All the little ones are a generation of digital natives.
A study of 2,000 parents of children ages 0-5 and funded by the Council on Social and Economic Research (ESRC) and led by Professors Jackie Marsh and Lydia Plowman revealed that children now have a new repertoire of digital skills. and practices that they can control. And we’re not just talking about opening and closing apps, but also touching, dragging, clicking, finding and creating content.
If we take as a reference the time it takes them to learn to read a book, pick up a pencil or write their name, this new set of skills that are acquired before the age of 5 constitute a surprising change in their level of competencies, reaching the point in which literacy itself begins to depend significantly on technology, according to experts.
Preschoolers feel like fish in water with tablets, and in fact, a video of a confused boy trying to flip a magazine page like a tablet went viral recently.
Definitely, it is not good to limit them and strictly prohibit them from accessing these new skills, but it is important to control the issue of addiction and set schedules for it.