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Children struggle to hold pens because of excessive use of iPads, claim experts
Daily Telegraph (UK) ^ | 25 February 2018 6:35 PM | Telegraph Reporters

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 ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; Education; Local News; Society
KEYWORDS: dexterity; handwriting; ipads; penmanship
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To: Flick Lives

Basic self-control taught to squirmy little kids.

That was teaching.


21 posted on 02/27/2018 5:55:53 PM PST by donna (Old PSA: It's 10pm. Do you know where your children are?)
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To: PGR88
Oh it most assuredly IS a "necessary skill" now!

Learning how to write script develops the brain, as well as small finger skills; both very necessary!

And the stupid idea that nobody will need to know how to write any more, goes back over a 100 years and was first proposed by that moronic lefty, John Dewey, who said that because typewriters were being used at work, instead of people writing things by hand.

Penmanship was once a subject as important as math, geography, spelling, etc., in all grammar schools...until lately. But it should be still taught and practiced, as it once was.

22 posted on 02/27/2018 6:02:28 PM PST by nopardons
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To: laplata

It’s still taught in PRIVATE schools, in most if not all states.


23 posted on 02/27/2018 6:04:06 PM PST by nopardons
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To: laplata
"PIGEON" anything, is a patois/just bad English/French/German, etc.!

In the 1930s-'40s, there was PIG LATIN, which kids used to use to keep adults in the dark. Could you, perhaps, be thinking of that?

24 posted on 02/27/2018 6:07:38 PM PST by nopardons
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To: Olog-hai
What Text Neck looks like...


25 posted on 02/27/2018 6:11:52 PM PST by C210N (Republicans sign check fronts; 'Rats sign check backs.)
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To: Olog-hai

I actually do have 9th graders who can’t seem to use scissors. I stare at them like... Mars? Venus?


26 posted on 02/27/2018 6:13:07 PM PST by A_perfect_lady
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To: Olog-hai

No kidding...In a few more years, even adults won’t be able to pick up a pen and write anything... No one saw this coming?


27 posted on 02/27/2018 6:13:48 PM PST by Thank You Rush
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To: Olog-hai

It’s not just the tots. I’m finding the same thing and my once-awful handwriting is getting worse by the day. My 97 year old uncle still has beautiful handwriting!


28 posted on 02/27/2018 6:14:37 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: laplata

es yay

e way id day

(Yes we did)


29 posted on 02/27/2018 6:15:20 PM PST by Chickensoup (Leftists today are speaking as if they plan to commence to commit genocide against conservatives.)
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To: laplata

“Penmanship” — What’s that?

For that matter, what is this word “Pen” at the front? What is this thing called a “Pen”?


30 posted on 02/27/2018 6:15:44 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Olog-hai

THIS JUST IN!

Children have lost the ability to chisel stone tablets since the invention of pen and paper.


31 posted on 02/27/2018 6:17:31 PM PST by joshua c (To disrupt the system, we must disrupt our lives)
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To: PGR88

“”Recently came across a letter, written by my grandmother as a young woman in the 1920s. Her handwriting was simply beautiful.””

I never knew any of my grandparents but an aunt sent me the original piece of paper listing family members written by her mother and like you say, it was amazingly beautiful - recapping the ancestry of the folks from Bristol, England..We did have penmanship in school and anyone as old as I am today still writes beautifully but there was something special about the old handwritten documents - they didn’t have modern pens..


32 posted on 02/27/2018 6:18:16 PM PST by Thank You Rush
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To: llevrok

“”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.””

Yep - never thought of that but I guess anyone could tell our age by that....


33 posted on 02/27/2018 6:19:45 PM PST by Thank You Rush
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To: ClearCase_guy
There are things FAR worse than crappy fine motor skills and penmanship.

I was shopping for a spotting scope online today and came across a new brand "Athlon Optics." Their description included this beaut:

Argon Purging uses the inertia gas with bigger size molecules to purge any moisture out of the tube giving you better waterproofing and thermal stability.

"Inertia Gas" -- LOL. I guess that gas is slow to get out of bed in the morning. After it's first cup of coffee, it's raring to go and get to work!

Millennial copy writers just don't do their work very well.

34 posted on 02/27/2018 6:20:39 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Ezekiel

LOL. Nice!


35 posted on 02/27/2018 6:21:27 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Ezekiel

Kinder Tinder?


36 posted on 02/27/2018 6:22:41 PM PST by lacrew
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To: neefer

oolcay ityay! ethay idkay isyay isteninglay!

It’s so much easier to hide things from the kids today!


37 posted on 02/27/2018 6:23:08 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

So you’re saying the scope has (is?) an inertial guidance system?


38 posted on 02/27/2018 6:25:39 PM PST by 21twelve
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To: Flick Lives

...and the prose was beautiful and lyrical.

Some of Stephen Foster’s love song lyrics are purely magical. Who could possibly write like that today?

“Ah May the Red Rose Live Alway”

Ah! may the red rose live alway,
To smile upon earth and sky!
Why should the beautiful ever weep?
Why should the beautiful die?
Lending a charm to every ray
That falls on her cheeks of light,
Giving the zephyr kiss for kiss,
And nursing the dew-drop bright —
Ah! may the red rose live alway,
To smile upon earth and sky!
Why should the beautiful ever weep?
Why should the beautiful die?

Long may the daisies dance the field,
Frolicking far and near!
Why should the innocent hide their heads?
Why should the innocent fear?
Spreading their petals in mute delight
When morn in its radiance breaks,
Keeping a floral festival
Till the night-loving primrose wakes —
Spreading their petals in mute delight
When morn in its radiance breaks,
Keeping a floral festival
Till the night-loving primrose wakes.


39 posted on 02/27/2018 6:27:31 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: 21twelve

I hadn’t thought about that possibility. But wouldn’t it be an “Inertial Gas System”? A self-pointing and auto-tracking scope would be so cool!


40 posted on 02/27/2018 6:35:07 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom
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