In this generation, modern technology has become part of every individual's life. Technologies really make our lives easier in a way that we almost rely on it, not just adult, grade schoolers but also toddlers. Most of the toddlers are more tech savvy than adult. So, this is what the article has been talking about. Since toddlers are now exposed to hand-held screens or gadgets, such as mobile phones, tablets and computers, aside from educational purposes but for entertainment as well. This is actually most parents do in order for them to do household chores while their child or children is busy watching youtube. There are some who'd also use gadgets for educational purposes with a thought that educational videos can help toddlers to speak, identify and differenciate.
According to research that was presented at the annual Pediatric Academic Societies Meeting in San Francisco, showed the impact on speech development of hand-held screens or gadgets towards children. They have examined nearly 900 toddlers, from aged 6 to 24 months, to support this study. It came out that 20% are exposed to gadgets for at least 28 minutes each day and that these toddlers exhibited signs of expressive speech delay.
What is expressive speech delay? This is a disorder of speech where children are having a hard time expressing or communicating. This speech delay may affect a child's development as they may not be able to express themselves. This is the great effect of more exposure on hand-held screens to children. The more time they are exposed the higher the risk towards their health.
As I have conducted an interview, this article has a similar impact to reality that children exposed to gadgets are experiencing expressive speech delay but somehow they find it helpful for their children to identify, such as color, animals and the different sound. The only thing is that over use of gadgets, they observed that their children were implying emotionally affected as they become more obsessed of using such.
This research implied so much effort to make the parents, soon to be parents, become well aware of the impact of hand-held gadgets albeit the benefits of such. This is helpful to make everyone of us aware of the advantages and disadvantages of technologies and be able to manage our time exposure for health purposes. As a future teacher, though technologies are greatly helpful as one of the educational tool, I will still promote the old way of learning where we will go to a library, experiment and explore because gadgets can never replace the experience we have.