Child's Media Consumption

These days you can see lots of Toddlers holding Smart Phones. In the corner of a restaurant... In the stroller at the shopping mall... In their car seats... and even shopping carts in super markets... While seeing these children, I sometimes look back to when I was raising my first child.

“ If we had smart phones back then would it have been so much easier?......”

Nowadays, there are many studies about "brain and video viewing correlation" in children. The children's brain is the fastest growing up to 3 years old. And at this time, all five senses must be stimulated evenly so that the brain can develop in a balanced manner. However, if you watch the video of the dazzling and fast screen during this period for too long, there will be an unbalanced development of the balance. Children will then be less interested in other plays and less chance of using other senses. If children are not interested in other plays and only want to watch videos, it is important to realize that it is not simply that the video is fun, but because the development of the child's other senses is now stopped, there is no need to use those senses.

The goal for the child is to learn to speak and communicate in a healthy language. Language communication is a process of showing emotions, comprehension, and empathy beyond the one-dimensional meaning of information transmission. A child with a good language development is not a child who knows a lot of words and knows the same sound, but a child who knows how to express the information and feelings he wants to convey in situations and objects. Of course, depending on the age, it may just be a sound and a facial expression, or a combination of two or three words, but it is clear that even if the 'sounds' and the 'pronunciation' are incorrect words, It is a child who communicates with an understandable expression. In particular, babies up to 3 years old can learn to communicate through emotional communication with living people. If you repeatedly watch a video that the baby should only listen to for a long time, the language development that you have to express yourself may be delayed.

Do you know that audio and visual education is effective for children's education methods? But what happens if this audiovisual education is done without the student's participation? Since video and video are 100% passive media, no matter how educational they are, they can never be the best choice for a child's learning ability. If they are learning from one side of the screen, they will not be able to learn by using their head, thinking, speaking or moving, and they become annoyed, eventually losing their active learning ability. Also, when you are studying with a plain book, you will not be interested at all, and the risk of having trouble focusing on your ability to concentrate without stronger and quicker stimuli will naturally increase. It is normal that the concentration time of the children of the original infant children does not exceed 5 to 10 minutes. But when the child watches a video, don’t they sit there for an hour or two? This behavior is very unfavorable to the developmental stage of the child.

Yes. So we need to have a "visual culture" that is good for our children.

•The first thing you should check is the viewing culture of your family (parents and family members).

•Then it's important to know how much time your child is exposed to the video and how much you want to reduce it.

•Share this plan with those who are often with your child (husband, grandparent, or sitter). Our children are more comfortable with consistent training.

•When mom is too tired or busy, try to imagine what your child likes to play, instead of the video. For example, at home you can play tissue tear-offs, find beans in rice cans, etc. Why not try sticker play or play dough play outside?

•If your child is watching a video, we recommend that you sit with them as much as possible for as long as possible, just as you read a book. If you consciously ask questions related to the images and your mother repeatedly follows the contents of the video, you will feel that the child is communicating with her, not being left alone. As I write this column, I am thinking back to when I first raised my child twelve years ago. The memory of having to give a generous tip at restaurants thanks to my daughter who would rip apart playing with lettuce and rice... Letting her feel around many items while at the shopping mall... The memory of being worn out from letting her push the stroller around... and thinking about the times I would have to play this song and that song for the crying baby that wouldn’t get in the car seat. And I am thankful for the all the moments my child and I shared. And thankful that we did not have the distraction of something called a smartphone…