My mornings as a single mom are always interesting.

Somehow, like clockwork, I wake up at 6:50 AM and my daughter wakes up at 7:00 AM. We go downstairs and I place her in her pack and play in front of the TV with a cup of milk and half of an orange. I kickbox for thirty minutes, grab her out of her pack and play, go back upstairs, get both of us bathed and dressed, and get both of us out the door by 9:30 AM. I drop her off at daycare before I go to school. One of the reasons I like and chose her daycare is because they dont allow the TV to babysit the children, the staff actually interacts, plays, and stimulates their minds throughout the day. As I picked her up that day and placed her in front of the TV yet again to tackle my homework before we went to the park, I couldnt help but think about how much brainless technological entertainment I was subjecting her to on a daily basis. I spend at least an hour on homework a day while she plays/watches TV and 30 minutes kickboxing in the mornings while she does the same thing. Thats 90 minutes a day and 7 hours and 30 minutes weekly. I am comforted in the mornings as I kickbox and in the afternoons when I am completing my homework because she finds Baby Einstein and Sprout entertaining. She laughs and tries to imitate some of the sounds she hears from the TV. As I thought about the amount of technology she was subjected to I also began to wonder the kind of influence it was having on her. I began to ask other parents and research the effect technology has on infants. Busy parents who work full time/go to school should research healthy alternatives for entertaining their child rather than letting technology babysit them, because too much technology can stunt your childs creativity and imagination. According to Nancy Carlsonn-Paige, a professor emerita of education at Lesley University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, children need first hand engagement. They need to manipulate objects physically, engage all their senses, and move and interact with the 3 dimensional world. The time children spend on screens takes away from the learning activities that have been proven effective. Researchers who have tracked childrens creativity for fifty years are seeing

a significant decrease in creativity among children for the first time, especially younger children from kindergarten through sixth grade. This decline in creativity is thought to be due at least in part to the decline of play. Most children today would choose to play a game on an ipad over going outside and building a treehouse with dad. Play fosters emotional health, imagination, original thinking, problem solving, critical thinking, and self regulation. A game is made to pre write shortcuts for your brain. The one track answer to most games decreases creativity and frowns upon thinking of more than one solution. Busy parents who work full time/go to school should research healthy alternatives for entertaining their child rather than letting technology babysit them, because too much technology and not enough physical activity could lead to obese children. Managing the role that technology use plays in rising child obesity levels is a difficult job for parents of kids who would rather exercise their thumbs on a video game controller than kick a soccer ball around outside. Obesity is complicated, but at some level its calories coming in versus calories going outand if kids arent active, theyre falling behind, explains Carrie Phillipi, a pediatrician at OHSU Doernbecher and a mother of four. She encourages parents to advocate for recess and free-play at their childrens schools, where children can get the person-to-person social interaction and the physical exercise they need. Busy parents who work full time/go to school should research healthy alternatives for entertaining their child rather than letting technology babysit them, because TV exposure may be associated with aggressive behavior in young children. Three-year-old children who are exposed to more TV appear to be at an increased risk for exhibiting aggressive behavior, according to a report in the November issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. "Early childhood aggression can be problematic for parents, teachers and childhood peers and sometimes is predictive of more serious behavior problems to come, such as juvenile delinquency,

adulthood violence and criminal behavior," according to background information in the article. Various predictive factors for childhood aggression have been studied. These include parents' discipline style, neighborhood safety and media exposure. "After music, television is the medium children aged 0 to 3 years are exposed to the most." Although the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen media for children younger than age 2, studies have found consistent use of television in that age group. Jennifer A. Manganello, Ph.D and Catherine A. Taylor, Ph.D., analyzed data from 3,128 mothers of children born from 1998 to 2000 in 20 large U.S. cities to examine associations of child television exposure and household television use with aggressive behavior in children. Parents were interviewed at the time of the child's birth and at one and three years. At three years, they were asked to report time the child spent watching TV directly as well as household TV use on a typical day. Aggression also was assessed at 3 years of age using a 15-item aggressive subscale for 2- and 3-year-old children. Demographic information and other risk factors for aggression were also noted. About two-thirds (65 percent) of mothers reported that their 3-year-old child watched more than two hours of television per day. On average, children were exposed to an additional 5.2 hours of household TV use per day. In summary, even though it is recommended to not allow your infant to watch TV, many parents are resorted to using it. Increased household television use may also affect daily routines such as eating and communication patterns and may decrease time spent on other activities. It is important as a parent to delegate technology free time. Some good rules to follow are no phones at the dinner table, no checking email while helping your child with his/her homework, only an hour a day playing video games/watching TV, and if you have a baby, interact with him/her, dont give all of your attention to your phone. Technology is rapidly developing every single day; we can only take it in stride and still enable our children to learn the best ways they can.

Strauss, Valerie Is technology sapping childrens creativity? http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/is-technology-sapping-childrenscreativity/2012/09/12/10c63c7e-fced-11e1-a31e-804fccb658f9_blog.html September 13, 2012 Grigsby-Rocca, Camille Technology and Childrens Health http://www.portlandmonthlymag.com/health-and-fitness/kids-health-annual/articles/technology-andchildrens-health-may-2013 May 2, 2013 JAMA and Archives Journals http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/11/091102171413.htm