Smartphones and tablets not as bad as parents think

This Christmas many children, even toddlers, have been given in tablet and media electronic. By now, the average age when children are close to electronic devices is increasingly low, and often parents do not know how to behave.
“The approach of children to digital has become precocious. The debate that has arisen whether or less positive for children to use electronic devices is completely passed. We know that nine out of ten children are already able to use the tablets and smartphones of its own parents to two years, “said Prof. Armando Piccinni, President of the BRF Foundation – Institute for Scientific Research in Psychiatry and Neuroscience.
The reference is to the recent Irish research published in Archives of Disease in Childhood and conducted by the University of Cork, who testified as the 87% of parents of children with age less than two years give its touchscreen device to the children, and that they are capable of so use them to search for videos, and to play games. “This research – continues Prof. Armando Piccinni – has been around the world, but we should not be surprised. The approach of children to tablets not only it should not be hindered, but encouraged. Blocking this process of literacy early it would not only be useless, but harmful. We would risk creating digital misfits. Of course it’s up to the parent to define the time of use, avoiding the excesses. “
Pedagogic action of parents and educators should not be simplistically and summarily contained in a yes / no. It therefore becomes necessary to operate selectively, considering the risks for the eyes and the risk of insomnia, not underestimating the modern diseases, first of all the Internet / electronic device addiction, which often involves children and adolescents who do not received an appropriate digital education.
“While up to one or two generations ago it was possible to think of limiting or at least regulate access to digital tools for children and young people – adds Prof. Armando Piccinni – now it seems virtually impossible. Currently we live immersed in a digital environment and the children, who have a brain strongly dedicated to learning, in the moment in which they meet their digital devices they approach them with the greatest naturalness “. Give the tablet to your child with the app dedicated to him, and select and experience them together will encourage the formation of a mental digital language. A type of language that has now become essential, and should be encouraged and guided. “Use this means to keep their children quiet for hours – concludes Prof. Piccinni – just as often happens with the television, it will be the prelude to an incongruous and excessive use. They do not go
underestimated the risks, starting with those which may feed a disorder capable of remove the child from the real world in favor of a digital  and fantastic universe, but non-existent. “