No Apple a day for Steve Job's children

An old article, but the title caught my attention.

No Apple a day for Steve Jobs’ children - who were not even allowed iPads

"While he persuaded millions that Apple’s chic but pricey gadgets were a must-buy, turning the company from a basket case to a global powerhouse, he prevented his own children from using iPads and limited their access to the internet generally."

"There is some scientific support for the idea that modern technology can be damaging. A study, published last month, of 11 and 12-year-olds found that removing digital devices, including televisions, for five days saw an improvement in social skills." 

Source: The Independent

In my own experience teaching preschool and lower primary children, I encountered students, usually boys, who could not sit still or focus on a task for even a few minutes. Whenever their parents asked me for advice, I would suggest that they cut down or better still, eliminate the child's exposure to the TV and iPad. Some gave me skeptical looks (especially those who had just bought an iPad for their sons!) but most of them complied in the end, and their childrens' attention spans improved accordingly.

I remember the most dramatic change was in a 6-year-old boy who could not complete a worksheet unless I sat beside him and guided him step-by-step. If I left him for a minute, I would return to find him wriggling around or doing annoying things to his classmates. This carried on for some time until I had a chat with his parents. Within a week, he was sitting down quietly and completing assignments without upsetting his classmates. I knew that limiting media exposure was important, but...in just a week? I couldn't believe the effects were so instantaneous. I was sure the parents had done something else to terrorise or bribe him. But his parents were just as amazed as I, and were very pleased with themselves. "We just banned the iPad. Completely," they said, beaming from ear to ear. It really was that simple. 

My little girl will be seven next year and I've been surfing the websites of a number of Waldorf primary schools. One consistently mentioned request from the schools is that parents strongly limit media exposure for their children.

"The cultivation of the imaginative power of each individual child is paramount as a foundation for the healthy development of creative and critical thinking in adolescence. A reliance on ready-made pictures reduces a child's ability to visualize both the written word (when reading) and the spoken word (when imaginative pictures are given, stories are told, etc.)"   

Source: Summerfield Waldorf School

"For Waldorf teachers, however, concern about media use is based less on the scientific studies and more on their own experience of seeing the difference between children exposed to media and those not exposed. Celia Riahi, a Waldorf preschool teacher with many years' experience, says she can recognize the "media children" in her class through the chaotic and mechanical movements and sounds that they make, in imitation of what they have seen on television. The play of these children is impaired. They tend to get stuck in a story line or get obsessed with one particular character-usually a television character. To the preschool specialist such behavior does not portend well for later development. 

Some Waldorf teachers feel that allowing a child to be exposed to the media undermines what they are trying to accomplish in the classroom. Waldorf Education relies largely on the ability of the children to listen to, observe, and absorb what the teacher is saying and doing and also to respond sensitively to artistic stimuli. Media viewing shortens attention span and dulls sensory sensitivity. Here not only the activity of viewing but also of listening to electronically reproduced voice and music is problematic. Thus parents' inability to eliminate media exposure is a major problem." 

Source: Why Waldorf Works

It's a tough one, for city-dwelling parents to take a purist approach and completely eliminate media exposure. It's everywhere, and if you don't let your children look at a screen, one of your friends will! But we can start somewhere. 

I take the middle approach. More towards the acetic side, but still, one with compromises.

• My husband and I chose not to have a television in the house. 
• We tell our children that our phones and devices are not toys.
• If we are in a restaurant or coffee shop that has a television, we ask them to have self-control and avoid looking at the screen They actually do!

We try to avoid media exposure for our children, but with these exceptions:

"Screen-less" media

In the car, we listen to music CDs and audio books. 

Screen-time exceptions

1. We sometimes make video/audio recordings of their songs, stories and performances, and allow them to watch what they have recorded. 

2. Very occasionally, we learn a skill from a targeted Youtube video.

(eg. how to do a dance step, cook a dish, do a craft, or learn how cheetahs run!)

I try to watch the video in advance and show it to them personally, but sometimes I'm not as organised as I should be!

3. During emergencies. 

- When I am about to lose my temper/scream at someone and I really need peace and quiet 

- When there's been a serious accident and I need to ice a struggling and inconsolable child 

4. During haircuts.

I cut their hair in a tiny, cramped bathroom and I need them to remain motionless. 

I believe that it would be ideal to limit media as much as possible, but sometimes it's a choice between

zero media and a frazzled, frustrated parent 

vs. 

a tiny bit of media and a sane and serene parent

I'd choose to be serene.