With the advent of the winter vacation, some digital products have become the "baby artifact" for parents, and many of them are digital devices under the banner of smart learning and smart learning. Can these end products help children learn better? What are the physical and mental health effects of exposing children to screens?
1.Is the electronic "baby artifact" really useful?
His son, who is in kindergarten, has already learned a lot of Chinese characters, which makes Yu Dan very excited: "I will strive to know 2,000 words before I go to primary school, and I will work hard this winter vacation." "How did you learn it? Yu Dan has a lot of experience: "Now it's all electronic, using a learning machine, so that he can learn in the game." ”
With the winter holidays approaching, children have more time at home, which means more time and opportunities to be exposed to digital products. Many digital products have attracted the attention of parents under the banner of "baby artifact".
Sun Hongyan, director of the Institute of Juvenile and Children's Research of the China Youth Research Center, introduced that many electronic products similar to learning machines have the function of expanding learning, such as being able to have richer content than textbooks, allowing children to see more in-depth and extensive information related to the teaching content, etc., and some of the content is also equipped with **, which looks more vivid. But these are not a substitute for student learning in the classroom. "During the winter vacation, parents can use the multi-learning machine to stimulate their interest with the learning style that children like. Some parents do not have the time or ability to provide relevant guidance or help in their children's learning, and the use of learning machines is a good choice. For example, let children learn to look up information, look up words, practice pronunciation and memorization. However, it is important to note that both parents and children should not rely on learning machines, and special care should be taken to avoid other recreational activities through learning machines. ”
Why are parents and children easily attracted to these digital products? Guo Haixia, head of the Beijing Youth Mental Health Education and Quality Development Center, believes that some parents hope that digital products can support their children's learning or reduce their burden, freeing them from the task of managing their children's learning. For children, part of it is to help them quickly improve their learning and grades, and part of it is to feel that even if they don't like to study, they feel much more comfortable in front of electronic devices than they are often criticized, blamed and asked in front of parents and teachers. There are also children who are more flexible, and with the help of digital products or devices, they can switch to their favorite platforms or content at will, turning their learning time into their own entertainment time.
It is unrealistic to blindly prohibit children from using electronic devices and digital devices. Children's self-control is relatively poor, and there must be certain rules or standards. Qian Dongming, deputy dean of the National Education Macro Policy Research Institute of East China Normal University, said, "Many digital products are now known as 'learning artifacts', which are suspected of advertising exaggeration." Most of the products that claim to be artificial intelligence are actually just digital. Children lack the ability to distinguish between correct and wrong, and cannot distinguish the additional content in many digital devices, so there needs to be a review and an access standard. ”
2.A life that is deeply influenced by electronics has only breadth and lacks depth
While digital products have some benefits, they also put children at risk of more screen exposure.
Qian Dongming believes that the most direct problem of children touching the screen too much is visual impairment, "Now the better learning products have anti-blue light configuration and automatic timing, such as watching once a week, 40 minutes to 1 hour each time, and automatically shutting down when the time comes." Parents can also set their own prohibitions, etc., turning electronic products into digital learning terminals, rather than entertainment terminals. When using, also ensure that there is enough light. ”
In Sun Hongyan's view, exposing children to screens for a long time will bring a lot of negative effects. "Some children are not good at self-management, lack of self-control, parents are also negligent in management, children secretly play games through learning machines, etc., and even have network dependence, resulting in too long time online; Some children or parents lack security awareness and are prone to relax their vigilance in information registration, resulting in excessive leakage of personal information; Some children are too lazy to explore and try on their own when they encounter learning problems, and only want to find answers on the learning machine, which leads to excessive dependence on the learning machine, which is not conducive to independent thinking. There are also some learning machines that are not standardized, and the knowledge content is uneven, such as inaccurate pronunciation, untimely data update, and errors, which will mislead students. ”
Guo Haixia introduced data from a study with a sample size of 4,500 at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that found that children aged who spent more than seven hours** of screens a day showed signs of premature thinning of the cerebral cortex and scored poorly on language and reasoning tests. The cerebral cortex is the outermost layer in which humans process sensory information. "While current research has not yet shown how these changes in brain structure will have a negative impact on children in the future, one thing is certain – prolonged use of electronic devices such as tablets will have an impact on a child's brain development. "In addition, it may affect children's memory and concentration, and affect the development of children's language, movement, social communication and other abilities." ”
If there is not enough time for deep thinking, a child's creativity will deteriorate. While children use electronic devices, they are also consuming the energy of their lives. Experimental studies have shown that the continuous stimulation of the brain by multitasking can affect brain function. In other words, if children's world is flooded with electronic products, there will be no white time, and without white time, it will be difficult to have the moment when inspiration comes. Today's children's lives, which are deeply affected by electronic products, only have breadth and lack depth. Guo Haixia said.
3.During the holidays, spend more time with your children playing in the real world
What can be done to make children better use digital products?
Sun Hongyan believes that during the winter vacation, parents should pay special attention to the following points when guiding their children to use learning electronic products: to learn more about their children's learning, use the learning machine to browse the content, discuss the learning effect and difficulties with the child, and accompany the child when learning, etc., through these family education behaviors to cultivate the correct use of the learning machine by the child. Many learning machines are also Internet devices, and parents should not neglect management because they attach importance to learning. When handing over the learning machine to the child, it is necessary to set good rules and manage it well. For example, discuss with your child to determine the time and place of use, inspire your child to manage yourself, and let your child treat new learning devices such as learning machines rationally from an early age, and use these Internet devices as learning tools rather than toys. "We also need to educate children about safety. Parents should first have a sense of security, understand the potential safety hazards of new learning devices, and teach them to protect personal information security through opportunities such as parent-child communication and practical experience. ”
Guo Haixia reminded that the influence of parents' role models and words and deeds are important factors that affect children's values. The time and content of parents' daily use of electronic products will have a subtle impact on their children. Parents can explore the information world in electronic products with their children, cultivate their children's information recognition ability, guide their children to correctly recognize and evaluate information, and cultivate children's trust in authoritative information on health science.
In fact, what children like most is the efficient companionship and participation of their parents. During the winter vacation, children should be accompanied by parents to increase the time and frequency of outdoor activities. Some people say that many children are not very good at 'playing' because they use electronic devices for a long time. The child's inability to 'play' shows that his imagination and creativity have been invisibly harmed. Guo Haixia said.
Qian Dongming reminded that we should be careful of the "information cocoon" caused by artificial intelligence, if we blindly let children only watch what they like to watch, then the child's vision will also become narrow, and life may be guided and planned by artificial intelligence. Although we should not resist and fear the development of intelligence and digitalization, in the process of children's growth, we must not be all digital devices and electronic products, but need to contact the real world.
*:Light**.