There are some ways that technology hinders education. In talking with a speech pathologist yesterday, she was noting how she has seen a steep incline in amount and severity of speech issues in the past few years. She believes that this is due to many factors, one of them being the increased amount of screen time kids are getting. Instead of spending time playing and interacting with other kids or their parents, they spend enormous amounts of time vegging in front of the TV. Kids no longer just watch TV at home now. Anywhere they go, parents turn on their favorite shows for them on iPads, iPhones and other devices. Because all of this screen time leads to a decrease of interaction with people, many students' language and speech is not developing at normal rates. The speech pathologist hoped that parents will begin to realize that kids need interaction, and that they will stop feeding them a constant diet of television shows, no matter how educational they are said to be.
I had never really thought about the connection that could be made between the amount of T.V. kids are now watching and a decline in speech because of the time not spent socializing. I think this is scary and agree that kids today spend way too much time in front of screens.
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