video games Tag

10 Reasons Why I Will continue to give My Children Handheld Devices

Last week we published the link and a short commentary based on the Huffington Post article: 1o Reasons Why Handheld Devices should be banned from children under the Age of 12. This week we are delighted to share with you a response to that same article published by blogger Hipmombrarian: mother of two girls and a librarian.

We certainly appreciate the fact that girls hardly enter technological fields.  This is quite marked in the Caribbean Region. Does this trend start from as young as under 12 years? Could the young child who isn’t using technology often be … left behind?

Everything in moderation! Please tell us your thoughts after you have enjoyed the other side of the tech coin: 10 Reasons Why I Will continue to give My Children Handheld Devices. 

10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12

The entire staff of Tots to Teens stands behind the American and Canadian Paediatric Associations in their call for parents and caregivers to consciously monitor children and their exposure to electronic media.
Note well: children under age 2 years should not be exposed to electronic media at all!
Talk to your pediatrician and your family doctor about any concerns you may have.

http:// http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/4899218

The consequences of overexposure are real.

Will you make the Same Mistake as Me? Your Baby Cannot Read

Your Baby Can Read – Early Literacy – Parenting.com.

We’re all looking for the perfect program or class to develop our latent baby Einsteins. Which is why the $199.95 Your Baby Can Read 5 DVD program (yourbabycanread.com) is so enticing — wouldn’t it be great if our babies were geniuses and could read?

Of course, implicit in the marketing is the assumption that our babies should read if we are to Keep Up with the Joneses, make our babies smarter, more athletic and genius artists.

Except, when I looked at child development research, I found that baby’s brain cells need time to grow and develop synapses. This happens with touch, stimulation, play, good nutrition, and that sort of thing. It takes time.

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The Your Baby Can Read creator, Titzer, claims on his website, “When children develop reading skills during their natural window of opportunity, from about birth to age four, they read better and are more likely to enjoy it.”. Not true says decades of research. Learning to read early means you learned to read early. It doesn’t mean that you are going to love reading.

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Here’s the other thing that bothered me about that overheard coffee shop conversation — Why? Why do we want our babies to read anyway? To beat out all the other kids?

We at  Caribbean Tots to Teens, RE-ENFORCE and SUPPORT the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for discouraging ALL ELECTRONIC MEDIA under the age of 2 years. This includes television, DVDs and computer programmes/games. (see Link)

Active Video Games Don’t Mean Exercise

Active Video Games Don’t Mean Kids Exercise More.

A study conducted by Dr. Tom Baranowski and his colleagues shows disappointing results from active video game use. Reported on February 27, 2012 in the American Academy of Paediatrics Journal: 

…kids who were given so-called active video games to play on a Nintendo Wii didn’t end up logging any more moderate or vigorous physical activity than those given games they could play sitting on the couch.

“We expected that playing the video games would in fact lead to a substantial increase in physical activity in the children,” Dr. Baranowski told Reuters Health. “Frankly we were shocked by the complete lack of difference.”

So, its still up to parents to implement some real time for play and excercise.

The American Academy of Paediatrics also recommends limiting electronic screen time in all age groups.