a stack of real books in the car during trips.
But yes, ultimately it’s just another fancy toy.
December 31, 2013 @ 9:29 am
My son is only 15months, he already points at the TV and says “on” and if he sees one of our phones freaks out because he wants to watch stuff on it. The catg was out of the bag after a 4 hour flight a couple months ago. I limit him to no more than 30 min of screen time a day. Sometimes I need him distracted so I can change a poopy diaper (2 min of scree time.) He loves to watch the videos I take of him when he’s tired and winding down before nap (4min of screen time). We do use it occasionally in a restaurant if our food is taking a long time, but generally we try to color and play with him first. But I’m fully aware that this is just lazy entertainment and not educational. I want my kid to learn and play in the physical world as much as I can, but sometimes Momma needs a break
There are countless other studies that have shown the number of words the caregiver of a child speaks to them in a day is a direct result of their later vocabulary. And those same studies showed TV had no effect, I can’t imagine that the tablet is much different than TV.
January 3, 2014 @ 11:05 am
As a teacher (and mean mom) I have already seen the affects of technology on students’ learning. I believe too much technology affects their ability to listen, follow directions and figure things out on their own. They are slaves to “instant gratification” and just click it and it will do it for you. Truthfully, I am very leery of teaching the kids of the future that have had a screen in front of them since birth.
January 3, 2014 @ 1:46 pm
Lindy, thanks for your input. I was talking to a friend on New Year’s Eve who is a kindergarten teacher. She described how her students don’t know how to use a computer mouse, because they all attempt to swipe any screen with their fingers!
January 9, 2014 @ 11:34 am
The statement that kids with tablets have better vocabularies by age five is curious to me. Is this statement true simply because children who’s parents have access to the funds necessary to purchase these items have a higher socio-economic status? Lots of good research has shown that families at a higher SES have children with higher vocabularies by Kindergarten. My point is that the results may have NOTHING to do with the tablets, it may be a result of other factors. If you get your hands on the study, I hope you can post it here so we can read it too.
January 9, 2014 @ 1:19 pm
^^Exactly!! Correlation does not equal causation
The example from the restaurant worker above is unsettling in the extreme. How will young kids ever learn to be functioning, adult humans if they are constantly entertained in every social setting? Certainly there is a balance to be achieved…..but I don’t think constant parent’s smartphone/tablet at a kid’s beck and call is it.