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When Should Children Be Introduced to Computers?
cjsteele asks: "When should kids be introduced to computers and the Internet? I'm torn between the prospect of giving my children a technological edge versus giving them an appreciation for more traditional ways of learning and researching (and entertainment, etc.) Though the question is open for rampant conjecture, what does Slashdot think? Early and often or slow and controlled?" Slightly tangential to an issue that was covered earlier this week, aside from the average video game, what is the ideal age for kids to begin seriously learning about computers.
"All of this comes as the result of my kids (3 & 2 years old) getting a Fisher-Price InteracTV for Christmas. This is the first step towards 'e-learning', and after watching my kids adapt to how the system works, I began to wonder in what ways this method of learning shapes later cognitive development. The big concern I have here is that the KIDS had to do the adapting, not the technology -- that means the way THEY think is being affected, which gets me a bit queezy. Any thoughts or advice?"
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() Cowboy Neil is my Daddy
Give them technology as soon as they can handle it without breaking it...or if the break it it's fixable, or doesn't matter.
My father sent me to work programming in basic from textbooks when I was 4. I found this a wonderful thing, as I could make the computer do what I wanted. I learned syntax and other important elements of programming, and now as I write this, the computer has stuck with me ever since. This is why I'm a computer science major.
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Support Indy Music. Buy
"I don't see why the computer shouldn't be a part of their daily living environment from the beginning, like the TV or radio."
Some of us don't think that TV should be 'part of their daily living environment'.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
This is a no brainer. Trust your instincts; all signs indicate that young children require real human interaction to grow into healthy, well adjusted human beings and should be kept away from electronic media.
Children as young as 2 or 3 shouldn't be spending ANY time in front of a screen. Older children and teenagers shouldn't have TVs or computers in their rooms - keep the electronic media in a common area where you can monitor what's being consumed.
Once your children are a little older (say, able to read and possessing the motor skills to use a keyboard and mouse), consider introducing them to creative tools rather than merely "interactive tv" or worse, media designed to be consumed passively. Think paint programs, basic programming tools, animation programs, music programs, etc. (Of course, these tools shouldn't totally take the place of physical crayons and paint and clay and musical instruments) Let the kids find entertainment in creating rather than blasting aliens (even if it's "educational" and requires you to solve a math problem first).
As an aside, I'd keep TV out of the house entirely rather than attempt to limit what's watched - TV priveleges or loss thereof almost always end up becoming a reward, which tends to increase its allure.
Just MHO.
-Isaac
I am not a lawyer, and this is not legal advice. For Entertainment Purposes Only.
I imagine they have TV access. Maybe video games. Radio. Books. Etc. Why would computers be any different than any of those other technologies they have to adapt to?
Kids are built to adapt. They come into the world with pretty much a blank slate and continuously discover and adapt to the world as it is. This is exactly what you want them to be doing because otherwise they won't be able to deal with reality later in life. It is their job to do the adapting at this point in life.
They should be exposed to as much as possible in a controlled manner while they are young. The control is there so that they can pace themselves and don't get hurt. It is your job to protect them but also to get them ready for an adult life. Contrary to what most parents want, kids will not be kids most of their lives. The worst thing you can do to them is deny them access to knowledge of key elements of their world. Bring the computers to them early just like everything else. Teach them to pace their lives. Teach them the priorities you believe would be best. Then sit back and let them adapt to the world. They will be infinitely more prepared for the future this way and will be able to adapt to the next big things that come down the line in 25 years when you're sitting on your couch in front of your old-fashioned PC connecting to the Web with all of your other elderly friends while the youngsters moves on to other things.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
I think computers would be vastly superior to crappy Saturday-morning cartoons, with careful attention. For example, setting up your firewall such that the child's computer can access _only_ the IP address ranges you specify would go a long way to making the WWW a very positive thing. Online encyclopedias, dictionaries, kid-oriented websites, etc. could be whitelisted while everything by default is blocked. This way, no accidental trips to goatse.cx would occur, sparing your child expensive counseling later on.
With the firewall being your point of control, you can feel comfortable dual-booting your computer into Windows for games, too.
Once the kid is old enough (say 16 or 18 or 21, you pick), you can remove all the blocks for the full on-line experience. Just make sure you _ALWAYS_ knock on the door. Please, don't take this advice lightly.
-- Microsoft is the most expensive commodity operating system and office suite vendor in the marketplace.
my daughter is 7 now, and since she was 6, and even a little when she was 5, she has been interested in my computer. i have bought a learning-english program for her (i live in germany with a german girlfriend), and allow her to play it in small doses, ie. about 1 hour at a time, max. she doesn't notice herself when she gets grumpy from too much time in front of the computer, so it has to be supervised. i also allow her to have fun on certain fixed websites, from time to time, but less so. she loves all this, and i don't detect any problems with respect to setting priorities in life, or dealing with other people. the key point is moderation, and supervision. the computer is not a babysitter, but i believe that kids who are comfortable with computers will have less problems later on. she also likes the paint program, but just for 30 minutes at a time. finally, we also do some two-with-computer work, with me doing 3d modeling and her making the calls, and occasionally helping out, so she can get a glimpse at the larger picture.
There are certain aspects of technology and programming that are akin to natural languages, and a person's ability to pick up languages is at its peak around at around 4 years of age. I'd say teach them as much about controlling / programming computers as you can.
While I would love to emphasize the printed word for research purposes, let's be honest: they're never going to use the dewey decimal card box system. Yes, give them books. Even more important than that, read to them and with them. Take them to the theater, the park, the zoo, the library, and on trips. Teach them to assemble and dissasemble electronics, wood, etc. Teach them to sew. But definitely teach them to program. We would be living in a far more advanced world if everyone knew how to script with the same intimacy that everyone knows how to talk. While they may not have the background in mathematics to create a program which calculates PI to arbitrary precision, it isn't hard to code up something that makes a star dance under the pointer. Or to make a birthday announce website for their friends. Or a script which runs when they login that blows up the screen. Use external librarys for the difficult stuff.
Keep them the hell away from television. They'll get enough of that through other sources anyway. As for games, be very choosey. If you aren't a gaming guru, try to find one with an background in educational gaming. Might I suggest MindRover? Sim City is also great, and will pay for itself a thousand times over when your kids go to college and get credit cards.
The ______ Agenda
As a father of a six monther, my wife and I have discussed this question. Really it is up to you as parents to decide what's right for you, but here are our ideas and logic.
Our opinion is basically that our computer is part of our everyday life. Our son should learn to use it as soon as he is technically able. However having said that, I would expect his learning to be slow and over many years as he matures. We want to teach sensible and safe use of a tool.
We use our computer as our "digital" hub. We have been doing this for many years. It sits in the lounge with all our music (mp3) and photos (6000+ scanned negatives going back 30yrs for both of us), and occationally dvd/video. The photos are on the screen saver. We are the kind of family that only watches TV 1-2hrs per week. We get outside and are active.
Here are our ideas
1) When my son is able and wants to I'll teach him how to put on music. Judging by my niece that could be when he's quite young, 2-3 yrs.
2) I'm happy to give him an email account when he is able to write to friends. I suspect this will be around the time he goes to school.
3) Web etc. will ALWAYS be done on the family computer under supervision until he's at least 15yrs.
4) He might get a computer in his room at around age 10-12 for music, homework, photos etc. This machine won't have general internet access.
5) I'd like to teach him to program like my father did for me. Logo, basic, and games with programmable parts.
I'm sure every one has their own ideas about what's right for their child, but I think the most important principals are:
1) your child must want to learn
2) it should be staged to what is useful for them at that age
3) it must be "safe"
Remember computers are a normal part of life, just like TV, radio, alcohol, stoves/ovens/cooking, cars. It's your job as parent to teach them when to use them, how to use them, and how to be safe/healthy.
Elivs
i think it has to do with the math. theres something fundamentally balanced that i see in a lot of art, and my exposure to computers (especially programming) gave me a fine tuned sense of that kind of balance. not to mention the exposure to the precepts of logic, something some people don't get until high school (damn the man!).
computers are a tool, not an end. i think that's key. otherwise, computers are good for kids!
oh, and disregard my sig in relation to computers, as its an allusion to lotringer/baudrillard and not explicitly refering to internet porn. lol.
When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
My oldest girl is now 4 1/2 years old. She has been using a computer for about a year now.
s /map/inde x.html
She goes to playhousedisney.com, nickjr.com, pbskids.org and a few others. These web sites are very educational as well as entertaining. She knows how to use bookmarks. She's sent me some email postcards from the these sites. (we have a list of family emails taped onto the monitor.)
She groks the whole WIMP interface. She plays Pototo Guy and Tux Paint.
We have a number of age-appropriate educational software titles that we have to boot into Windows for her to use.
Now that our family computer primarily runs Linux, I see that children's educational software is a giant hole in the Linux offerings. Even the basic stuff you buy in the discount bins at Office Depot is many times better than any of the open source "educational" software packages. I wouldn't mind so much if I could get *any* of the commercial Win packages to run under WINE, but none have worked so far. (I've only tried a few). The lack of a shockwave/director player/plugin for Linux really hurts as well.
She plays this game a lot lately:
http://www.freeworldgroup.com/onlinegame
And now she recognizes most of the states.
On the hardware side, I've taken the computer apart a couple of times (when upgrading hardware) and she was right there with me, looking inside at the guts of the system. I pointed out the ram, processor, hard drive, etc. She enjoyed that.
And it's not as if she spends an inordinate of time on the computer. She still plays with dolls. She still plays in the dirt in the back yard. Our refrigerator is still covered in crayon drawings.
<proud daddy>
I firmly believe this exposure, and a child's natural curiosity, has gone a long way toward helping her read at a 2nd grade level at 4 1/2 years old. She got several Captain Underpants and Magic Treehouse books for Christmas, and she's already read those to herself!
</proud daddy>
Kids take to computers like a fish takes to water. My second child is just now 7 months. One of her toys is an old keyboard with the cord removed. I don't see a "minimum' age at all.
Software Wars
When I was in kindergarten, they began to try and teach us about computers. It was a nightmare, because the computers didn't have Windows and very buggy. Keep in mind this was about 8 years ago. That summer, my dad went out and got a PC for us. I started out just playing educational games, but gradually began to move into new things. Throughout middle school, I have begun to start learning much more advanced things. I have started programming, learned how to build PCs, etc. I think they should get on to a computer early. Computers are already a part of our normal lives, they should learn to use them as soon as they can.
Scott Simontis
My instincts disagree with yours, so whose should be trusted?
all signs indicate that young children require real human interaction to grow into healthy, well adjusted human beings
of course
and should be kept away from electronic media.
Whoah there, cowboy. That's pretty extreme. Got any documentation for this?
Children as young as 2 or 3 shouldn't be spending ANY time in front of a screen.
Well, my instinct is that kids of any age at all shouldn't be spending more than, say, 1-2 hours/week in front of a TV. My instinct is also that that using a computer is fine, because it's not so passive. But maybe that's where my instincts disagree with yours. What makes me question other parents' choices is not when they let their 3-year-old try a computer game, it's when they let their 8-year-old watch 40 hours of TV a week, in his own room.
When my own kids were 3-4, they liked computer games, but they needed a lot of help from me, and the total amount of time they wanted to spend wasn't very much. It wasn't a "plug-in drug," because I was there with them. And they integrated it into their whole world of imagination, too, e.g., there was a parrot called "Pongalo Pete" in the Fischer-Price Pirates game, so my daughter decided that was the name of her rubber ducky.
I really liked some of the kids' games too -- Freddi Fish, Spy Fox, Pajama Sam...very cool! It's too bad there's nothing like that that runs on Linux. Now we're maintaining an old iMac for the sole purpose of running our collection of kids' games (most of which don't run on MacOS X, either).
Find free books.
Based on the other comments in this thread, I have a feeling I'm going to be flamed to death, but here goes:
I'm a professional educator, who teaches Design & Technology at a secondary level (before this I was a web designer for almost a decade), and I'm fairly strongly of the opinion that students really have no business being given any significant exposure to computers before high school.
Some have made the argument about "computers are part of the world" and "get them used to them as early as possible". The first statement is true, but in no way justifies the second.
Firstly, learning in the primary years has a very strong social component, where students are not primarily learning facts and "how-to's", but are fundamentally learning how to interact and communicate with others and the natural environment. Computers can impair this in subtle ways, since they are not fundamentally interactive, but only give the illusion of being so - no matter how many choices a computer program gives you, they are still finite in number, and have been decided upon by someone else (i.e. a program designer). A bucket of sand is more interactive and valuable for a child than a computer. Even interpersonal interaction via computer (i.e. IM, email, etc.) have been stripped of key interpersonal cues (facial expression, voice tone, gesture, etc.) vital to a mature understanding of meaning in communication. Once children become more mature in the fundamentals of social interaction, then we can consider introducing them to computers, as they are in a better position to be aware of their limitations.
Secondly, unexposed children's computer knowledge appears to catch up quite quickly with those who were exposed early if they are exposed in adolescence, with the added benefit that they are more likely not to have had any social skills compromised through excessive computer use (and less face it, children's computer use is far more likely to have been relatively uncontrolled by parents, rather than carefully monitored).
I could also talk about the role of handwriting in effective language formation (as opposed to keyboard use), but what I've written is a good preliminary argument - I may expand in reply to the reponses of others if it seems to need it.
In summary - computers are a tool, not a way of life. They have good applications and bad ones. Adolescents are better equipped than young children to be able to distinguish the benign from the harmful.
Cars are a part of life too, but we don't teach young children how to drive - we wait until they have the necessary maturity to be able to use that tool effectively, and even then we are frequently disappointed.
Computers are not as physically dangerous as cars, granted, but there should be a recognition that they are a powerful tool nonetheless, that can shape people in important ways. As with cars and any other powerful tool, we should attempt to impart the maturity to deal with and use them effectively before handing over the keys.
SofaMan -- Occasionally Battling Evil With His Mighty Powers Of Indolence.