Introducing children to the internet

amother

Aquamarine

Mon, Nov 28 2016, 11:47 pm

I put this here because my eldest is 6 and I'm mostly talking about school-aged children. I want to know when you ladies think it best to introduce children to the internet (if you do) and technology. We only just introduced our 6-year-old to the computer doing age appropriate activities like puzzles, word games, and other educational games. She caught on pretty quickly. I told her the computer is only a 30-minute, once a week thing but I know parents whose children had iPads at 2 and 3 years old.

Am I putting my daughter at a disadvantage? Or is 6 even too young? My dh grew up in a fairly strict Chassidish home and only learned to use technology in his early 20s. He thinks 6 might even be too old to introduce shock

and because we live in a technology world, kids have to learn earlier. But I'm like what else does a 6-year-old need to know?? How to code? She's 6 and I think what she does now is age appropriate and fine.

bigsis144

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 12:17 am

We're all okay and the internet wasn't around when we were kids? Wink

* I knew how to use a mouse and keyboard (whoa, ancient tech these days...) by 2nd grade.
* Lots of computer games, but all on CDs, no internet access. (Anybody remember Logical Journey of the Zoombinis? Or the JumpStart 3rd Grade/4th Grade/5th Grade etc. series? Ooh, I had the American Girls Premiere thing where you could make your own plays! And Barbie's Magic Hair Salon... NOSTALGIAAAAAAA)
* Edited my school newspaper in Microsoft Word by 5th grade (I.e. a little more than basic typing -- I was figuring out column layouts, headers and borders, inserting images, etc.).
* Typing class in 9th grade helped for computer efficiency; by then, most English-language papers were required to be typed.
* I went to a school that didn't allow internet research through high school age, but I don't know what current standards are. I had an email address by 12th grade through a non-internet connection.

tigerwife

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 2:10 am

I grew up with Internet and frankly I don't think it's something you should feel pressured to introduce to your children. If something comes up, deal with it then. Show her how to research information when she needs to get information for a project, get her an email address when she has to sign up with something. It will probably be part of her life and can integrate smoothly without any official 'introduction'.

Bigsis's, do they even make CD-Roms anymore?? One of my favorites was Storybook Weaver, but we also had the Adventures (like 6th Grade Adventures, etc.), the Tycoon series, and others that were pretty educational.

seeker

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 2:22 am

OMG I had completely forgotten Zoombinis! I missed that so much!

I started thinking the same thing recently, wondering if my kids are at a disadvantage because they're technologically illiterate. It basically happened through negligence because I was very concerned about possible negative effects of starting screen time too young, so I never thought about when and how to stop being "too young."

My kids have used some simple kiddie iPad apps in situations like waiting in the doctor's office. I don't know if they've learned a whole lot about how technology works from that. I guess they get the basic idea of being able to choose tools within a program to do different things from a drawing app they use. They've been surprisingly slow to catch on that the symbol that looks like > is what you press to continue or move on, I'd always taken that for granted and didn't realize I'd have to teach it to them and help them find it each time.

I've also let them pick up on the idea that things can be "found" on the computer. I may have used the word online. I'm a little scared to talk about online and the internet because they're in a type of school right now where mentioning that might not be well-received. But I've showed them family pictures as well as innocent videos on youtube on rare occasions (like a magic school bus episode with soundproof headphones during an annoying, noisy nebulizer treatment, or a clip of a polar bear roaming the arctic one time when they were asking questions about the arctic or polar bears or something I don't remember why)

I've let them type letters in Word - Letters as in the ABC, not Dear Abby - though the last time I did that was a while ago and by now at least my older one should be able to write more. Maybe I'll invite her to try.

I recently decided my 6-year-old should start getting a drop more competent so I tried teaching her how to use the mouse. The only program I have on my computer that I could think of at that time was Paint, and that didn't go so well because in order to really use it you really need a little more skill. It's open ended and freeform. I'm going to try to find something more like "click on this or that" with some educational value. I just don't want them to start thinking of my computer as a toy. Life was so much simpler when I could say "Mommy's computer is only for work, not for kids."

MagentaYenta

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 2:35 am

I just read some articles about younger children using computers/tablets. Apparently kids as young as 3 can benefit from open ended programs. One of the articles also mentioned that tablets and some of the aps for young children can help them become more confident with discovery learning.

My kids all were raised pre tablet but I have a grandson on the spectrum who is now 10 and he's really benefited. (There are some excellent social skills programs.) I also have another frum friend whose boy is on the spectrum and I can see the difference it has made for him. Both the mothers use timers to signal when screen time is done for the day. Some of their use is individual with a specific ap and others are group or cooperative learning. Of course if your community isn't on board with computers and various aps, it's not even a subject for discussion.

seeker

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 2:39 am

MagentaYenta wrote:

Any particular app recommendations?

MagentaYenta

Tue, Nov 29 2016, 2:56 am

seeker wrote:

Any particular app recommendations?

I know that they get their aps from they ap store and they were recommended by their children's therapists and used independently and in conjunction with their regular therapy. My GS has moved on to a Quick Cues which is a bit more advanced than his age but he's seemed to have 'graduated' to it based on what his mother says. You can search the ap store for social skills, spectrum kids and probably get some ideas. Talk about them with your child's therapists, if this is for your own child. It's my understanding that the use of these aps isn't new. I know my GS has been using them since he was about 4. My friends child really developed his language skills from using the aps. He's 6 now and was almost completely nonverbal at 4. His progress has been amazing. Some of the aps are cheap like $1, others are a bit spendy, $10-$29.