We spend a lot of time talking about how much media our children use…how many hours of TV they watch, how much computer time they use and how many texts they send in an hour. But, have parents stopped to look at how much time THEY spend on their smart phones and computers? If they did, they may be surprised to find that they do not give their children the amount of attention they need and/or deserve.
An article came out in the New York Times this week that highlighted the dangers of parents being too plugged in. Parents can be distracted and/or inattentive, which will impact their children’s development. In fact, in one study, children reported feelings of hurt, jealousy and competition. Kids want their parents to pay attention to their game, performance or questions, not the email or text to which they are responding.
Parents have always had to divide their attention. The use of technology is no different, it is just more pervasive. When one’s attention is divided, though, things do get lost and nothing is getting it’s full due. Parents are not providing “good” quality time, when they are distracted. Engaged parenting provides the most benefit to children’s development and learning.
More research needs to be done in this area, and, there is no question that the more engaged a parent is with his/her child, the more secure the child will be.
Here is a link to the NY Times Article:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/10/garden/10childtech.html
Here’s the link to the story from CBS’ The Early Show this morning:
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/earlyshow/main500202.shtml?tag=hdr;cnav
Here’s the link to the video of today’s story:
http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6571603n&tag=cbsnewsVideoArea.0
