Children’s habitual of tech gadgets are somewhat common these days. They are extremely attached to gadgets compared to traditional toys like dolls, building blocks, action figures, puzzles, among others. What most parents may not know is that exposing them to gadgets at such an early age will only cause issues including adolescent mental health deterioration, depression, anxiety and several other health problems. In other words, toys can help children develop so much better in ways gadgets can’t.
These flashing touchscreens have taken every other form of traditional toy in the modern world we live in. The anticipation of unboxing or unpacking new toys including board games seem almost nonexistent. One can only hope that the children are using these devices for learning. However, it’s pretty clear that we have exposed them to gadgets as primary needs with no educational value.
Parents should monitor and be more responsive when it comes to maintaining their inner balance and set clear guidelines when providing their kids any gadgets. It is important for parents to understand the impact of gadgets on a child’s mental development. One thing for sure, there are proven statistics that show there is an increase in the psychological deterioration of adolescents among children with the increase of gadgets use—including smartphones.
Here are a few reasons why toys are better for children compared to gadgets:
Toys have less of an electronic or digital media-based background that can detract from promoting the use of a child’s own creativity and imagination. Toys offer magnificent educational value to support children in key development milestones. If you want your children to be more creative, prevent yourself from giving them smartphones and tablets.
Playing with gadgets is likely to have an impact on a child’s language development, considering the fact that the amount of language input that a child receives is important for language development at an early age. Furthermore, when a child overly engages in a gadget, we are just leading them to a number of serious illnesses including the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, weight gain, and depression. But the number one case reported amongst parents when giving them gadgets? Lack of sleep. And this can severely affect their studies and academic achievements.
Social interactions are not required when children are provided with gadgets instead of toys. Playing with a gadget is a solo activity. Whereas toys encourage essential social skills including communication, sharing, and learning to compromise whilst helping to develop children’s communication and language skills. Children will have greater interaction with their parents when playing with toys as they nurture interactive play, vocabulary practice and words recognition.
The amount of time spent with gadgets among children including screen time requires constant supervision from parents. Perhaps, sometimes it may be just a way of keeping them occupied for a certain amount of time. But some parents may do so without knowing that their kids may end up being ‘addicted’ to it for excessively long periods—possibly throughout their entire childhood, or beyond. This, without a doubt, will have a negative impact on your child.
What Should Parents Do?
Start them at an early age by not necessarily enticing them with expensive toys. You can encourage your little ones to get creative with the items available within the comforts of your home. According to this mum TikToker (@mamashee_), she provided her cute baby, Hana, with some basic activities. All you need are a couple of scarves, colourful tapes, plastic clothes pegs and a small box. According to her, these activities can improve motor skills, hand strength, pincer grasp, hand-eye coordination and even problem-solving skills. Click on these videos below to find out more on how you can replicate these activities using the aforementioned items. Trust us, the clips are worth watching!
Activity 1:
What you need: Colourful tapes (to be taped on the wall).
Bangun tidur after breakfast Mama bg simple activity for Hana. Tomorrow is fav day Hana, messyplay pula
Activity 2:
What you need: Plastic clothes pegs and a small box.
Lepasni jangan cubit Mama pula
Activity 3:
What you need: Four or fives pieces of scarves and plastic containers (to insert the scarves).
Okay today not a messyday. But today maybe comment akan jadi “sayang tudung” day
These types of toys and activities for your little ones are definitely encouraged as there are more opportunities for communications and social interactions between you and your children. With zero amount of gadgets involved, these type of toys or activities promote educational values and will help your children support the developmental phases, making them to choose toys over gadgets. Deciding on the appropriate toys for your family is an important part of parenting and enforcing the children compassionately is crucial.
Here’s hoping all parents will be able to try out these simple activities with their kids. And don’t forget to have fun!
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