Ep. 95 Consumers vs Creators: Technology Education for Young Children with Dr. Kayla Abshire

I am excited about what we get to talk about today because I think that people have really strong feelings about technology, especially in early childhood.

People are either like, we've got to do it.

Technology is here to stay.

We might as well teach our kids from birth how to use it.

And then there's other people who are like, screen time is evil and it's destroying our children.

And...

I think there's a different way to look at it.

And so I'm excited to chat with you about using technology in a way that actually is beneficial for children.

And also talking a little bit about sometimes the difference between screen time and just device use and what that actually means versus teaching kids about technology.

So first question.

I think a lot of us have seen all these reports saying young children on screens too early.

It's impacting their brain development.

It's impacting their whole development, really.

Their physical development is delayed.

All those things because they're spending too much time on screens.

I know I personally have gone out to eat or something and I see babies who are just sitting up with a phone propped in front of them in a high chair or at the grocery store.

Just those things you see so many children experiencing.

staring at devices rather than looking around and experiencing the world.

So when we talk about technology, talk about that a little bit.

What dangers do you see in allowing young children, especially this birth to kinder, to be on devices and

use

screens?

So a couple of things that I see just in general is delayed language development.

So whenever they're on screens as much as they are, they don't have that back and forth conversational skills.

Kind of like what you said, they're not experienced in the world around them.