Screen Smarts
Using apps and digital tools to help our children engage with – rather than substitute for – the sensory and social world by Susie Monday
The digital camera on a smart phone or tablet is an amazing tool for studying light. ● ● ● ●
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ift packages this year will for many families include something with a screen: a digital tablet or mini tablet, a new smart phone or a digital camera. And your kid’s name just might be on the tag. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, in 2006, 90 percent of parents said their children younger than 2 were users of some form of electronic media. That was before the iPad and before the big screen phones. By 2010, according to the Joan Ganz Cooney Center (which studied children’s media), two-thirds of children ages 4 to 7 had used a smart phone.* We, as curriculum developers and educators, know that these new technologies provide wonderful tools for young children – and the key word is “tool.” Digital technology is best (for all of us, not just kids) when it’s used to engage with (rather than substitute for) the sensory and social world. Here are some of our favorite apps that
woman with kids and tablet image Tyler Olson/shutterstock.com
child development