Tablets/IT for the under 4s?

Three year old grandaughters play with an iPad as well as pretend play and using their toys and books. One has learned to tell the time of her own volition, and can demonstrare what she's picked up in a game on the iPad by placing fingers correctly on her toy clock. It distracts them if they're a bit tetchy and they enjoy looking for games and nursery songs. My four year old grandsons were used to iPads by the time they started school, and they have them in the classroom. They don't play outside with iPads, at nursery or in the swing park. Variety and choice is the thing - iPads are handy for us adults and children soon pick up the idea that they'd enjoy them, too.

My DD also rations the amount of time her children are allowed to play on the iPad. She has downloaded games for each of them. The games are fun but also educational. My GS who is 2 tries to swipe pictures in books to try and change them!!

My 5 yr old GS uses her mother's I pad and the school ones. Yet on Boxing Day she spent most of the day in a huge cardboard box playing imaginatively. She had turned it into a vehicle and was off on her travels round the world!

We have now bought her a simple globe, next step is to find a suitable child friendly geography ap for the I pad.

As with all things we have to move forward sensibly. X

Meant GD! Sometimes the I pad controls our spelling! x

Just before Xmas had all five grandchildren in the house. Each had a tablet, either their own or their parents. Age of GC was 10 to 4. They all played together on Minegraft for a long time happily together, no shouting, arguments or disagreements.
The four year old started using an iPad before she could walk and has learnt all her letters and numbers on them. All the kids have great hand eye coordination.
The treat in both homes is loss of Ipad, Kindle or Nexus if ill behaved. The elder two DC have Internet access but it's strictly controlled by the parents and time locked.

Mishap I heard somewhere that the theory about fast moving images being harmful to younger children's brain development had been taken seriously by the French with regard to TV programs for young children.

I dont know if there is any conclusive scientific evidence about it but I cant help thinking it's not helpful for concentration.

I was amazed when I saw how fascinated DGS was by In the Night Garden when he was just 11 months old. It totally engaged him.

He is now 2 and does not get a lot of TV.
His parents take him into bed with them with Peppa Pig on their tablet if he is awake early and they want to snooze.

My five older grandchildren play Minecraft. Last year the three eldest GD9, GS8 and GS then 6 all played together, even though they all live in three different states in Australia. DS set it up as they had the server so they could all talk to each other. They did start to lose interest a bit but now the next two GC both nearly seven have joined in too so there is a bit more interest again. I love that they can all play computer games online together and if I was visiting and they were playing I could hear them talking together.

I read an article which said surgeons who spent at least three hours a week playing video games made less errors.

Ana. I dont know what OWT means.

Mobile phones. I presume that stuff like too much usage causes brain problems, is old hat nowadays?

So tablets causing brain development problems might be too?

I dont know as much about the very young and computers as lots of others do here.
But isnt the battle lost anyway at 5 because they have computers at school?

I would try to keep very young children away from tablets as much as possible. Certainly not give them their own until about eight.

I sometimes wish the things had never been invented when they come on a visit.

Apart from those Leapfrog and V-Tech things. Where they learn a bit, of course.

Minecraft has been THE big thing for about three years now. All the GC are avid players either solo or with others. It can be played as an adventure or used as a design tool. Some grans use it too - though I haven't managed to get hooked yet.

A lot of the arguments against tablets (and such) could be used against reading books too much and yet we seem to think that reading is somehow superior and to be encouraged. My MIL was criticised as a child for always having her nose in a book, ruining her eyesight, living in a fantasy world, addicted to the written word, not getting enough exercise, etc. I think we have to move with the times and accept that computers have opened up the world in the same way that books did in the past. However, we have to get the balance right and that's where small children need guidance (and discipline) from adults. Tablets are great - in moderation.

I seem to be out of step here - if I am honest I am quite shocked by all the above posts indicating the level of usage amongst small children. My two DDs who live locally do not have these things in the house - my extremely brainy 6 year old GS uses the computer to look things up if he needs to and reads, reads, reads. Neither of these DDs would consider tablets till their children are much older. I endorse their position on this.

The other DD, who works full time (and I think that is relevant) allows her children to have them and, as I have said, it causes lots of aggro. The oldest boy gets so wound up by it that he hurls it across the room when he cannot achieve what he is aiming for - it winds him up like a spring and something has to give.

And as for the educational aspects of them - I always avoid educational games of any sort. This is the time when they need to develop their imaginations and explore what is out there.

My DGC watch quite a bit of TV, and that too is too frenetic; but they love the DVDs we have here for them - gentle charming programmes like Bagpuss and Ivor the Engine - they are entranced by them, and their behaviour is reflected in the programmes they have just watched - it is fascinating. If they have been watching a frenetic programme they start hurling themselves around the room and bashing each other up; a gentler programme is reflected in gentler behaviour.

My eldest grandson used Minecraft to learn about operating his own server for him and his friends. He's been on Minecraft conventions with his dad in France and the UK, and his ability to code and develop apps and games has enabled him to organise his work placement with a programming company, before he chooses his college and uni places. Our grandchildren leave us standing with their aptitude for computers. When little ones show their fascination for noisy engines or water sports, would we be voicing objections about impaired hearing or risk of drowning? I guess not.

Imagination comes into play more with books. I think that's important. And books are more likely to widen their experience of the world albeit secondhand experience. And I have the feeling that reading might help develop their emotions more than tablets can.

Oh yes we would iam64! (Be voicing our terrors fears about horrible happenings with water sports)

Sorry. whenim64 not iam

I would be voicing things too about some water sports. But I agree with the rest of your post whenim64.

I am wondering though, because children are different, that the age that tablets are given can depend on the individaul child.

I guess my two youngest GSs have the best of two worlds. Each has an I-Pad and each has a kayak.

Snap! (Well, the older one. Younger one has to be forced into doing anything physically testing. Like walking. )

I am certainly not Luddite about technology, but I think young children should have limited and controlled access to computers, tablets etc until they have a firm grasp of reading and simple calculation.

I do not think it is mere coincidence that both DGC, boy and girl, have reading ages well ahead of their ages and their contemporaries and both read for pleasure. They use computers and will, eventually, get all the IT gadgets some of their contemporaries now have but they will also be able to read a book from cover to cover over an hour or more, as indeed DGD already does. If they can do this it means they are also able to concentrate for prolonged periods of time and as they get older that an only be to their advantage.

There is more to Maths than 'simple calculation'. My 4-year old GS has just won a Maths prize at school based on his understanding of shapes, graphs, tessellation, symmetry, time, number patterns, ordinal and cardinal numbers, etc. He only started in September and is a July birthday.

Where did he get his understanding of these concepts? By using tablets. Where did he get his love of playing with numbers etc? By using tablets

And yes, he knows his sounds, his letter blends, etc from using a tablet.

I agree that their use needs to be regulated both in time spent and on appropriateness of the apps used. But all the above learning has been completely voluntary on his part and most important of all he has thoroughly enjoyed the learning process.

Everybody seems to be concentrating on the educational aspect. There are other things to be considered as well.

"Everyone"?

I think not.