Children’s addiction to hi-tech gadgets, like smartphones and tablets, has severely affected their learning and writing abilities. If schools don’t engage young minds with creative exercises and parents don’t monitor their wards, we will have a large population of people with poor concentration and poor language skills, warn experts. In a pan-India survey, nearly 77% of teachers spoke of how an overdose of technology informative years is impacting children’s writing skills.
Gadgets are an inseparable part of our life now, but on the flipside, our children are increasingly becoming addicted to these digital devices. Though there are obvious advantages to these digital tools, experts warn that overdependence on technology can affect the writing skills of young children.
Nearly 77% of teachers believe that excessive use of mobile phone has affected the writing abilities of children. Naveen Mandava, co-founder IMAX Program, said, “Overall, there is a marked decrease in writing skills across students, though the pattern varies from one school to another. Students in schools with higher exposure to English are able to write, but are observed to use mobile lingo and incorrect grammar while writing. This coupled with scanning text more than reading has hurt writing skills of the students.”
A recent survey conducted by IMAX Program across the country with a sample size of 244 teachers from 170 schools from different states has revealed that mobile phones have severely impacted writing skills.
Kalavathi, a retired headmistress of a government high school at Abbigere, said, “We have observed a noticeable difference in children’s handwriting when they go from primary to higher primary. This is the time when they get higher exposure to cell phones.”
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She pointed out that it is not only affecting their handwriting, but also their language skills, making them prone to more errors during exams. “I have experienced many children using short forms of words even in their exams,” she said.
The survey revealed that nearly half of the class avoids writing work, because of use of phones. One in two teachers said that there is always an issue with children when it comes to written work.
Explaining how the technology can influence one’s intellect, Dr Kishore Kotha, Consultant Paediatric Neurologist, BGS Gleneagles Global Hospitals, said, “Children are enthusiastic users of mobile phones, for instant messaging, email, social networking apps, chat rooms, forums, online gaming and web blogs etc. However, mobile phone usage among students, especially text messaging, has a negative influence on their writing skills with higher tendency to make spelling mistakes and grammatical errors. A few studies also indicate that multimedia technology is physically, socially and intellectually detrimental to children and causes impaired language and writing skills in the long term.”
Mr Mandava said that children are often observed taking a long time to write and struggling with spellings. “For children to develop writing skills, it is important that their classrooms provide enough exposure and access to high-quality, age-appropriate content,” he advised.
Free gadgets to children? But the cost is too high...
Ill-advised as it may be, many private schools and the government distribute free notepads, laptops and other gadgets for children. But experts say that such “welfare” schemes are, in fact, hamstringing the children and affecting their learning abilities.
A few years ago, the Karnataka government distributed free Asha tablets to government schoolchildren to introduce them to advanced technologies, but the programme was stopped later due to some issues. An official from Narayana Techno School, Vidyaranyapura branch said, “We distribute N slate for students from 6 to 10 grades, where all lessons and answering of MCQ features are installed to help them.”
Nagasimha G. Rao, director, Child Rights Trust (CRT), said, “Many parents complain during parent-teacher meetings that technology is taking a toll on their children’s writing skills, and have asked schools not to distribute digital tablets.”
Overdependence on technology is creating hurdles for the overall intellectual growth of students. “I feel the government should not distribute any tech devices during formative years of children, as it could hamper their language and other skills at the foundation stage. The basic practice of looking at the dictionary, finding synonyms and forming sentences, is hardly in vogue nowadays. Children should feel the aesthetics and experience things physically when they paint or write,” said Dr Niranjanaradhya, an academic.
Experts suggest that parents should limit the use of phones and other tech devices by their children, while schools should come up with engaging writing exercises to encourage children. Otherwise, this will impact their academics, cause learning disabilities and result in poor concentration, they said.
