The arrival of Coronavirus has altered daily routines, uses of technology at home have also been modified. Children now spend more time on the computer doing homework at a distance. Phones and tablets are the order of the day when it comes to contacting family and friends. In the middle of this new universe indoors, how to make a good use of technology with children?
To establish healthy guidelines that lead to responsible consumption of technology at home, it is useful to organize a plan of responsible consumption of technology. This will allow you to establish limits and routines.
Good use of technology with children
It is not the first time we have talked about a plan for responsible consumption of technology at home. Se is about a plan that is born out of daily routines and personal family values. It involves an analysis about the place that each family wants to occupy the technology in children's lives. There are no fixed rules in this system, although there are established guidelines that will be linked to these values.
The technology consumption plan has several edges. An initial premise is that it does not replace actual interaction. If we are clear on this premise, the rest will be a matter of organization.
To do a good use of technology with children, it is important to take into account the times and spaces. It is important to allocate time for screens but also time for the family, for free play, to exercise at home, to sleep or to eat.
You may think that children have to deal with the technological world just as they would with any other area of their lives. That is, in limited times, with a purpose, with people that adults know, etc. The same parenting guidelines that apply in the rest of the areas should be applied in the technology at home.
It is important to define the applications and platforms that children use, to be familiar with the software, and with the sites they visit on the web. Also with whom they speak when they are online, what social networks they use, what information they access in their searches. Or if we talk about reliable pages when collecting information, etc. A good use of technology with children It also implies taking dimension of the universe that opens up to the little ones when they turn on the screen.
Times are essential, the use of technology should not be unlimited, it is important to establish schedules, which can be fixed or variable but always limited. Children must understand that they do not have free access and that the use of computers and mobiles has a beginning and an end. It is advisable intersperse device usage with free playtime in order to stimulate creativity and imagination. Nothing is right or wrong as long as it is not in excess.
Children and the use of technology
Another way to think about technology with children is to get her out of that lonely place of always Within our responsible technology consumption planYou can think of screens as a channel for interaction between children and adults, or between children and children. Watch family documentaries, play games together, do online activities, have virtual meetings or playing video games can be very useful to strengthen ties between children and adults. Again, everything will depend on time and limits.
For the latter, it is important to be a good example for the little ones when it comes to showing a good use of technology with children. How? Showing our ability to turn off screens. A responsible use of technology As a family, he challenges children and adults to review customs so as not to demonize the devices but simply to use them in our favor.
It is possible to create technology-free zones to encourage free play spaces, family exchanges or a space where children can interact with each other. Dialogue at home is also important, fostering communication and thus giving importance to words and exchange.
Although it can be a useful resource, let's avoid using technology like that electronic pacifier that calms and entertains children. Although they can help to achieve calm, it is important that little by little, the little ones learn to control their emotions, a learning that is only achieved when we turn off the screens.