This month, your therapist at Bebe Marin Speech Therapy LLC will highlight technology and how it impacts daily living. These wonderful tools can be used for exploring and understanding our world as well as for communicating with loved ones. Many of our toddlers have established loving relationships with military parents, grandparents and other loved ones via screen time applications like FaceTime and Skype.
Use of smart phone pictures and video clips on outings – such as to the pumpkin farm, zoo, and beach – are terrific for language building activities. We have seen how quickly our little ones learn to use phones and tablets. They love games and have favorite YouTube shows. Parents are also able to download apps and computer games to help their children practice their speech and language skills at home.
Use wisely
As speech therapists, we want to caution parents to make sure that technology is used wisely. Let’s use this month to evaluate how much exposure our little ones have to television, tablets and phones. There are plenty of studies out there that discuss the effects of too much screen time on developing brains and how less TV leads to higher IQ scores. We know that children learn best through active play so let’s give our toddlers plenty of opportunities to explore and learn. For example, let’s sing songs with our children rather than having them watch others sing them on YouTube.
Another important topic of conversation deals with the loss of contact with our children, as we dedicate so much of our time to our phones and tablets. When we push strollers, wait for the bus or sit at the park while our children play-are we interacting with them or with our phones? Are we interacting with family members during our meals or are our children watching television or texting others rather than talking with people? Are your teens wearing ear buds, listening to music when you pick them up from school? Is this the behavior you want your toddlers to imitate?
New technologies are a blessing, but remember that children need face-to-face interaction to learn to communicate. Children need feedback about how they’re doing and technology only has a limited ability to provide such feedback. For instance, if you are using an app, game, or technological device with your child to practice speech and language skills, make sure that you are sitting right there with him or her. Talk about how your toddler is doing and feeling. Ask your son to repeat or rephrase what the app/game has shown him so you know he fully understands it. Have your daughter try the same task without the technology device to see if she can do it in other settings as well.
Let’s use this month to focus on media/technology and how it impacts our own families. Do you like what you see? Are there changes you want to make? This is a good time to implement those changes. Feel free to share your experiences with us.