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Parents warned over reliance on technology
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Yang Hao’s daughter has been playing games on the iPad since she was two. Two years later, he is beginning to wonder whether the digital exposure is a good thing.
“The electronic helper is great. She often concentrates on the touch screen for a long time, watching animated shows or learning poetry, and we can enjoy a few moments of peace and quiet,” said the 36-year-old who lives in Shanghai.
But now, the father is becoming increasingly worried as the four-year-old girl seems to have lost interest in books as a result of her obsession with the glowing device. “I fear it might have consequences in her intellectual development,” he said.
Yang’s concern has been reinforced by education experts who have warned of the negative influence on children’s capacity to learn the Chinese language.
A report released during the China Children’s Cultural Industry Forum in July showed that in a survey of more than 2,700 children between the ages of four and 16 in 10 Chinese cities, nearly 58 percent have mobile phones and 18 percent use tablet computers.
The report said over 60 percent of the kids surveyed chat online via QQ, China’s most popular instant messaging service, and 26 percent use Weibo, an influential Twitter-like microblog, mainly on mobile devices.
These “digital kids” are mostly from affluent families in megacities such as Shanghai.
When the new semester started, Yang was surprised to find that two-thirds of the kids in his daughter’s class at an international kindergarten had cell phones and tablet computers.
The amount of time the children spent reading printed words has dropped significantly in the last few years, largely due to growing reliance on digital devices, said Wang Huamin, secretary-general of the China National Society of Early Childhood Education.
“Parents should bear in mind that reading books on paper remains the most important approach for Chinese preschoolers to learn their mother tongue,” said Wang, adding that previous research shows reading in print should account for 60 to 70 percent of children’s daily leisure time.
Her view is echoed by linguist Hao Mingjian, who believes electronic gadgets are obstacles for children in mastering the Chinese language.
“Browsing on screen can’t lead them to a good grasp of the pronunciation, forms and meanings of Chinese characters, let alone the profound culture behind them,” Hao said.
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