The Touch-Screen Generation

Lunchables.

 

Rick I've got some homework for ya.

Go read the NY Times series "Our Brains On Computers." The entire freakin' series. If you can get through it.

Then go read a book called "Welcome to Your Child's Brain." It's written by two neuroscientists. It's all about the science, nothing more, nothing less. And by the way, the authors don't advocate cutting off all video games. They advocate setting up small intervals of video game/iPad usage as a reward for completion of a task like bits of homework. This teaches the brain self-control ...

Finally lookup "Stanford marshmallow study." Read the entire study top-to-bottom, including the follow up.

When other parents gush about how smart their kids are, I think to myself, "Who gives a shit-- do they pick one marshmallow now or two later?"

Go 'head, Rick. I'll wait.

 

Being unfamiliar with this study, I assume the correct answer is "one marshmallow now, beat up the kid with two marshmallows later."

 

So, basically a woman -- or a liberal.

 

If you had all that in your back pocket, why didn't you start with it?

I've read the Times article but not the book.

 

I hope none of you are reading while you could be spending time with your children.

 

I have no doubt that Rick will complete his reading assignment.

I hope he comes back with his assessment.

 

The self control thing is an issue with the iPad. My daughter flips out when we take it from her, but then we start playing something else and she forgets about it.
The only evidence I need to see is my daughter is significantly more advanced than her cousins at the me age. I'm not gonna let he be a junkie where she's attached to a device for hours n hours, but if she's doing educational stuff for an hour and that gives me time to cook, I'm all for it.

 

I'm not buying a whole damn book, but I did enjoy the Marshmellow experiment.

I don't think we're disagreeing as much as I thought, just focusing on different things.

I've jokingly referred to his Kindle as "the babysitter" a few times, but I'm pretty conscience about how much time I let him use it. People who hand their kids "educational" video games and tell themselves they are doing their jobs are fooling themselves.

Obviously, my kid is a special case in the literal sense of the word, but he gets 4 hours of school a day, much of it one-on-one therapy and all of it heavily social. Then he gets to spend the rest of the day with me alternating between directed play and free play, and most of his free play is his Kindle. We're actually hoping to add a few more hours of one-on-one therapy per week beginning this summer.

 

I'm a little worried that our son has the attention span of a toddler.

He did learn the Chicken Dance today, so suck on that, parents of dumb kids!

 

I do think it's funny how parents just can't help slipping our kid-brags into these conversations.

I could balance it out by saying my son is 3.5 and barely verbal. He's still stuck on one-word sentences.

 

Talking just gets you in trouble.