Smart tech not all bad for toddlers: Study

Should toddlers be allowed to use technology? The jury may still be out but children, as young as two years old, are using them with expertise of a grown-up, reveals a recent study published in Archives of Disease in Childhood. Parents of 82 toddlers, aged between around two years (20 months) and two-and-a-half years, were asked by Irish researchers how long their child use touch-screen devices every day. They were also asked whether their children are able to unlock the screen, swipe through pages or images, and recognize and interact with specific features such as app icons for games. At least 82% of the participants have a touch-screen device—a smartphone or a tablet—and 87% of them allow the child play with it for 15 minutes on an average every day, said an official of BMJ that publishes Archives of Disease in Childhood. Nearly two-thirds (62%) have also downloaded apps for their child to use. The study reports that nine of 10 (91%) parents also said their child could swipe; half of them said their child was able to unlock the screen, and nearly two-thirds (64%) felt their child actively searched for touch-screen features. While the average age of toddlers with these three skills is 24 months, the average age for identifying and using specific touch-screen features is 25 months—almost three out of four (72%) parents said their child could do this.