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Should Children Use Computers

Studies

from the good-or-bad? dept

Fri, Aug 23rd 2002 2:58pm — Mike Masnick
The Detroit Free Press has an article looking at some of the debate over whether or not young children should learn to use computers. While many families with kids today start them young, some researchers are saying that kids shouldn't play with computers until after they're seven years old, and that it might do more harm than good. I would actually be surprised if this were true. I would imagine that kids (when supervised by parents) wouldn't have any adverse reaction to using a computer at a younger age, and could actually learn quite a bit from it - but I certainly have no qualifications to think that, so I'm likely to be absolutely wrong.
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  1. identicon
    FearOfBeingNamed, 23 Aug 2002 @ 3:58pm

    re: should kids use computers

    I've done some reading on the subject (including Jane Healy's book, mentioned in the article), and there is some evidence that using computers at a young age can be bad, mostly because the most formative years are the earliest ones. it seems some of the habits that computers ingrain -- like instant response, clicking-until-you're-right (instead of thinking out the answer) -- might not be great for brain development in the long term.

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    D.S., 26 Aug 2002 @ 7:06am

    Re: should kids use computers

    we neeed to separate different computer activities. If it's just for games - I agree it's not good. Like TV - watching cartoons whole day will not make your kid smarter...but watching Disc channel - will teach them stuff. Same with computers.... playing with educational games, learn programming - good for kids. And of course, there is a ballance... not more than 3-4 hours a week...

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  3. identicon
    chloe goodman, 15 Jun 2007 @ 9:32am

    Re: Re: should kids under the age of 12 use comput

    [ link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    chloe goodman, 15 Jun 2007 @ 9:36am

    Re: Re: should kids under the age of 12 use comput

    i think kids under the age of 12 should use the computers because they need to do there homework and play games if they are bored but should be able to type without looking at the keyboard or sit up straight and type and look at the keyboard if you need to

    [ link to this | view in thread ]


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