6.4 C
London
Saturday, February 15, 2025

10 percent of children receive a smartphone in the first year of life. “This is disastrous”

Must read

- Advertisement -


For 25 years, the whole of Poland has been reading to children in line with the social campaign initiated by its originator, Irena Koźmińska. In Saturday's program You Get Up and the Weekend, she talked about whether, with her help, she managed to influence the linguistic development of young Poles.

Last year, the All of Poland Reads to Children Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary. The guest on Saturday was Irena Koźmińska, president and founder of the foundation. In the program, she talked about what the linguistic development of children currently looks like from their perspective, emphasizing that the mission of the foundation is not, contrary to appearances, the promotion of literature, but “supporting the healthy, comprehensive development of children and their wise upbringing.”

A child learns language by listening

– Parents do not realize that the baby does not have a button on its tummy that will start talking. Speaking and language skills must be built by talking to the child. A child learns language by listening. My daughter, at the age of 19 months, said “baby can't dry her head with a hairdryer”. She made a mistake and said “head”. That's seven words, and I read that two-year-old children can put together two-word sentences. If you talk to a child a lot, it is not a phenomenon and it is not some “baby Einstein”, but it is the brain's natural ability to understand and to shape this language in a child. The child develops it himself, but it requires the presence of the parent and speaking to the child, not the language from the screen, she said.

- Advertisement -

She quoted a story described years ago in Rainer Patzlaff's “Frozen Gaze” thesis, which was devoted to the toxic effects of a television set on a child.

– The parents, both mute and deaf, sat their child in front of the TV screen to learn the language. It has not learned because learning a language requires emotional involvement. The child needs to know that someone is waiting to hear what he or she says. At first, it's mainly squeaks, but gradually the child begins to understand, and after a few months he begins to speak. I have the impression that we still underestimate the importance of childhood for our entire life. It is the most important thing. Then certain structures and neurological connections are created in the brain, without which the child will not be able to use language so freely in the future, and may even have difficulties at all. And language is a basic tool for thinking, acquiring knowledge, and communicating with people, she explained.

Parents “looking for subcontractors”

When asked by the presenter why the situation has worsened compared to 25 years ago, she replied that parents have become even busier nowadays and are trying to “cut corners” by looking for “subcontractors”, giving the child something that will occupy his attention.

– It turns out that in Poland, 10 percent of children before the age of 1 receive a smartphone or tablet, because it gives parents freedom and time, they do not have to take care of the child. But this is disastrous. Then, when it comes to teenagers, about 30 percent are already addicted to social media. Technology certainly contributes to this, but I also think lifestyle. Because if we have a single mother who raises children and works, she no longer has the energy to talk or read. However, there is a lack of awareness that it is absolutely fundamental to a child's development, success at school and in life – said Koźmińska.

Main photo source: Shutterstock



Source link

More articles

- Advertisement -

Latest article