Is Children’s Entertainment Evolving for the Better?
Source: Christopher Furlong
In this photograph illustration a ten-year-old boy uses an Apple Ipad
Remember going outside to play on the playground for hours with friends? Remember playing with dolls, plushies, and toy cars? That was our childhood, the building of our motor skills, the beginning of our imagination; but with all these new and bright electronics, all of it disappears. Wherever I go, I find young children with their faces sucked into their electronics, not paying attention to their surroundings. I find that when children begin to throw tantrums and fits, their parent’s first instinct is to hand them their phone. What happened to plushies, they’re still around, just never bought because children no longer find interest in them. How will children build motor skills? They need those skills to develop as a person. Letting babies and toddlers be consumed by a screen isn’t gonna help with anything.
Young girl using a tablet.
Children’s lack of development in motor skills, and Intellectual, Social, and Emotional skills, are affected by electronics. Researchers have found that screen time slows down the progress of their development of these skills. For example, when children get in the habit of receiving a phone after a tantrum, as they are older they are more likely to develop behavioral issues and developmental delays. Over time researchers have found that children growing up with electronics show poorer performance on benchmark developmental skills. As children grow, staying inside their house, with an electronic, miss out on opportunities, physical activities, and milestones.
Child playing with building blocks learning new skills
Entertainment for children has developed in many different ways that affected their generation. Children played with plushies, toy cars, dolls, and friends, but now it seems like electronics have caught their attention. Maybe some children didn’t enjoy playing with dolls or cars, maybe introducing them to electronics wasn’t the worst decision, but there is always room for improvement, the only thing needed is time.
In the times of the COVID-19, there is time, lots of time. Having children working with blocks, dolls, or other toys that demand the use of their imagination is one way to break up the almost non-stop screen-time of their days.
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