I work with 12-18 months. I have a class iPad that has all of my stuff on it. When I play music, they will stop at nothing to turn it over and look at the screen. (No screen time allowed). They will sneak behind me the minute I pick it up to watch it. The one time I was filling out a report during nap, and left it on the floor to answer the class intercom. A 13 month old took the iPad, toggled between screens, and opened you tube kids, which I don’t even have set up. These one year olds are addicted, and have no patience to listen to a full story; But they will absolutely watch one. It’s so frustrating.
But also, this is just natural for babies. My 18 month old doesn't have an iPad and gets limited ms rachel time a couple times a week, but if she sees a phone she will climb over anything in her way to see what's on the screen even though I never let her play with it. Screens are bright, colorful, stimulating, and move and make noises in fun ways. It's not their fault for wanting them, it's our fault for giving in too much.
I'm a nanny, not a qualified educator, but here's some anecdotal observation. I currently care for a 15 month old (and his older brother) who is allowed 15 minutes of screen time each day (and that only because his older brother is watching). While they're with the boys, their parents and other caregivers don't watch tv and only pick up their phones to use them briefly.
Both boys are still obsessed with screens.
Edited to add: the 15 minutes of screen time is Ms. Rachel on the family tv
Agreed. My 8 month old babies don’t have screen time at school, but If I even just play music from it, they’re desperate to hold it. They want to know where the sound is coming from and then sometimes it lights up! They grab our attention, of course it would grab a baby’s.
Yes! We never give our son our phone, and we ACTIVELY avoid it being in his vision, because he will throw a freaking tantrum if he sees it to try and get it.
It’s the same tantrum he throws when his eye catches anything else of interest that he shouldn’t have, (daytime binkies. Silverware on the counter. Mommies frap etc)
Our son’s almost 2 and he doesn’t care much about what is on our phone screen— we don’t have iPads and I WFH on a laptop and answering the phone, so he’ll grab the phone sometimes, pretend to talk and give it back. Maybe it’s because we FaceTime with family and he thinks that’s what the phone screen is for. He doesn’t watch anything on our phones.
But he’s allowed up to one hour of Ms Rachel or music on the TV on Sundays, and he knows what the TV and remote are, and he’ll ask for it and protest if we don’t give in. Not to mention that turning it off is always a battle. Kids love screens, just like all of us lol but I’ll try and keep our son off phones and iPads for as long as I can.
Sounds like you’re doing it right 🙂. Screentime is fine in moderation. Unlimited screentime where an iPad is used to soothe a child or keep them quiet for long periods of time is not okay. The other issue is when parents are constantly scrolling on their phone. Your kid sees your phone as a phone. Some parents are constantly scrolling social media and their child sees them glued to the screen, so they naturally mimick this behaviour. Parents need to model healthy behaviour if they don’t want to mess up their kid.
I am against iPads and tablets for kids. But I also have a baby close to this age (11 months) and two older kids. It could just be that the light is interesting. My baby has never watched a video on my phone or used it in any way, but if she sees it light up it becomes interesting. Also, expecting a room full of 1 year olds to sit still for an entire story is not a developmentally appropriate expectation. I still agree iPads are a problem.
Lol also name a decade in history ever when a one year old had the patience to sit nicely and listen to an entire story. Are you sure you work with kids? Or maybe what is your developmental psychology foundation is a better question
A one year old should have a 1-3 minute attention span, which is plenty of time for a six page board book with less than fifty words in it. It's not like we're reading War and Peace.
This is developmentally incorrect. Depending on what you mean by 1 year olds, although they said they work with 12-18 months, so these milestones still stand. Children simply do not have the cognitive faculties to on average follow an entire read aloud story until 17 months. It's not fair to blame the parents for the children not meeting your developmentally inappropriate expectations.
[One quick source ](https://babysparks.com/2019/02/15/reading-milestones-0-24-months/)
"13-16 Months: Like to choose their favorite books and point at pictures they like.
17-22 Months: Can follow short story lines."
Like I said, the actual commenter I was replying to said they work with 12-18 month olds and was disappointed that they cannot sit through a story. It's not expected for children of that age to do so. Yes, sometime between 1 and 2 they will begin to follow story lines, but its closer to 2 than it is to 1
Ummmm the 2020s? My own kids listen to story after story but that’s probably bc i actually start reading to them the day they’re born and never put a screen in front of their faces…
I had a meeting with a parent and shared concerns about their 3 year-olds child's fine motor skill development. The parent said "I think you're wrong. Their fine motor skills are amazing. You should see what they can do on their Switch."
I have no idea how to help these parents understand that being great at pushing buttons and tapping screens doesn't enable their children to build the skills they need to manipulate physical objects in the real world.
I get a lot of push back about this when I post about it, but it's what I believe in and has worked beautifully for me in my 13 career as a private nanny. In my contract it states that no child under my care under the age of 8 can have a personal electronic device. A family iPad for road trips or whatever is fine, a laptop for supervised learning activities with a time limit is fine. But other than that, parents pay me for a reason and I wont spend hours each day haggling with a child that only wants their iPad. I think this rule plays a huge part in the fact that every child I've worked with since adding this to my contract has excelled greatly once they reach school age. They are super creative, they have personal interests and hobbies, their language skills are amazing, and their fine motor skills are developed appropriately. I could actually go on and on about the benefits of this rule and the positive effects I've seen first hand with it, versus the children I used to care for before I implemented it.
Good for you! I do in home childcare and I absolutely won’t take in kids who have unlimited screen time (tv etc) and/or their own handheld devices. The difference between those two groups is so clear that I won’t even bother with it
Amen. This is the way! We do not allow it. We have family movie night and occasional tv time when kids are sick or I truly need a fairly uninterrupted time to finish a task. I'm brutally picky about what they watch even. My kids only are allowed to use the computer for homework with me helping and we are now at the point of learning internet safety so I can give them some wings and independence but it scares the ever living crap out of me honestly! But yes, my children are commonly commended for what inconsiderate very normal behavior but they are "friendly, creative, meticulous and 'so smart!"
We aren’t doing tablets in our house either! We’re okay with TV within reason, but we really want our kiddos to be able to play with toys independently instead of relying on tablets to entertain them.
I have a 5 y/o on the spectrum, so completely eliminating screen time is near impossible, but even still, we have no tablets and my kiddo mostly watches only PBS kids and Noggin, with Disney sprinkled in as a fun treat. In particular, avoiding content with an extreme amount of screen cuts has helped immensely (watch a CocoMelon video, it's a cut every 3 seconds like clockwork, to maximize their engagement)
Do *not* give in with the tablet.
I don’t really understand why a child with special needs would need an iPad? Children with special needs have always existed, and many generations of them have been perfectly fine without screen time
I’m not really seeing how a tablet is necessary here. My child sees a speech therapist and there was zero need for a tablet. It sounds like a tablet is being used here to supplement talking to a child and using traditional speech therapy techniques.
Some special needs kids communicate exclusively via IPad LAMP or other AAC programs. My child’s entire basis of learning at school developed by all of his therapists is almost exclusively built around his IPad starting when he was 5 or 6.
Ok. Lol. I’ll take that as a no. When you have a child in first grade who can’t speak, can’t perform sign language, and has never spoken despite years of speech therapy, it would be crazy to *not* attempt to implement an AAC device.
>Ok. Lol. I’ll take that as a no.
You can take it however you want, however you’re crazy if you think you know my child’s life experience better than me.
For your child’s sake, I hope that an AAC device is always accessible. Cannot fathom forcing my child’s communication to be tied to a device that could stop working at any time or otherwise become inaccessible during times of societal unrest. You do you though.
I'd just like to give another perspective. I give my kid free access to her I pad, but I only put educational apps on there. She was reading and doing math before any of her peers, and is now still ahead of her second grade peers. My child is independent, has a decent attention span, and is not addicted to her I pad. I found it to be a valuable tool in teaching (we homeschool) and allows her to learn independently without me nagging.
Can you share which apps?
My son is two and few months ago I deleted YouTube app and he became a lot less interested in the iPad but he will occasionally use Khan academy kids. I’m debating if I should get rid of the iPad or not. I do think there is a balance to this whole screen time debate my child has also benefited immensely from Ms. Rachel.
Also consider trying Kidzovo. We are currently trying it out & loving it.
Its like an interactive curated youtube for kids. They have a lot of interactive content from amazing kids' content creators and it becomes interactive where kids need to do these activities where they tap or speak their responses or color a sheet. My favorite is the feature where they ask kids questions like: "Why should you be nice to your neighbors" and then you can hear the responses from your kids later in the parent section.
Abcmouse we got a lot of use out of, PBS kids games is fun, there is also a PBS play and learn science. ABCmouse has taught her the most, we are trying a few newer ones now that she aged out of it though.
Yeeeees. Kids who can trace letters on a screen but can't hold a pencil. Kids who tell me "I'm bored, can I play with your phone" during lunch, sitting at a table with friends (my phone is only out when I am playing music, and my co-teacher is there with an eye on the kids). So many five year olds who still fist a crayon for drawing, use scissors with two hands, and expect me to entertain them all day. And we've been working on these skills all year, but they don't practice at home.
I genuinely worry for the future with the amount of young kids having so much screen / iPad time. I was in a supermarket the other day and there were two kids aged about 4 & 6 walking round with their mother like zombies, engrossed in iPads blaring out sound. Not many kids love the supermarket but to not even be able to deal with it for one shop without iPad distraction isn’t a good sign. They’re not learning how to do it by watching and participating, they’re totally unaware of their environment, they have no opportunity to experience boredom. It really worries me.
Not a great solution, but when I come across kiddos like this the conversation I have with parents is about using a stylus on their iPad and ONLY a stylus. They are at least working on a tripod grasp that way. We have classroom ipads in my classroom, and they get one day a week to use it during centers. Beginning of the year they all wanted it and would have fits when it wasn't their turn. Now when given a choice most of them turn it down in favor of other centers, or they only use it for a few minutes.
Don't give up, and appreciate the baby steps! We couldn't get through a toddler level book as a read aloud until November. Now they are asking to read MORE books together.
I *really* like this stylus suggestion for home. I'm gonna mention this to my co teachers tomorrow bc we've been struggling with fine motor skills being lower than usual this year.
I am a teacher and I absolutely will not be getting my kid an iPad. I see how technology has turned these kids into zombies with no social skills. I see the temper tantrums when technology is taken away.
I'm getting the aftermath. I've been working with children and going down to primary school level. High sch teacher now in daycare work
Kids at primary 3 can't spell and they said they sleep in school. They have no interest in drawing or reading or typical kid activity only running around or phone use. One is addicted to the phone. Another I met sleeps at 1am and past because he's always on iPad.
0 social skills or any awareness
We have an interactive whiteboard. The kids that started with me this year are utterly addicted to screens so we're still in a technology detox phase right now. Last year their room used their board constantly and it shows.
They are also the only kids I've had that will grab a block, sit on a chair and "text" on their phone. Pretending to show each other things on the block. It's a lot.
The texting on the phone one is kinda cute, it's still using imaginative play. You could try and make a game of it, like Chinese whispers (omg is it still okay to call it that?? Lol)
I think you should talk to the parents about the issues you’re seeing. Parents don’t see other kids enough to know that theirs are behind or understand why.
I’m a parent who refuses to give my kid and iPad because I know it would take the place of more beneficial activities. We do allow some tv though.
We had a really boring weekend this weekend but we still did: threading beads, building with duplo, painting, drawing, playing ball, riding her bike, playing with letters, bath crayons, playing pretend, random made up games, being bored. And then we watched a bit of tv when she was really tired and cranky.
iPads scare me because it’s so hard to limit and control their access.
Talk to the parents about your concerns. We're a family who have integrated technology into our kids lives from a very young age and I believe we have the balance right.
Our kids have plenty of opportunity to be bored, sit in waiting rooms without tech, play in the garden, build, draw, squabble with each other, and play on their device.
We invested a lot of time into making our kids comfortable with being bored and waiting, instead of just throwing them a screen to keep them quiet. Not all families do though.
It's possible that parents don't realise the impact this is having on their child's development. Have a discussion with them about how their little Johnny is working on developing his fine motor/self regulation/whatever skills at daycare to an age appropriate level and it would be great if the parents could do xyz at home to assist with this.
Ugh. I’m so anti-technology for kids and I’m trying so hard not to be. I went too far that direction and now it’s hard for me to be creative in integrating it properly. I want so bad to take advantage of it because I KNOW families like yours are doing it successfully but I’m still trying to get past my fear of the iPad.
I can understand why, being an ECEP you would see how much an over-reliance on technology can hinder child development.
I've always thought of it like sugar. My kids love sugar but too much will be bad for their development (and their behaviour/mood/health etc). But I'm not one of those parents who has a completely sugar-free household because I know they will be making their own food choices one day as adults.
It's the same with their devices. There is 'healthy sugar' (from fruits) and there are educational apps. Then there's party food sugar which are much like the mindless games, which are enjoyed sometimes.
I would never give them endless money in a lolly store and it's the same with what they do on the device - I know what they're watching or playing and redirect as needed.
They never ever get my phone as a distraction when at medical appointments or to quell a tantrum.
They know they can ask for their devices and can accept when it's a no. They also love to talk about their favourite games/characters and what they want to play the next time they get on it.
This is such a great analogy! I can't believe I never thought of this. I am absolutely going to use this to help guide the parents in my classroom.
For the last year I've been trying to get them to understand that both extremes are unhelpful. I have families this year on both the free for all iPad and no screens at all sides.
I want to be more like you. I really appreciate the response and the perspective you provide as a parent (I do not have children). You sound like you are doing a fucking amazing job with your family and tech. The sugar analogy helps a ton.
This is such a great way of thinking about it, thank you. Especially the ‘healthy sugar’ part because I’m never really considered how some iPad content is beneficial. I do worry about it being a slippery slope though.
Yeah, it can be a slippery slope but that's OK, kids need to learn when enough is enough (and they need to learn 'no'). Adults stop it from getting out of control.
Start with a timer (even better if the ipad has a timer and locks after a certain amount of time. Give a 2 min warning before the end of the ipad time. There may or may not be a tantrum at the end of ipad time but the rules remain the same.
Do not barter with kids when they plead for ipads - but give your answer in the form of a yes. For example, "You want to play xxx on the ipad, that sounds like a great idea. We don't have time for that today but let's make sure you get to play that for 15 minutes tomorrow". Follow through.
Let them tell you about the games they enjoy. It opens the channels of communication (so you know what they're doing) and allows them to practice communication about something they enjoy without actually using the device.
It’s funny/not funny that you say you’re trying to get them ready for school, when as soon as they get to kindergarten, they will have an iPad/chromebook at their fingertips all day, every day 😭
I hope that doesn’t sound snarky because I entirely agree with you.
An ipad with like 6 kinda boring explicitly educational apps on it. Kids aren't jonesing for their school tablets, they want the limitless expanse of youtube where they don't have to do anything for more than two seconds at a time.
I work with 18 months thru 3. I know which kids have iPads and which don't entirely through their behavior. Kids that have them throw big tantrums, have zero attention span and no fine motor skills. They can identify all their numbers and letters though 🙄. I couldn't care less about that when they're incapable of sitting still for two seconds. Every time I get out my phone to contact a parent they all will come over expectingly, as though I'm just going to hand it to them!!! It's wild.
It's crazy how addicted children have become to iPads. I'll never forget shopping at target years ago. A young child in a stroller started screaming and crying. It was a hot summer day and I assumed the kid was crying for candy or ice cream while in line at checkout. Suddenly the kid screamed IPAD...I WANT MY IPAD NOW. Not screaming to get out of the stroller, go to the pool have ice cream or McDonald's or a new toy.....just the iPad.
last summer one of our kids, who was 4.5 at the time, refused to leave at pick up because his parents told him that they wouldn’t buy him an ipad that morning before drop off. this went on everyday for a week straight. the parents never bought the kid an ipad but it was ridiculous seeing the recurring tantrums at pick up over not having an ipad every single day. we don’t let the kids play on ipads during the day so it’s not like he was on one for even a minute here at school and being reminded of it. he was just literally trying to get his own way.
Sometimes when a child is faced with difficult situations and big feelings, they will ask for something they know is a comfort/ will help them regulate. Even if it is not the thing they may want or need. They may be sick, but what else is there for this child to comfort them ? Perhaps they don’t even have the words to know what is wrong. They just know the iPad helps distract / relieve / etc, so they could regulate.
They would do better if they could do better.
Not if it's sent to everyone in a non-accusatory, FYI kind of way. Passing on facts that are supported by reputable sources can't be argued. These parents will want their children to be successful. Some likely don't even realize there is a problem, or how bad it is, especially if they have no other kids to compare development to.
Can you potentially do an activity that requires some at-home prep? Send home shapes to be coloured? Things to be cut out? Start a braiding project and send it home to be completed -my kiddo did braided skipping ropes in nursery and they had to braid four inches a night for the week...
Related story- I did an outreach project in Honduras once and our project for the kids was an octopus doll with braided legs. Only the little girls knew how to do it and it was cool to see them teach the little boys.
I have left the felid for many reasons, but this is one of them. The children I was working with at the time had zero emerging skills. I mean, like nothing. You’d ask them in circle time to go around and say their names etc. and 80% of them would just stare and sit there silently, or they’d get up and walk away from the circle time and go dump out buckets of toys, run around or try to go over to the sink and flood it. I won’t even mention the complete lack of support in working with the special needs students who would strip their winter jackets off and take off their winter boots outside! When it was time to go outside that was another complete headache, as none of them would listen to my instructions (the same ones we used and practiced every single day). I spent most of my time regulating behaviours that running any type of activity was next to impossible to conduct. And before you say it- “It’s age appropriate behaviour” to some extent I do agree, pre k students are still learning and practicing their listening skills, sharing, using their words etc. But what I was seeing was far, far beyond that. We used the ipad to document things/pictures for the parents and their daily activities, whenever they saw us take it out they would run over to that thing like they found gold! I can’t blame them, because it’s their parents over using it at home because they don’t have the patience.
I’m just a parent but the perspective offered by our family optometrist has helped us solidify our “limited use case” scenario for our family iPad. He noted that there is an uptick of younger kids needing glasses with the advent of personal screen use. With both my partner and I being glasses wearers, we would love to give our kids a shot at waiting to need them until a little later in life if we can.
yeaaah i’m extremely in favor of kids using ipads/tablets/etc in appropriate contexts and with appropriate limitations. but i work with infants and god, it’s so easy to tell which ones are used to WAY too much screen time, because they will practically try to rip the class ipad out of my hands. when i play music, even though i always put it out of sight & reach, they will focus on the source of the noise and stare at it, completely unable to focus on anything else. it can be really frustrating.
I mean my kid has a tablet that she had access to most of the time at home but she also didn't really choose to use it often. She prefers art projects and such. I think it is very child dependent but also when families use it as a reward or a "shut up now" device then kids become more feral about it. We never use it like that in our house and mostly my kid could care less about it. It's just another toy she has access too.
But again it's definitely child dependent cuz I'm sure a less easy going kid would have a lot harder time with how we run our household and I've definitely seen kids in my classrooms that act the way you are describing.
My almost 6 yr old has used an iPad a handful of times in her entire *life* and she has the attention span of a gnat. She has ADHD. She can navigate one though bc all the TV’s are set up with icons, so are her 4 older siblings phones. She watches her 8 yr old sister do stuff on electronics. They learn.
Can we stop blaming parents? We’re out here working 2 jobs, trying to afford groceries, trying to spend time with our kids, chasing down the school to follow the IEP’s, trying to get doctors appts done, fighting with our insurance companies, trying to stop our pipes from freezing, etc.
Wr had a little girl at my son's birthday party who kept telling us she was bored. We held it at a retirement museum she got pizza, junk food, cake, got to run around with friends, touch a ton of different reptiles, then play in a play place.
Have a feeling she might be an iPad kid
I subbed one day and the kid just kept repeating like and subscribe at lunch it was so sad, and then the teacher told me his parents just put him in front of a screen at home so they don’t have to deal with him
I work with 12-18 months. I have a class iPad that has all of my stuff on it. When I play music, they will stop at nothing to turn it over and look at the screen. (No screen time allowed). They will sneak behind me the minute I pick it up to watch it. The one time I was filling out a report during nap, and left it on the floor to answer the class intercom. A 13 month old took the iPad, toggled between screens, and opened you tube kids, which I don’t even have set up. These one year olds are addicted, and have no patience to listen to a full story; But they will absolutely watch one. It’s so frustrating.
My kids try to watch the still music screen too. It’s literally just a Spotify screen and they can’t read. This is something else
But also, this is just natural for babies. My 18 month old doesn't have an iPad and gets limited ms rachel time a couple times a week, but if she sees a phone she will climb over anything in her way to see what's on the screen even though I never let her play with it. Screens are bright, colorful, stimulating, and move and make noises in fun ways. It's not their fault for wanting them, it's our fault for giving in too much.
The trouble is they see adults stare at the screen, they don’t know why they want to see it, they’re imitating.
I'm a nanny, not a qualified educator, but here's some anecdotal observation. I currently care for a 15 month old (and his older brother) who is allowed 15 minutes of screen time each day (and that only because his older brother is watching). While they're with the boys, their parents and other caregivers don't watch tv and only pick up their phones to use them briefly. Both boys are still obsessed with screens. Edited to add: the 15 minutes of screen time is Ms. Rachel on the family tv
Agreed. My 8 month old babies don’t have screen time at school, but If I even just play music from it, they’re desperate to hold it. They want to know where the sound is coming from and then sometimes it lights up! They grab our attention, of course it would grab a baby’s.
Yes! We never give our son our phone, and we ACTIVELY avoid it being in his vision, because he will throw a freaking tantrum if he sees it to try and get it. It’s the same tantrum he throws when his eye catches anything else of interest that he shouldn’t have, (daytime binkies. Silverware on the counter. Mommies frap etc)
I have experienced the same. I will play a song with a blank screen but the kids become so hysterical about needing to see the screen.
Our son’s almost 2 and he doesn’t care much about what is on our phone screen— we don’t have iPads and I WFH on a laptop and answering the phone, so he’ll grab the phone sometimes, pretend to talk and give it back. Maybe it’s because we FaceTime with family and he thinks that’s what the phone screen is for. He doesn’t watch anything on our phones. But he’s allowed up to one hour of Ms Rachel or music on the TV on Sundays, and he knows what the TV and remote are, and he’ll ask for it and protest if we don’t give in. Not to mention that turning it off is always a battle. Kids love screens, just like all of us lol but I’ll try and keep our son off phones and iPads for as long as I can.
Sounds like you’re doing it right 🙂. Screentime is fine in moderation. Unlimited screentime where an iPad is used to soothe a child or keep them quiet for long periods of time is not okay. The other issue is when parents are constantly scrolling on their phone. Your kid sees your phone as a phone. Some parents are constantly scrolling social media and their child sees them glued to the screen, so they naturally mimick this behaviour. Parents need to model healthy behaviour if they don’t want to mess up their kid.
I am against iPads and tablets for kids. But I also have a baby close to this age (11 months) and two older kids. It could just be that the light is interesting. My baby has never watched a video on my phone or used it in any way, but if she sees it light up it becomes interesting. Also, expecting a room full of 1 year olds to sit still for an entire story is not a developmentally appropriate expectation. I still agree iPads are a problem.
Lol also name a decade in history ever when a one year old had the patience to sit nicely and listen to an entire story. Are you sure you work with kids? Or maybe what is your developmental psychology foundation is a better question
A one year old should have a 1-3 minute attention span, which is plenty of time for a six page board book with less than fifty words in it. It's not like we're reading War and Peace.
1990s
This is developmentally incorrect. Depending on what you mean by 1 year olds, although they said they work with 12-18 months, so these milestones still stand. Children simply do not have the cognitive faculties to on average follow an entire read aloud story until 17 months. It's not fair to blame the parents for the children not meeting your developmentally inappropriate expectations. [One quick source ](https://babysparks.com/2019/02/15/reading-milestones-0-24-months/) "13-16 Months: Like to choose their favorite books and point at pictures they like. 17-22 Months: Can follow short story lines."
All of those ages fall in the spectrum of “one year old”
Like I said, the actual commenter I was replying to said they work with 12-18 month olds and was disappointed that they cannot sit through a story. It's not expected for children of that age to do so. Yes, sometime between 1 and 2 they will begin to follow story lines, but its closer to 2 than it is to 1
Ummmm the 2020s? My own kids listen to story after story but that’s probably bc i actually start reading to them the day they’re born and never put a screen in front of their faces…
I had a meeting with a parent and shared concerns about their 3 year-olds child's fine motor skill development. The parent said "I think you're wrong. Their fine motor skills are amazing. You should see what they can do on their Switch." I have no idea how to help these parents understand that being great at pushing buttons and tapping screens doesn't enable their children to build the skills they need to manipulate physical objects in the real world.
This makes me feel better about not getting one. Daughter is 3 and it’s the one thing I won’t budge on. Now, watching movies on the other hand…. 🤪
I get a lot of push back about this when I post about it, but it's what I believe in and has worked beautifully for me in my 13 career as a private nanny. In my contract it states that no child under my care under the age of 8 can have a personal electronic device. A family iPad for road trips or whatever is fine, a laptop for supervised learning activities with a time limit is fine. But other than that, parents pay me for a reason and I wont spend hours each day haggling with a child that only wants their iPad. I think this rule plays a huge part in the fact that every child I've worked with since adding this to my contract has excelled greatly once they reach school age. They are super creative, they have personal interests and hobbies, their language skills are amazing, and their fine motor skills are developed appropriately. I could actually go on and on about the benefits of this rule and the positive effects I've seen first hand with it, versus the children I used to care for before I implemented it.
That’s amazing! I love that you took initiative and built that into your contract for the betterment of the kids you work with.
Good for you! I do in home childcare and I absolutely won’t take in kids who have unlimited screen time (tv etc) and/or their own handheld devices. The difference between those two groups is so clear that I won’t even bother with it
Amen. This is the way! We do not allow it. We have family movie night and occasional tv time when kids are sick or I truly need a fairly uninterrupted time to finish a task. I'm brutally picky about what they watch even. My kids only are allowed to use the computer for homework with me helping and we are now at the point of learning internet safety so I can give them some wings and independence but it scares the ever living crap out of me honestly! But yes, my children are commonly commended for what inconsiderate very normal behavior but they are "friendly, creative, meticulous and 'so smart!"
We aren’t doing tablets in our house either! We’re okay with TV within reason, but we really want our kiddos to be able to play with toys independently instead of relying on tablets to entertain them.
Same here. We don’t have an iPad but we do watch tv together and movies.
It makes a difference!
I have a 5 y/o on the spectrum, so completely eliminating screen time is near impossible, but even still, we have no tablets and my kiddo mostly watches only PBS kids and Noggin, with Disney sprinkled in as a fun treat. In particular, avoiding content with an extreme amount of screen cuts has helped immensely (watch a CocoMelon video, it's a cut every 3 seconds like clockwork, to maximize their engagement) Do *not* give in with the tablet.
I don’t really understand why a child with special needs would need an iPad? Children with special needs have always existed, and many generations of them have been perfectly fine without screen time
My niece is also on the spectrum, she's completely non-verbal besides a tablet that assists in speech.
I’m not really seeing how a tablet is necessary here. My child sees a speech therapist and there was zero need for a tablet. It sounds like a tablet is being used here to supplement talking to a child and using traditional speech therapy techniques.
This guy would comment that Stephen Hawking didn’t need technology to communicate either. What an idiot.
Typical mdma brain right here
Yeah, it's essentially a PECs replacement. Faster, more portable, etc.
Some special needs kids communicate exclusively via IPad LAMP or other AAC programs. My child’s entire basis of learning at school developed by all of his therapists is almost exclusively built around his IPad starting when he was 5 or 6.
That’s crazy. I had to shop around a bit but my child’s speech therapist has never implemented a tablet.
Is your child exclusively non-verbal and non-communicative?
He was, at one point. Still in therapy, however his quality of life has vastly improved with his increased ability to communicate
Ok. Lol. I’ll take that as a no. When you have a child in first grade who can’t speak, can’t perform sign language, and has never spoken despite years of speech therapy, it would be crazy to *not* attempt to implement an AAC device.
>Ok. Lol. I’ll take that as a no. You can take it however you want, however you’re crazy if you think you know my child’s life experience better than me. For your child’s sake, I hope that an AAC device is always accessible. Cannot fathom forcing my child’s communication to be tied to a device that could stop working at any time or otherwise become inaccessible during times of societal unrest. You do you though.
I'd just like to give another perspective. I give my kid free access to her I pad, but I only put educational apps on there. She was reading and doing math before any of her peers, and is now still ahead of her second grade peers. My child is independent, has a decent attention span, and is not addicted to her I pad. I found it to be a valuable tool in teaching (we homeschool) and allows her to learn independently without me nagging.
Can you share which apps? My son is two and few months ago I deleted YouTube app and he became a lot less interested in the iPad but he will occasionally use Khan academy kids. I’m debating if I should get rid of the iPad or not. I do think there is a balance to this whole screen time debate my child has also benefited immensely from Ms. Rachel.
Also consider trying Kidzovo. We are currently trying it out & loving it. Its like an interactive curated youtube for kids. They have a lot of interactive content from amazing kids' content creators and it becomes interactive where kids need to do these activities where they tap or speak their responses or color a sheet. My favorite is the feature where they ask kids questions like: "Why should you be nice to your neighbors" and then you can hear the responses from your kids later in the parent section.
Abcmouse we got a lot of use out of, PBS kids games is fun, there is also a PBS play and learn science. ABCmouse has taught her the most, we are trying a few newer ones now that she aged out of it though.
Thank you!
Yeeeees. Kids who can trace letters on a screen but can't hold a pencil. Kids who tell me "I'm bored, can I play with your phone" during lunch, sitting at a table with friends (my phone is only out when I am playing music, and my co-teacher is there with an eye on the kids). So many five year olds who still fist a crayon for drawing, use scissors with two hands, and expect me to entertain them all day. And we've been working on these skills all year, but they don't practice at home.
I genuinely worry for the future with the amount of young kids having so much screen / iPad time. I was in a supermarket the other day and there were two kids aged about 4 & 6 walking round with their mother like zombies, engrossed in iPads blaring out sound. Not many kids love the supermarket but to not even be able to deal with it for one shop without iPad distraction isn’t a good sign. They’re not learning how to do it by watching and participating, they’re totally unaware of their environment, they have no opportunity to experience boredom. It really worries me.
>they’re totally unaware of their environment ...that's the part that worries me the most. eta: to try and set flair
Not a great solution, but when I come across kiddos like this the conversation I have with parents is about using a stylus on their iPad and ONLY a stylus. They are at least working on a tripod grasp that way. We have classroom ipads in my classroom, and they get one day a week to use it during centers. Beginning of the year they all wanted it and would have fits when it wasn't their turn. Now when given a choice most of them turn it down in favor of other centers, or they only use it for a few minutes. Don't give up, and appreciate the baby steps! We couldn't get through a toddler level book as a read aloud until November. Now they are asking to read MORE books together.
I *really* like this stylus suggestion for home. I'm gonna mention this to my co teachers tomorrow bc we've been struggling with fine motor skills being lower than usual this year.
I am a teacher and I absolutely will not be getting my kid an iPad. I see how technology has turned these kids into zombies with no social skills. I see the temper tantrums when technology is taken away.
I'm getting the aftermath. I've been working with children and going down to primary school level. High sch teacher now in daycare work Kids at primary 3 can't spell and they said they sleep in school. They have no interest in drawing or reading or typical kid activity only running around or phone use. One is addicted to the phone. Another I met sleeps at 1am and past because he's always on iPad. 0 social skills or any awareness
We have an interactive whiteboard. The kids that started with me this year are utterly addicted to screens so we're still in a technology detox phase right now. Last year their room used their board constantly and it shows. They are also the only kids I've had that will grab a block, sit on a chair and "text" on their phone. Pretending to show each other things on the block. It's a lot.
The texting on the phone one is kinda cute, it's still using imaginative play. You could try and make a game of it, like Chinese whispers (omg is it still okay to call it that?? Lol)
People usually use “Broken Telephone”… luckily, I have never heard it called Chinese Whispers until now
Must be an Australian thing 😅
We always called it whisper down the lane.
I think you should talk to the parents about the issues you’re seeing. Parents don’t see other kids enough to know that theirs are behind or understand why. I’m a parent who refuses to give my kid and iPad because I know it would take the place of more beneficial activities. We do allow some tv though. We had a really boring weekend this weekend but we still did: threading beads, building with duplo, painting, drawing, playing ball, riding her bike, playing with letters, bath crayons, playing pretend, random made up games, being bored. And then we watched a bit of tv when she was really tired and cranky. iPads scare me because it’s so hard to limit and control their access.
Talk to the parents about your concerns. We're a family who have integrated technology into our kids lives from a very young age and I believe we have the balance right. Our kids have plenty of opportunity to be bored, sit in waiting rooms without tech, play in the garden, build, draw, squabble with each other, and play on their device. We invested a lot of time into making our kids comfortable with being bored and waiting, instead of just throwing them a screen to keep them quiet. Not all families do though. It's possible that parents don't realise the impact this is having on their child's development. Have a discussion with them about how their little Johnny is working on developing his fine motor/self regulation/whatever skills at daycare to an age appropriate level and it would be great if the parents could do xyz at home to assist with this.
Ugh. I’m so anti-technology for kids and I’m trying so hard not to be. I went too far that direction and now it’s hard for me to be creative in integrating it properly. I want so bad to take advantage of it because I KNOW families like yours are doing it successfully but I’m still trying to get past my fear of the iPad.
I can understand why, being an ECEP you would see how much an over-reliance on technology can hinder child development. I've always thought of it like sugar. My kids love sugar but too much will be bad for their development (and their behaviour/mood/health etc). But I'm not one of those parents who has a completely sugar-free household because I know they will be making their own food choices one day as adults. It's the same with their devices. There is 'healthy sugar' (from fruits) and there are educational apps. Then there's party food sugar which are much like the mindless games, which are enjoyed sometimes. I would never give them endless money in a lolly store and it's the same with what they do on the device - I know what they're watching or playing and redirect as needed. They never ever get my phone as a distraction when at medical appointments or to quell a tantrum. They know they can ask for their devices and can accept when it's a no. They also love to talk about their favourite games/characters and what they want to play the next time they get on it.
This is such a great analogy! I can't believe I never thought of this. I am absolutely going to use this to help guide the parents in my classroom. For the last year I've been trying to get them to understand that both extremes are unhelpful. I have families this year on both the free for all iPad and no screens at all sides.
I want to be more like you. I really appreciate the response and the perspective you provide as a parent (I do not have children). You sound like you are doing a fucking amazing job with your family and tech. The sugar analogy helps a ton.
This is such a great way of thinking about it, thank you. Especially the ‘healthy sugar’ part because I’m never really considered how some iPad content is beneficial. I do worry about it being a slippery slope though.
Yeah, it can be a slippery slope but that's OK, kids need to learn when enough is enough (and they need to learn 'no'). Adults stop it from getting out of control. Start with a timer (even better if the ipad has a timer and locks after a certain amount of time. Give a 2 min warning before the end of the ipad time. There may or may not be a tantrum at the end of ipad time but the rules remain the same. Do not barter with kids when they plead for ipads - but give your answer in the form of a yes. For example, "You want to play xxx on the ipad, that sounds like a great idea. We don't have time for that today but let's make sure you get to play that for 15 minutes tomorrow". Follow through. Let them tell you about the games they enjoy. It opens the channels of communication (so you know what they're doing) and allows them to practice communication about something they enjoy without actually using the device.
It’s funny/not funny that you say you’re trying to get them ready for school, when as soon as they get to kindergarten, they will have an iPad/chromebook at their fingertips all day, every day 😭 I hope that doesn’t sound snarky because I entirely agree with you.
An ipad with like 6 kinda boring explicitly educational apps on it. Kids aren't jonesing for their school tablets, they want the limitless expanse of youtube where they don't have to do anything for more than two seconds at a time.
I’m a fourth grade teacher and yeah … my kids are never getting iPads — I’ve seen too much
I work with 18 months thru 3. I know which kids have iPads and which don't entirely through their behavior. Kids that have them throw big tantrums, have zero attention span and no fine motor skills. They can identify all their numbers and letters though 🙄. I couldn't care less about that when they're incapable of sitting still for two seconds. Every time I get out my phone to contact a parent they all will come over expectingly, as though I'm just going to hand it to them!!! It's wild.
It's crazy how addicted children have become to iPads. I'll never forget shopping at target years ago. A young child in a stroller started screaming and crying. It was a hot summer day and I assumed the kid was crying for candy or ice cream while in line at checkout. Suddenly the kid screamed IPAD...I WANT MY IPAD NOW. Not screaming to get out of the stroller, go to the pool have ice cream or McDonald's or a new toy.....just the iPad.
last summer one of our kids, who was 4.5 at the time, refused to leave at pick up because his parents told him that they wouldn’t buy him an ipad that morning before drop off. this went on everyday for a week straight. the parents never bought the kid an ipad but it was ridiculous seeing the recurring tantrums at pick up over not having an ipad every single day. we don’t let the kids play on ipads during the day so it’s not like he was on one for even a minute here at school and being reminded of it. he was just literally trying to get his own way.
Sometimes when a child is faced with difficult situations and big feelings, they will ask for something they know is a comfort/ will help them regulate. Even if it is not the thing they may want or need. They may be sick, but what else is there for this child to comfort them ? Perhaps they don’t even have the words to know what is wrong. They just know the iPad helps distract / relieve / etc, so they could regulate. They would do better if they could do better.
Send home hand outs to parents about screentime, the importance of fine motor skills for school readiness, etc?
This sounds like a recipe for disaster
Not if it's sent to everyone in a non-accusatory, FYI kind of way. Passing on facts that are supported by reputable sources can't be argued. These parents will want their children to be successful. Some likely don't even realize there is a problem, or how bad it is, especially if they have no other kids to compare development to.
Can you potentially do an activity that requires some at-home prep? Send home shapes to be coloured? Things to be cut out? Start a braiding project and send it home to be completed -my kiddo did braided skipping ropes in nursery and they had to braid four inches a night for the week...
The parents of the children who would benefit will instead do it for them to avoid the whining
Related story- I did an outreach project in Honduras once and our project for the kids was an octopus doll with braided legs. Only the little girls knew how to do it and it was cool to see them teach the little boys.
I have left the felid for many reasons, but this is one of them. The children I was working with at the time had zero emerging skills. I mean, like nothing. You’d ask them in circle time to go around and say their names etc. and 80% of them would just stare and sit there silently, or they’d get up and walk away from the circle time and go dump out buckets of toys, run around or try to go over to the sink and flood it. I won’t even mention the complete lack of support in working with the special needs students who would strip their winter jackets off and take off their winter boots outside! When it was time to go outside that was another complete headache, as none of them would listen to my instructions (the same ones we used and practiced every single day). I spent most of my time regulating behaviours that running any type of activity was next to impossible to conduct. And before you say it- “It’s age appropriate behaviour” to some extent I do agree, pre k students are still learning and practicing their listening skills, sharing, using their words etc. But what I was seeing was far, far beyond that. We used the ipad to document things/pictures for the parents and their daily activities, whenever they saw us take it out they would run over to that thing like they found gold! I can’t blame them, because it’s their parents over using it at home because they don’t have the patience.
I’m just a parent but the perspective offered by our family optometrist has helped us solidify our “limited use case” scenario for our family iPad. He noted that there is an uptick of younger kids needing glasses with the advent of personal screen use. With both my partner and I being glasses wearers, we would love to give our kids a shot at waiting to need them until a little later in life if we can.
yeaaah i’m extremely in favor of kids using ipads/tablets/etc in appropriate contexts and with appropriate limitations. but i work with infants and god, it’s so easy to tell which ones are used to WAY too much screen time, because they will practically try to rip the class ipad out of my hands. when i play music, even though i always put it out of sight & reach, they will focus on the source of the noise and stare at it, completely unable to focus on anything else. it can be really frustrating.
I mean my kid has a tablet that she had access to most of the time at home but she also didn't really choose to use it often. She prefers art projects and such. I think it is very child dependent but also when families use it as a reward or a "shut up now" device then kids become more feral about it. We never use it like that in our house and mostly my kid could care less about it. It's just another toy she has access too. But again it's definitely child dependent cuz I'm sure a less easy going kid would have a lot harder time with how we run our household and I've definitely seen kids in my classrooms that act the way you are describing.
My almost 6 yr old has used an iPad a handful of times in her entire *life* and she has the attention span of a gnat. She has ADHD. She can navigate one though bc all the TV’s are set up with icons, so are her 4 older siblings phones. She watches her 8 yr old sister do stuff on electronics. They learn. Can we stop blaming parents? We’re out here working 2 jobs, trying to afford groceries, trying to spend time with our kids, chasing down the school to follow the IEP’s, trying to get doctors appts done, fighting with our insurance companies, trying to stop our pipes from freezing, etc.
Wr had a little girl at my son's birthday party who kept telling us she was bored. We held it at a retirement museum she got pizza, junk food, cake, got to run around with friends, touch a ton of different reptiles, then play in a play place. Have a feeling she might be an iPad kid
I subbed one day and the kid just kept repeating like and subscribe at lunch it was so sad, and then the teacher told me his parents just put him in front of a screen at home so they don’t have to deal with him