Too Much Tech Could Affect Kids' Speech and Hearing, Association Says

Thinking of pacifying your baby with bright, shiny screens? Better think again, says the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA). Those mesmerizing screens could be interfering with your baby’s hearing and speaking.

This message is part of ASHA’s effort this month, which is Better Hearing and Speech Month, to raise public awareness about communication disorders and the importance of early intervention.

The effort includes a new public service ad: A baby is heard giggling and cooing in a crib. Soft, tinkling mobile music is playing. But what’s that dangling over the baby’s head? A mobile made out of smartphones, with cartoons shining on their spinning screens.

This simple sentence appears near the end of the 17-second ad (seen below): “Too much tech and too little talk could delay communication development.”

The ad comes at a time when hearing and speech disorders are on the rise among children and adolescents. Speech problems among U.S. children increased dramatically in the decade between 2001 and 2011, rising 63%, according to a new study published in Pediatrics in August. Hearing disorders jumped nearly 16% during the same period.

It also comes at a moment when more and more babies and toddlers are being exposed to increasing amounts of screen time, just as their most rapid period of brain development and language development is taking place.

Many recent studies have reported sobering news when it comes to young children, even babies, and screen time today—particularly time spent looking at mobile devices. A new survey released this month from ASHA is no exception. 

As part of ASHA's Identify the Signs public service campaign, the poll asked 1,000 U.S. parents of kids ages 8 and under about their children’s tech use. More than two-thirds of the parents’ 2-year-olds (68%) use tablets, more than half (59%) use smartphones, and 44% use video game consoles.

Even among 1-year-olds, device use was surprisingly high, with 59% using tablets, 53% using smartphones, and 47% using video consoles. The numbers didn’t even drop too significantly for the under-1-year set.

In a USA Today column titled “Babies Don’t Need Smartphones,” ASHA president Judith L. Page warns that overuse of technology can translate into an underuse of the very things babies and toddlers need to develop their vocabulary and communication skills: Listening, talking, reading and interacting with other real, live human beings.

Page, who is a speech language pathologist, writes, “[When] the consumption of technology eclipses or begins to diminish social interactions with very young children, we have a problem—and a big one. The image of a group of toddlers sitting apart, all engaged in their devices rather than playing together, isn’t some far-off notion.”

An image from ASHA's Identify the Signs public service campaign.

As a society, we’ve become far too used to seeing groups of college-aged students, high school students, and even middle-schoolers sitting amongst each other, completely entranced by their phones, not looking up, not taking in their surroundings, and not talking to one another. But toddlers?

I say this all the time, and Page says it even better: “Anyone who has traveled by subway, walked through an airport or, really, seen people in any public setting knows that adults live in their devices: ear buds in, heads down. The difference, though, is that we grew up without these devices—and that’s an important distinction.”

Yes. Whatever potential risks or pitfalls we might face today when it comes to our own mobile tech use as adults, we did not face these as toddlers—and thank goodness. Even today’s teenagers, who are certainly a pretty “plugged in" group, weren’t swiping mobile screens as babies. I’ve heard parents of teenagers today express relief that their kids didn’t start off in a world filled with apps and online games for babies, that they at least got to experience a few years of growing up before they could carry the Internet around in their pockets.

We are still in “uncharted waters,” as Page writes, when it comes to having real information about what exactly this increased tech use might be doing to such tiny developing brains, including to the development of the ability to communicate.

“However,” Page writes, “we do know that nothing substitutes for human interaction when it comes to speech and language development—not even technology.” (She links to this study on brain mechanisms in early language acquisition.)

“Hearing-wise, technology can do outright damage,” Page continues, “if it is allowed to repeatedly emit unsafe sound levels close to the ear.”

She notes that the World Health Organization (WHO) recently reported that 1.1 billion teenagers and young adults worldwide are at risk of losing their hearing due to the “unsafe use” of audio devices, including smartphones. WHO found that nearly half of 12- to 35-year-olds in middle- and high-income countries are exposing their ears to unsafe levels of sound when they use personal audio devices.

Babies and headphones? Be sure to check the sound levels.

Parents today are definitely concerned about this, the new ASHA poll found: 72% of those surveyed agreed that loud noise from technology might lead to hearing loss in their kids.

And they’re taking precautions: Across parents of all age groups (from birth to age 8), 85% or more monitor the volume level of their kids' devices that have earphones, headphones or ear buds, and more than 80% monitor the length of time their kids spend listening to them—which is all good news.

In general, the ASHA poll found that parents of young kids do allow a good deal of screen time, across the board. Some additional key findings:

• Fifty-five percent of kids 8 and under use technology devices on car trips; 22% use them in restaurants.
• About one in four 2-year-olds (24%) use technology devices at the dinner table. By age 8, this percentage nearly doubles, to 45%.
• Parents of 2-year-olds think 35 minutes a day is an appropriate amount of “tech screen time”—which includes video games, smartphones, tablets and computers, but not TV.
• Two-year-olds spend a mean of 28 minutes per day using earphones, headphones or ear buds. By age 8, this jumps to 67 minutes per day.
• The mean age parents think kids should first be allowed to use smartphones is 8.5 years old. (The mean age for appropriate first use of Internet-enabled tablets is 7.7.)
• By age 8, a majority of kids (58%) would rather have technology present than not present when spending time with a family member or friend.
• Fifty-seven percent of parents of 1-year-olds and 59% of parents of 2-year-olds say they rely on technology to help their children learn “outside of a school setting.”

But parents are also concerned about the misuse and overuse of tech:

• More than three-quarters (77%) agree with the statement “Misuse of today’s technology can be harmful to young children.”
• More than half (55%) voiced concern that misuse of technology might be harming their children’s hearing; 52% said it might be limiting their children’s speech and language skills.
• Fifty-nine percent worry that misuse of technology may cause behavior problems, and 52% worry it may cause academic problems.
• Fifty-five percent worry about using technology too much to keep their children entertained. Thirty-five percent report that they often rely on technology to prevent behavior problems or tantrums by their children. (Among parents of 8-year-olds, nearly half—48%—report doing this.)
• Many (52%) are concerned that technology is negatively impacting the quality of their conversations with their children, and that they are having fewer conversations than they would like because of technology (54% report this).

It’s completely understandable today that conversations with kids might be suffering due to so much time spent on screens—by parents and kids alike. As parents today, we own more screens than any generation of parents who came before us could have ever even imagined. The more they become an important part of our own daily lives, the easier it becomes to hand them over to our children—or, I should say, the harder it becomes not to.

It makes sense that today’s children—even our very littlest ones—have more exposure to screens than children ever have before. 

But that doesn’t mean we have to accept it.

We can serve our children best by remembering what ASHA president Page stresses to us: That there is no substitute for helping young children develop communication skills through real, organic conversations. That the less time babies and toddlers spend conversing, the less opportunity they have to develop strong speech and language skills. 

And that it’s talking and reading together—not swiping and gaping at screens, alone—that will build the communication skills our kids will need and use for a lifetime.

Sesame Street Did It: 1 Billion YouTube Views, and the Count's Counting Every One

Count von Count is beyond excited today. He got to count to 1 billion — and in just under 3 minutes — to celebrate Sesame Street's YouTube channel reaching 1 billion views on YouTube, the first nonprofit ever to do so.

"There's no time to sleep and there's no time to snooze, cuz I'm counting the 'you's in YouTube!" the energized Count sings, polka-style, in this "top secret video" released this morning after Sesame Street hit its big mark:

Sesame Street is the first U.S. children's media outlet to reach this impressive digital milestone. (See the February 18 post on this topic on "The Digital Child"). The achievement reflects the rapid growth of educational content on digital platforms such as YouTube.

Sesame Street has long been the market leader in creating multimedia children's content. And it won't stop at 1 billion views.

"I want to keep counting, yes that's what I choose," the Count sings, "so I'll make you an offer that you can't refuse: you keep on viewing and I'll count the views." A counter on Sesame Street's YouTube channel this morning shows 1,000,555,802 video views already. The Count had better be ready — there will be lots more counting to do.

Twitter's for Two-Year-Olds, Too: "The Honest Toddler" Tells It Like It Is

It's the perfect meeting of digital technology and young children today: A toddler who tweets! And blogs. And posts Facebook status updates. And has grown-up followers by the ten-gazillions.

OK, so the toddler in this scenario isn't actually a toddler. But let's leave that aside for a moment... I'm talking about The Honest Toddler, a virtual child who's earned a tremendous following — and even a book deal — in just a matter of months.

The Honest Toddler is like a 2013 cross between Charlie Brown (lovable, thoughtful, put-upon) and Stewie from "The Family Guy" (hyper-intelligent, resentful of adults, plotting to take over the world or at least rid it of broccoli).

Sorry about last night. Guess we both learned something though. You learned to come the first time I call and I learned to never give up.
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) February 26, 2013

An advocate for fellow toddlers everywhere, the Honest Toddler does not mince words. She tells toddler life like it is. In the blog post "The Nap Window," the Honest Toddler writes, "These people brought you into the world and all they can think about is the next time you'll be unconscious." In "Not Sorry," she states, "I’m not sorry that I exploded a feather pillow with scissors. Pillows are family property and I’m part of this family."

Grandmas always see you for you, not for the things you break or catch on fire.
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) February 7, 2013

The Honest Toddler has no shortage of advice for grown-ups. From the post "Feeding": "If toddler hits [a] spoon out of your hand, laugh and move on to dessert." From "Judgment Day": "Spend less than 15 minutes a day on Pinterest. Use 14 of those minutes searching for new cake recipes. Bake that cake." ("Judgment Day" is a small gem about how a group called Anonymous Toddlers shuts down Pinterest and Instagram, tired of sitting "naked in potato sacks and on wooden benches while your parents Instagramed ridiculous photos of you adjacent to wheelbarrows.")

There's advice for other toddlers too. From "How to Get Kicked Out of Preschool," for those desperate to escape their "holding cell for toddlers": "During naptime, wait until the room is silent. Jump up suddenly and yell, “WE’RE ALL GONNA DIE!” in a celebration voice. Mom and dad will be there shortly." And check out the "Honest Toddler of the Day" series, where poor toddlers like "Honest Toddler of the Day: Isobel" are honored for persevering despite having no bike, boring toys, a troublesome older sibling and being fed spinach pea risotto.

Walked into my parent's room at 3AM. They looked at me like I was the angel of death. Just wanted a quesadilla.
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) February 7, 2013

Fell down and was just denied a Band Aid because "there's no blood." EMOTIONAL SCARS DON'T BLEED
— Honest Toddler (@HonestToddler) January 30, 2013

The Honest Toddler's nearly 195,000 Twitter followers and more than 90,000 Facebook fans have always known something deep down: that a toddler wasn't really writing these brilliant missives on being small. So who was?

The answer was revealed February 26 in posts announcing the Honest Toddler's new book, The Honest Toddler: A Child's Guide to Parenting. On the bottom of the cover, in fine print, are the words, "Written under the supervision of Bunmi Laditan."

So the secret's now out. A mother of two and longtime writer/social media consultant who lives in Quebec is the real voice behind this clever, media-saavy tot. Furthermore, the Honest Toddler is definitely based on a girl, Laditan's youngest daughter, now 3 years old. (There had been much speculation over the Honest Toddler's gender.)

"I deliberately decided to stay anonymous because it wasn't about me; it was more about the voice and the entertainment," Laditan told the Huffington Post yesterday. "The only reason people know that I'm behind it now is because my name needed to be on the book cover." 

Laditan took a moment away from tweeting, blogging and parenting for the Huffington Post's fun Q&A. But she noted, "In the time I've answered these questions, my youngest has managed to dip her hand in a jar of maple syrup. Fully submerge it." 

This is exactly this kind of thing that inspired Laditan last May to see the humor in her life of caring for her then 2-year-old while working from home — a situation she called "absolute madness" — and start tweeting about it.

The Honest Toddler's huge popularity tells us at least one thing: People will read a toddler's tweets. And blog posts. And Facebook updates. That's right, maybe Twitter really could be for toddlers... if only we'd teach them how to use it.

(You can pre-order Laditan's new book on Amazon here. It's due out May 7, just in time for Mother's Day.)

A "School in the Cloud": Kids, Computers and Learning on One's Own

A child who's never seen a computer before suddenly has one at her fingertips. She has no knowledge of the Internet and knows very little English. There are no adults around to teach her. What happens?

The answer, says Indian educator Sugata Mitra, is some extremely impressive learning. For the past 14 years, Mitra has been conducting experiments with kids and computers, showing how quickly they can become computer literate without any intervention from adults. 

Mitra, who was awarded the $1 million 2013 TED Prize this week, argues that the future of learning demands a new system in which adults merely spark children's curiosity then let them teach themselves. With a little help from computers, that is.

Mitra calls this approach "self-organized" learning. "It's not about making learning happen, it's about letting it happen," he said in a speech at the TED2013 conference in Long Beach, California, on Tuesday, where he was awarded the organization's first-ever $1 million prize. (See Mitra's full speech here.)



Mitra's experiments began in 1999, when he dug a hole in a wall between the New Delhi research center where he was teaching computer programming and the slum on the other side. He placed an Internet-connected PC in the hole, facing the slum, and left it there.

Within hours, the kids from the slum had learned how to use the computer and surf the Internet — and were teaching each other how to do it — all on their own. They also taught themselves English over time so they could do it even better.

Mitra replicated this "hole in the wall" experiment in many more locations in rural India. Hole in the wall learning stations have since spread to Cambodia and to several African countries. (The New Delhi hole in the wall project was an inspiration for the novel Q&A, which later became the Oscar-winning hit Slumdog Millionaire.)

"In nine months, a group of children left alone with a computer in any language will reach the same standard as an office secretary in the West," said Mitra, who is a professor of educational technology at Newcastle University in England.

While he does not favor direct teaching or intervention from adults, Mitra said he discovered that encouragement and admiring words from an adult — such as a grandmother would give — did help the kids in his experiments to learn better. This led to a new experiment called the "granny cloud": a community of English grandmothers who volunteer time to Skype with children across oceans and simply tell them that they're doing great.

"The granny cloud sits on the Internet," Mitra told the TED2013 audience. "If there's a child in trouble, we beam a 'gran.' She goes on over Skype, and she sorts things out."

Sugata Mitra's "SOLE Toolkit"

Mitra has developed a new model of education based on his experiments called SOLE, or self-organized learning environments. In this model, adults merely ask children big questions — "What is a soul?" "Can animals think?" — and let them learn on their own using computers and working in groups. Mashable's Chris Taylor explains SOLE this way in the article "How This Teacher Won the $1 Million TED Prize": "Give kids a computer, ask them a serious adult-level question, encourage their efforts to answer it, and stand well back."

Mitra plans to use the TED Prize money to build a "school in the cloud" — a learning laboratory where he can test out his SOLE principles and continue various experiments in self-directed learning. The school would be a physical building, likely in India, that's managed completely by cloud technology. It would be practically unmanned, Mitra said, with only one "granny" present to oversee health and safety issues. Everything else would be done via the cloud — even switching on the lights and AC, Mitra explains in this one-on-one interview with The New York Times.

Mitra has compared the school to a "safe cyber café for children," where they can connect with information and mentors online and work collaboratively with other kids. Mitra would like to see how such self-organized learning centers can be scaled globally. For now, though, the school — along with the $1 million prize that will fund it — is a testament to the wondrous innate capabilities of children. And to the tremendous appeal of a computer, even one that's just stuck in a hole in the wall.

(TED, which stands for Technology, Entertainment and Design, is a global nonprofit organization devoted to "ideas worth spreading." The TED2013 conference ran this week from Monday through today. You can download the "SOLE Toolkit" from Mitra on the TED website to learn how to apply the SOLE model in your own community.)

Little Fingers, Big Purchases: Guarding Against "In-App" Spending

Watch out for those flashy icons and banner ads promising extra content in game apps for kids. When little eyes see them, Mom or Dad's credit card bill could go through the roof.

A slew of recent news reports have shown just how easy it is for young kids to make expensive "in-app purchases," or IAPs, while playing games on mobile devices, and just how much their parents are paying for it.

In a recent piece in The Guardian on kids using iPhones and iPads, reporter Mark King tells the story of a 6-year-old boy who spent 160 pounds (roughly 240 U.S. dollars) on "Smurf Village credits" for the Smurfs' Village game in a matter of 15 minutes.

The child was able to do this because under current rules on Apple's iTunes, after a user first enters a password to make a purchase, there's a 15-minute window to make additional purchases without being prompted to re-enter the password.

Chris Brown, the boy's father, tells The Guardian his tale of app (and Apple) woe: "I contacted Apple and discovered I wasn't the only naive parent in the world. This is a common occurrence and Apple refused to issue any kind of refund. Needless to say that I have now disabled all in-app purchases on my devices. Lesson learned."

Such stories of parents surprised by monster bills for online gaming are on the rise everywhere (see this piece from Ireland, where one grandfather was left holding a pretty big bag).

"App developers are not often altruistic," Spencer Whitman of the firm AppCertain told The Guardian's King. "They often include in-app purchases hidden behind the free price tag. Either they offer a small amount of play, then charge for continued use; offer in-app purchases for more in-game content such as extra areas of play or upgrades; or they constantly interrupt game play to ask for in-app purchases."

Indeed, the "freemium" mobile app business model — in which the app itself is free but users are charged for additional content or functions — is highly effective. It's quickly becoming the standard for developers as revenue growth for freemium apps explodes.

In-app purchases will in fact drive 41% of app store revenues by 2016, up from just 10% in 2012, according to forecasts by Gartner Analysts, King reports. A Juniper Research forecast out this week said tablet users alone will generate $3.03 billion each year via IAPs by 2016 — a tenfold increase from the $301 million generated in 2012. Smartphone users will spend $6 billion on IAPs in 2016, Juniper forecasts.

King and others offer tips on protecting against costly IAPs.These include: Put a mobile device in "airplane" mode or turn off the Internet when your little one is using it. Link your app store account to a gift card instead of a credit card to limit the amount that can be spent. Require the account password to make any purchase.

And watch out for that in-app advertising. In another Guardian piece, out last week, King reports on an ad in a new app for a popular kids series that enticed kids to sign up for a subscription service for additional content — for a mere 208 pounds a year (about 315 U.S. dollars). The ad, on the Talking Friends Cartoons app for iPhones, iPad and Android devices, was pulled shortly after the app launched this month. (For more on this controversy, see this post on Apps Playground.)

Another new app, Dino Land from National Geographic, also stirred up controversy this month over an in-app extra in which kids can buy virtual "bones" for as much as 69.99 pounds (and apparently the same amount in dollars), King reports. (See Apps Playground again for more in-depth discussion.)

In the U.S., the Federal Trade Commission is looking closely at mobile apps designed for children. They put out not one but two reports last year on privacy concerns surrounding children's apps (see the earlier post on this blog "2012 Was an Interesting Year"). The warning is clear to developers: They should pay close attention to advertising rules and policies — and to a basic sense of what's right and wrong — when it comes to apps for kids. If they don't, they could be facing a major "app-lash" one day soon.

Internet Safety Lessons for the Very Young: A New British Campaign

From ChildLine.org

How do you teach Internet safety to a 5-year-old? And should kids as young as 5 be taught about dangers online? The British service ChildLine, part of the British charity NSPCC, says absolutely. 

"We are facing an e-safety time bomb," a spokesperson for the charity told the BBC last week. She said an increased number of young kids are reporting various and new forms of online abuse. Some 250 callers to ChildLine last year said they were being groomed for sex online, for example, the BBC reported. And there was a 70% hike in calls to the number about online pornography, with some callers being as young as 11. 

ChildLine is now holding assemblies in every primary school in the United Kingdom to teach children about staying safe online. Young people can also read ChildLine's "Online and Mobile Safety" tips, with information on gaming, sexting and more.

Continuing the discussion, Parenting.com offered its own tips for handling online safety with children as young as 5 in the February 7 article "How Young Is Too Young for Internet Safety?". "Just like we teach [our kids] to look both ways when crossing the street, we need to give them the tools they need to be safe online," the article advises.

Tablet Technology and Young Children: South China Morning Post

Can iPads help children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)? The South China Morning Post tackles this subject and others in its January 20 article "Children Using Touch-Screen Technology." In this in-depth assessment of tablets' potential risks and benefits, reporter Tan Ly-ann points to a study showing how one child with ADHD made one year's progress in reading ability after just six weeks of tutoring sessions using the iPad. See the original study in the May/June 2012 issue of TechTrends. 

And Introducing... the iPotty!

No, this is not make-believe. CTA Digital introduced the new iPotty — to keep toilet-training tots occupied in the loo — at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas in January.

This new contraption, with its built-in case for an iPad, will go on sale in March for $39.99 (iPad definitely not included). It doesn't come with any apps of its own — the idea is parents can download already existing potty-training apps (there are many) to help motivate their little ones as they sit. It does come with a clear protective cover for the touchscreen (which is probably not a bad idea).

Will iPotty-using toddlers become addicted to iPad stimulation and need it to go to the bathroom? Jacoba Urist explores this question and other potential pluses and minuses of the new gizmo in "iPotty: Brilliant, or Worst Idea Ever?" at TODAY Moms (January 16). She quotes one pediatrician saying that with toddlers, the hardest part of opening an iPad or similar device is "turning it off." And a mom who's concerned that "the last sacred place — the toilet — has finally succumbed to the noise of the information age."

Polaroid's New Kids Tablet

It's called simply that: the Kids Tablet. This 7-inch Android-powered tablet is the latest to enter the tablets-for-kids space. It's due out this spring, with a $149.99 price tag. Polaroid unveiled the new device at the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on January 8. See a video demonstration by Phandroid here.

2012 Was an Interesting Year

It's February 2013, and this marks the launch of "The Digital Child," a hub of news, resources and information on children and digital media. Before 2012 gets too far behind us, here's a round-up of some of the big news, studies and other developments of the year.

Kids' Tablets Explosion

If it seemed like there was a new made-for-kids tablet out each time you turned around, it's probably because there was. It was the year of the kid tablet — from the Toys "R" Us Tabeo, with its Hello Kitty and Angry Birds accessory cases, to the Fuhu Nabi Jr. (shown) for the preschool and kindergarten set, equipped with a "baby monitor" video camera for parents. Kid tablets tend to be plastic, easy-to-grip for tiny hands and rubber-edged for extra durability. They come with an array of parental controls but a price tag not that much less than some adult versions (many are in the $150-$200 range). 

Children's Technology Review offered this in-depth report on the market in December, analyzing and reviewing tons — and tons — of kid tablets. ConsumerReports.org also lab-tested and kid-tested five popular 7-inch Android kid tablets in December. And see these reviews from Forbes. Expect much more news and reviews this year as the tablets-for-tots market explodes.

Study: Apple's App Store Heavily Targets Young Children

Speaking of exploding... over 80% of the top-selling paid educational apps in Apple's iTunes App Store now target children, a January study by the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop found. Of these apps, a whopping 72% target preschoolers. And it's a fast-growing market. An addendum to this study, from the summer, zoomed in on Apple's App Store's games category (which has an entire section devoted to kids, unlike its education category). It found that a full 56% of games apps target the toddler/preschooler set — by far the most popular age group. And almost a third of games apps (32%) make "some sort of educational claim," stating a learning objective. All of the apps making such claims target preschoolers and toddlers. 

FTC Warning: Privacy Woes Over Kids' Apps

With so much "app-tivity" geared toward the very young, can we soon expect an "app-lash"? In light of some looming privacy concerns, it's very possible. In December, the Federal Trade Commission outlined many troubling concerns over privacy and children's apps in its report "Mobile Apps for Kids: Disclosures Still Not Making the Grade." It was the FTC's second recent survey of the privacy disclosures and practices of children's apps (their first report was released in February 2012). Both surveys showed that app developers and stores are not providing parents information about the data being collected on their kids, who they're sharing it with and how it is being used. Parents, take note. Find the full FTC report here.

New Ratings: Got Learning Potential?

In April, Common Sense Media beta-launched a new rating system for kids' digital media to help parents and teachers find the more worthy products. The nonprofit organization rates websites, apps and video games as "Best for Learning," "Good for Learning," "Fair for Learning," or "Not for Learning." It is easy to search products by media type, title, age and the ratings themselves.

Panel: "Baby Brains and Video Games"

An expert panel held by New America NYC shed some light on a range of issues surrounding little ones and digital media last March. They discussed the latest research and outlined common concerns adults have about young minds and digital devices. One strong message was that content does matter. As panelist Rosemarie Truglio, senior VP of education and research for Sesame Workshop, put it, "Just because something is interactive does not necessarily make it educational." A lively Q&A followed the panel discussion. 

Some 2012 Articles Worth Reading:

"Educational Apps Alone Won't Teach Your Kid To Read", Slate, December 13, 2012
Adult-child interaction is still the most important factor in teaching literacy, write Lisa Guernsey and Michael Levine. They are two authors of the new report "Pioneering Literacy in the Digital Wild West", which analyzed apps and e-books that promise to help kids learn to read. The report found that the most popular ones tend to focus only on very basic literacy skills without addressing higher-level skills such as vocabulary development and comprehension. "At its best, the technology complements the work of trained teachers and parents," they write. "It doesn’t replace it." Guernsey is the director of the Education Initiative at the New America Foundation (and was a panelist on the above-mentioned "Baby Brains" panel). Levine is executive director of the Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop.

"Is Technology Sapping Children's Creativity?", The Washington Post, September 13, 2012
Early childhood development expert Nancy Carlsson-Paige reminds adults exactly how young children learn: "through direct play and hands-on experiences with people, with materials, and in nature," she writes. She discusses the importance of playing in the three-dimensional world and using good ol' fashioned open-ended materials like blocks, play-dough, sand and water. She also asks if when we quiet our kids with little screens, "are they missing out on the chance to feel, to argue, to sit in silence, to listen, to be?" (P.S.: Carlsson-Paige is also the mother of actor Matt Damon — and a former neighbor of the author of this blog, from the blogger's own early childhood.)

"Sunday Dialogue: How Children Play", The New York Times, June 30, 2012

Another interesting discussion about children's learning, this one from The New York Times' "Letters" section. In a letter responding to an earlier article, "Wasting Time Is New Divide in Digital Era", about how children and families in different socioeconomic strata use technology, Sarah Chumsky, a children’s media researcher, outlines the benefits of digital media for children. Readers respond, rather passionately. One challenge from a Waldorf School teacher, for example: "Watch your children while they are engaged with media of any kind. Look at their faces and their limbs. Then watch them while you are reading their favorite book or playing a game, or while they are on a swing. Then decide for yourself what is most benefiting your child’s deepest developmental needs."

"What Happens When Toddlers Zone Out With an iPad?", The Wall Street Journal, May 22, 2012
"In many ways, the average toddler using an iPad is a guinea pig," writes Ben Worthen — since scientific studies on the effects of such devices on toddlers' development can take three to five years, and iPads are not even yet three years old. Worthen discusses what pediatric neuroscientists and researchers have to say on the subject. He also documents what happened when his own toddler son started using an iPad (which he doesn't let him use anymore).

"Can Your Preschooler Learn Anything From an iPad App?", Slate, May 2, 2012
Another piece by Lisa Guernsey, veteran reporter and director of the Education Initiative at the New America Foundation — this one adapted from her March 2012 book, Screen Time: How Electronic Media — From Baby Videos to Educational Software — Affects Your Young Child. She discusses, among other things, the importance of apps and games that allow kids "open-ended" exploration and discovery, and the woeful lack of such products on the market today.