2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43
Modern children are born and grow up in homes in which a computer is as natural as a refrigerator. Parents often brag about how deftly their 3-year-old child can hit the keys. Many are happy that their child, who has grown up to adolescence, does not hang out in the streets, but calmly sits at home, "studies" at the computer. The bad news is that adults sometimes do not know what information their child gets from the computer (or rather, from the Internet). Nor do they assume that the computer over time begins to replace books, and friends and hobbies, and parents, especially if the latter work a lot.
When parents allow a small child to use a computer, they choose various educational programs and cartoons for him. There are a lot of similar products now. There are educational programs for children under 1 year old, and cartoons are even offered from 3 months. Puppies and calves sing songs, show geometric shapes. You can color pictures, count, learn letters and foreign words. In a computer, information is presented dynamically, colorfully, animation is used, there is an impact with color and sound, many associative links are involved. All this stimulates the mobility of higher nervous activity, develops attention and accuracy. Parents are happy, they may not feel guilty that they put their child at the computer, freeing up time "for themselves", but, on the contrary, boast of their child's successes on the playground. However, according to the recommendations of the WHO (World Health Organization) Up to 2 years old, a child should not watch TV / on a computer screen. Should not. At all. Not at all. This is harmful to his health and development.
Up to 2 years old, a child should crawl, run, fall and learn to coordinate movements, grab and pull everything into his mouth, shift, throw, disassemble. The primary role in its development is played by touch and movement. If a child stares frozen at the screen - even a computer, even a TV, no matter what wonderful educational programs / cartoons are on there, he does not develop.
Up to 6 years old, a child should study at the computer for no more than 20 minutes a day, and it is advisable to take 1-2 breaks. That is, not to include several episodes of "Masha and the Bear" in a row, but after each episode to stop, discuss what he saw with the child, look for the moral of the story. Thus, you will not let the child plunge into a trance, but you will also accustom him to logical thinking, the ability to draw conclusions.
Younger schoolchildren 6-8 years old can be in front of the screen for 30-40 minutes. At this age, children can already use the computer not for entertainment, but to perform various tasks.
From 9-10 years old, the time can be increased to one and a half hours a day (of course, not forgetting about the breaks).
How is "computer addiction" formed? Over time, parents begin to notice that the child and the computer in their family have become inseparable. The child is constantly looking at the monitor. What is he doing there? Plays games, blogs, watches cartoons, communicates with friends, creates video clips … But you never know interesting activities on a computer that is connected to the Internet! When working on a computer, a person's attention is so strongly concentrated on the action taking place on the screen that a kind of trance develops and the feeling of real time is lost. There is a problem of "freezing in the computer" when the child cannot tear himself away from the screen for several hours. With the frequent repetition of such situations, there is a threat of computer addiction.
If low-quality games are used, the plots of which include only chases and murders, where people play the role of victims, then the psychological barrier to such actions can sharply decrease. There is virtual responsibility in the virtual world. When such games are used often and for a long time, such an attitude towards violence becomes unconscious and can drastically reduce the child's responsibility for committing some kind of wrongdoing in the real world.
Communication problem. For normal mental and social development, a child needs experience in communicating with people, this is the basis for understanding other people, himself, his place in the world and the world itself. Communication should be long enough and varied. Communication is to the psyche what food is to the body. We all know that the body needs fats, proteins, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals for normal development. The psyche needs to communicate with people of different sex and age, different social groups and nationalities. How many calories and vitamins a hungry person will get by watching a “tasty” TV show? The psyche of a child whose only friend is a computer is in the same position.
More about the medical aspect. The harm to the physical health of a child, like an adult, is caused by non-observance of elementary rules - this is the duration of work and the posture in which a person sits at the monitor. With frequent and prolonged work at the computer, posture deteriorates, vision decreases. Overwork occurs, and with hours of work and exhaustion of the nervous system. In order to avoid these negative consequences, it is necessary to take 10-15 minute breaks every 45 minutes (for high school students and adults), and for younger students, computer work should not exceed 30-40 minutes.
In conclusion, we can say the following: just as parents care about the quality and sufficient amount of food for the child, they should take care of the quality and quantity of the "computer products" consumed by the child, avoid the use of low-quality games and monitor the time that the child spends at the computer. If you notice that the child is too carried away by computer games, switch his attention to other activities (dancing, sports), try to spend more time in communication with the child, and so that it will be interesting for you together.
A computer will not harm a child with a reasonable approach. If a student has a computer, he will gradually learn to use it, understand the principles of work. Perhaps the child will create creative projects himself, and in the future these skills will be useful to him or even become part of the profession.
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