Posted on 02/27/2018 5:15:07 PM PST by Olog-hai
Children are struggling to use and pencils because the excessive use of touchscreen phones and iPads is damaging their dexterity, specialists have claimed.
Pediatric doctors, handwriting experts and orthopedic therapists are warning that although youngsters can swipe a screen, they no longer have the hand strength and agility to learn to write correctly when they start school.
Increasingly, the use of digital screens is replacing traditional skills such as drawing, painting and cutting out, which boost fine motor skills and coordination.
“Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not be able to hold it because they don’t have the fundamental movement skills,” Sally Payne, the head pediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust, told The Guardian newspaper. “To be able to grip a pencil and move it, you need strong control of the fine muscles in your fingers. Children need lots of opportunity to develop those skills.”
A recent study in found that 58 percent of under-twos had used a tablet or mobile phone and many nurseries have installed interactive “smartboards”, digital cameras and touch-screen computers to try to expose children to gadgets at an early age. …
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
If you tried to take crayons, colored pencils and sidewalk chalk from 2 preschoolers in my family you’d have a war on your hands.
Idiot parents, nothing more.
Recently came across a letter, written by my grandmother as a young woman in the 1920s. Her handwriting was simply beautiful.
She wasn’t a particularly highly educated person, and I imagine many people wrote similarly well, because it was a focus of basic education 100 years ago.
Perhaps its simply not a necessary skill now.
To do what, exactly?
When I used to do roof inspections, I used a lot of sidewalk chalk to mark the roofs. My daughter was with me one day when I was restocking. I had to buy two boxes.
Penmanship is no longer taught in few, if any, schools.
A lot of very young people type and text rapidly. They may not spell well (too much auto-correct) or construct beautiful sentences, but their fingers can move pretty fast.
Fine motor skills? I say they have them.
Experience in manipulating a pencil? It may be an unlearned skill for many. Teach them how. That’s the job, I think.
Same here haha..
Probably to watch videos. That’s what I see in Walmart.
They can’t read or write in cursive. My cousin’s daughter is 15 y/o and learning it on her own. She’s tired of mom and dad having this secret writing they can communicate with but she can’t.
Under twos?
I was wondering what 2 YOs and under were doing with these things, eating them?
I'm glad I'm too old for all this nonsense.
Thanks. Used to be that children didn’t eat their vegetables. Now they *are* the vegetables.
Good phrasing.
Good for her. That’s kind of funny ... when I was little, some of the adults used what I think was called pigeon (sp) English so the little ones wouldn’t understand.
Not many kids under two can really handle a pencil. I remember kids in elementary school (First Grade) needing help with basic manipulation. That was back in 1965 or so.
I don’t mean to defend electronics, but I think kids today use their fingers in a lot of ways. I think it is mis-leading to imply that fine motor skills are lacking and it’s all because of computers.
Recently came across a letter, written by my grandmother as a young woman in the 1920s. Her handwriting was simply beautiful.
She wasn’t a particularly highly educated person, and I imagine many people wrote similarly well, because it was a focus of basic education 100 years ago.
—
I noticed the same in reading letters from a field soldier written during the Civil War. The writing was cursive and extremely even. The prose itself was clear, insightful and grammatically correct.
Growing up in the 50’s, even today, I have a large callus on my right middle finger from years of holding pencils and pens.
I have very little reason to write by hand and notice if all I do is write the occasional check or list, my handwriting goes downhill pretty quickly.
Or tell time.
Once a teenaged girl around 16 YO saw that I was wearing a watch (obviously a few years ago before everyone had a phone) and asked me for the time.
The light wasn’t bright enough for me to read it so I just held my wrist up for her. She looked mortified, and then looked back at her mother who was then equally embarrassed. The girl couldn’t read it as it was not digital.
Oh dear. I managed to make out the time for her. I wondered if the incident motivated her to learn how to read a normal clock but then I thought nah, if noone had noticed or cared by that point already...
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