It can become difficult to keep up with the ever-changing trends in this fast-paced world, especially those involving technology. Luckily, children don’t experience the same challenges. When navigating the technological world, they usually pick it up quickly.
When it’s time, safely guide your little one into the technological world. Here are 4 ways to assist them.
1. Supervise Them
Children’s brains develop rather quickly during the first three years of their lives. This is an opportune time to introduce them to as many social, lingual, emotional, and motor skills as possible. For many children, their first introduction to technology might come in the form of a classroom. There are many IT support for schools or mentors that can help your kid learn in the comfort of their home.
In order to successfully introduce children to technology, it’s important to be involved. It can be detrimental to a child if they are just given an iPad and sat on a couch unsupervised, especially for younger children. It’s necessary to set parental locks on devices they use as well as institute a timer so that they aren’t spending too much time with electronics.
2. Make Learning Fun
While it may be easier to plop your child down in front of the television for a couple of hours, it’s important to utilize technology in a way that can help them develop useful skills. With technology changing so consistently daily, there are many opportunities for children to learn.
There are computer games that teach children how to do everything, from video gaming coding to learning multiplication tables. Leveraging popular animated characters they have already become familiar with, will make these learning moments more enjoyable.
If they are a little more technologically advanced than you, allowing them to teach you how to do something is a great way to give them a confidence boost.
3. Create an Inclusive Environment
Technology is not only observed through a television, laptop, or an ipad. It can be a fun interactive event.
Children can learn the ins and outs of tech through interactive events like a robotics camp, where they learn to build a robot from the ground up. They can also utilize interactive classroom whiteboards when learning how to write their names or solve problems. Doing this in a group setting is a great way to heighten their desire to learn.
4. Encourage Their Interests
As previously stated, there is not a limit to what technology can be or how it can be received. Luckily, there are now platforms that cater to the younger generation, usually spin-offs of the original platform—for example, YouTube Kids. Thinking about your child surfing the web can be a little scary, but luckily, you no longer have to be afraid.
Since there are platforms for children, it’s essential to encourage your child to explore their interests outside their ipads. If you notice that your child is interested in watching videos about forts, make that an activity for the whole family. If you see that they like to watch videos of kids vloging, maybe allow them to use your phone or an old camera to do the same.
It is important to encourage your child to pursue their interests and not just watch them. Technology gives us deeper insight into who our child is without asking so many questions.
The Takeaway
Technology is your friend. That’s the goal of it, to show individuals that, regardless of their age, there is not a limit to the ways they can grow and create in this expansive field. By making learning relatable to a child’s interests and with characters they enjoy, it no longer feels like a chore to learn.
That is the key to making education exciting for them. As an adult, it’s not necessary for you to be tech-savvy, just be involved.
