Networked Technologies Affecting Children's Communication Skills

If technology was introduced slowly to a child then there wouldn’t be much harm for the child. Communication is a big key in life, and if a child is able to be introduced to technology slowly, then there won’t be bigger consequences later on. Moderation is key if no moderation then there will be consequences that will affect a child’s ability to communicate at their age. 

It's sad to see how technology is increasingly overtaking a child's social skills and ability to interact with others. Although they a child may be communicating when they don't have their device, it's still more common for them to use the device and click a button to try to get to some they are talking to. Communicating through facetime vs. communicating face to face is still very different because you don't always get to see their body language, facial expressions or vocal reactions. Without those certain cues, a child growing up may not know the differences.

Technology can have a positive and negative effect on children.  The negative effects that a child can go through is a shortened attention span. Not only has it been affecting children but adults as well. There are studies showing that a child is distracted when in front of them are networked tablets or some sort of technological device. Younger generations don't have much experience when it comes to communicating through webcam, this hurt's a child's social lives because they will want to experience it earlier on. Technology isn't going anywhere so it's better to introduce networked tablets at an older age rather than younger. A lack of face-to-face communication for a child is also unhealthy because the child won't know certain social cues or even how a person's emotion is based on their attitude or facial expressions. If they don't make eye contact daily then the emotional connection will fall through and it will be harder for the child to regain that.

Having a tablet or networked device that has a camera on it can encourage a child to speak out more and socially interact with another person on the other line. It also helps a child to adapt to new skills and make it easier for them to tell an adult what they want to talk about or learn about. It may not always be a good thing to be on the tablet for countless hours in the day but even just a few hours there are still some positive effects it can have on the child. Also if you teach a child the correct way to use the technology, then it won’t be too bad because you can still limit what they see or say. 

Being social can be determined in various ways, in communications or interactions with what is around a person. Children are naturally skilled to learn, interact and develop their social skills. However, technology has reduced a child's social skills because their attention is not placed outdoors but indoors in front of a screen. They don't understand or may not comprehend what is appropriate in certain situations at gatherings. 

In my opinion, I feel like this takes a point of view because it's coming from an older generation. The author explains how communication is decreasing because they’re having trouble with face to face contact. There is still a positive way how technology can help a child, like for example someone who is autistic. Technology can help those children who do have a disability in speaking or trouble to speak, to help them communicate better. 

Smartphone and tablet’s have both good and bad effects, but we mostly hear about the bad effects it has. A study was shown that if a child were to sleep next to their smartphone, then on average they would only have 20 or so minutes less sleep than a child who didn’t. Something good though about a tablet for a child is that it has an opportunity for a child to be able to learn at an earlier age. It can also help with a communication socially through facetime or through any type of webcam communication.

When a child text's all day long and is dependent on their electronic device, they'll end up having some type of conflict when conduction a face to face interaction. Their phone is an escape route to avoid conversation because it's easier to type out words than say those words. According to the child psychologist, Melissa Ortega, she states that most of the time when she sees children, they use their device as an avoidance strategy so that they don't have to keep having a conversation face to face. What's also scary is if the continuation of a child using their device as their primary source of communication, when it comes to the time of an interview, they may not have the skills that are achieved to be able to answer questions with a person. If a child were to be introduced to technology later online life, their social skills would not be affected since they didn't have a device to hide behind when avoiding situations. The child introduced to technology, later on, would be able to use it as an advantage to widen their social group.

For a child to grow up around so much technology nowadays, it can lead to an overuse of such devices. Electronic devices may hinder the ability for a child to develop social skills as their respective ages. Being on electronic devices may cause a child to become isolated and not able to identify social cues while out in public when the child does not have their technology device on them. If a child is given the option between social interaction and using their electronics, they will most likely go towards electronic device because they want to avoid the social interaction. It just shows that with too much use of technology, they won’t be able to grow with better social skills.

The percentage of how much tv or video time a child spends is very scary. about 96% of 3-4-year-old children watch about 15 hours a week. That’s astonishing because its as if that’s really all they do all week with little to grow in other ways. It is to be believed that with too much watching can lead to a decrease in linguistic skills because they’re not talking while watching the show. We need to decrease the amount of time a child uses their device so that as they grow they are able to make small talk than rather avoid people.

It’s sad to see the statistics of how children with technology now a days is so high compared to when technology was just emerging. In the post it exemplifies that the use of technology has now limited the child in conversation with family and limited motor development.

From Washington’s Top News they conducted a study to see how children using technology, suffer in communication skills. If a child uses technology as a substitute for talking, reading and interacting then their skills will not develop properly. Based on the survey they had conducted, parents aren’t putting a limit on technology use and it reflects upon the child. By age of 8, they don’t want to spend time with other people but rather just their technology device. 

In this blog, the author talks about how technology use affects how a child communicates with their parent along with others surrounding them. Communication skills start with interaction whether it be with words or with hand motions. If a child starts out young using a technology device, their comprehension, as well as their ability to communicate, may lessen. 

It's most common to see children walking around with there parents nowadays using an electronic device with a screen. What's unfortunate is the fact that the children do not communicate with adults or others because they are preoccupied with something else in their possession. Children at young ages may not be able to socialize because of their focused attention on something material. The increase of screen tablets may complicate interpersonal communication skills.