Early childhood is a critical period for brain development. This period, which we define as the 0-6 age period, is a period in which the child completes his/her cognitive, social, physical and emotional development and all kinds of stimuli around him affect his/her development.
The human brain forms approximately 87% of its neural networks in early childhood, and this period, when it has the most flexible structure, constitutes the basic building blocks for future life. For this reason, children who are exposed to the screen for a long time in early childhood are likely to experience certain problems in terms of their development.
The period from the birth of the baby to the age of 2 is the most important period in terms of mental and physical development. During this period, the child is receptive, receives all kinds of stimulus that he sees and hears from the outside and records it in his memory for use when the time comes. In this period, the communication between the caregiver and the child is of great importance for the child’s language development and for laying the foundation of interpersonal relations. As a result of the researches, it has been observed that children exposed to the screen for a long time have a slowdown in language development, the main reason for this is the inability to establish a good enough communication between the parent and the child.
Being exposed to numerous stimuli at the same time due to technological devices such as phones and tablets causes serious attention, memory and learning problems in children. In addition, being able to reach everything you want with a single click can cause impulse control disorder, while establishing interpersonal relations through technological tools, not face-to-face, can lead to consequences such as a decrease in self-esteem and a lack of empathy.
As a result, prolonged exposure to the screen in early childhood negatively affects the mental development of the child, and he encounters the devastating effects of this situation in the future periods of his life. Yes, keep up with the developing technology, but I recommend that you use it as a tool, not as a goal. Remember, children need face-to-face communication. 😊
