UWW310 Technology & Early Childhood

Teaching Children with Autism: Benefits of Integrating Technology into Education Typically developing children tend to be naturally social and desire social interaction with others. Children with Autism often seem withdrawn, may display unusual behaviors and have trouble communicating effectively within social situations. It is very common for children affected by Autism to not use functional speech at all.

An interesting article that focuses on a new type of digital divide: While access to technological devices has evened out between disadvantaged and advantaged families, internet access itself remains a problem for poor school kids - even when they own cell phones and game consoles.

A unique list as to what is wrong with children and their over usage of technology, and ideas to bring our kids back to us.

This article documents the use of cell-phone technology as a tool for teachers to reach out to disadvantaged parents of preschoolers with tips for strengthening language skills. While parents may not have the time to read back pack mail, or might be overwhelmed in general with the responsibilities of parenting, random text messages with short tips for helping kids develop language skills can catch parents at just the right time, and - a study shows - are being proven effective in increasing parent-child interaction and improving language development test scores!

For over 30 years, working with educators to develop young readers by bringing literature to life The upcoming Reading Rainbow Classroom Edition, of our award-winning digital library, is especially designed for Pre-K through 3rd grade students and their educators. Now teachers (even preschool) can be considered for the Reading Rainbow Classroom Edition pilot program!

Parents of young children, who are often attracted to digital devices, it also raises questions and concerns about their children and the use of technology devices.

The app invasion sweeping education is real and the benefits for student learning are staggering. Many myths are out there about using apps, and this article debunks two of them.

Article about intergrating technology into the classroom, and how to accelerate your curriculum.

Is the idea of Sunday school on its way out the door as the day of rest is being replaced by over scheduled children and parents?

Short NPR news interview (listen or read) with a pediatrician who studies the effect of screen time on the developing brains of young children. Apparently, high exposure to over-stimulating fast-paced TV programs can cause children to engage in risky, reckless behavior later in life. Interestingly, the researchers used mice as well as humans to test some of their theories.

Maybe it's just our country that makes technology taboo and an issue. Maybe we need to stop looking at it like a drug and use it for the tools they really are? Really interesting read.

It's not so much the article itself that I found so intriguing but the comments below. It seems like everyone hates the invasion on their privacy and yet Facebook has more members then ever...

"55% of teens have given out personal info to someone they don't know, including photos and physical descriptions" Some of these are just terrifying!

Studies show that internet technology has pros and cons for the developing brain: it increases visual skills - actually stopping their decline over the aging process - but at the cost of the kind of focus that is needed for reading books and forming critical analysis.

Based on 2013 Federal data, it shows that a high percentage of children in our country are living in poverty more and the impact on their eduction. Instead of asking questions like "are you ready for the test", teachers now asking "did you eat"?

They are no longer "smart" devices, but being used as "shut up" devices. Children simply can not learn and achieve important social, emotional and physical developmental milestones through a smart device.

Good post!

Nice list of tech toys at different age groups. It just seems to be for 0-12 months but still good read

Does anyone agree with these tech free families or do you think it's overkill? I'm on the fence about it. Seems like a really good idea but what does it do to the children that aren't around technology until school.

Josh Weisgrau Teaching and Learning with Making, Media and Design Debates over children and media use are nothing new, but the technologies by which children primarily interact with media have changed significantly. Most guidelines related to "screen time" were developed when television was the dominant media, but new technologies are making us question the value of older research.