The Influence of Technology on Toddler Development: A Study

This essay examines the multifaceted impact of technology on toddlers, exploring both its benefits and drawbacks. It highlights the potential for technology to negatively affect cognitive development, social skills, and physical health, including issues such as social anxiety, obesity, and sleep disturbances. The essay emphasizes the importance of parental monitoring and guidance in mitigating these negative effects, suggesting that controlled technology use can support children's educational and cognitive development. It stresses the need for a balanced approach, advocating for limited screen time and the promotion of real-world interactions to foster healthy social and emotional growth. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of imparting proper values in kids so that the consequences of technology can be avoided, thereby gifting a better world to them.

Running Head: MONITORING TODDLERS AND TECHNOLOGY
Monitoring Toddlers and Technology
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1MONITORING TODDLERS AND TECHNOLOGY
Monitoring Toddlers and Technology
Technology has revolutionized the world by creating multiple new opportunities.
Technology has become a staple entity in our modern lives. In the contemporary society
almost every child is well equipped with technology and uses them extensively. There are
certainly multifold benefits but technology is detriment for the initial growing stage for
children. Monitoring toddlers and completely depending on technology is of major concern
as there are multifarious negative aspects connected to technology. Technology puts an
individual in a torpid state. Technology has proved to cause social anxiety, obesity, slows
down mental functions, and delays cognitive development.
Kids these days are more advanced than what their parents may think of them. Parents
mostly do not monitor the kids with technology. Kids these days gets back from school and
immediately crashes on the sofa with their PSPs. If the gaming time of the kids or the
children is not strictly monitored, this will lead to them missing out on their school
homework or complete the task hastily. Mostly kids these days indulge in highly violent
games and TV shows. The violent games have a negative impact on the thought process of
the child. It affects the behavior of the kid and in certain cases it is noticed the child starts
imbibing the aggressive behavior of the protagonist in the game. Kids who are actively
engaged in playing video games have less capability to focus and have a tendency to think
superficially rather critically on a subject (Toda, Valle & Isotani, 2017). There is a lack in the
creative learning skills of the kid or the child. There is increased number of cases of ADHD
(Attention deficit/ Hyperactivity disorder) in children in the contemporary world (Sayal et al.,
2018). The students are found to pay less attention in class which affects their learning
capability. They are unable to retain information for a long time as they are continuously

2MONITORING TODDLERS AND TECHNOLOGY
restless in their work. Staring at the TV screens or mobile screens badly strain the eyes and
the kids start growing eye problem from a nascent stage. Sometime the conditions are so
severe that it affects the overall health of the child. Staring at LED screen for long hours
causes headaches for children. Moreover the sleep cycle of the child is disturbed (Lauricella,
Wartella & Rideout, 2015). The harmful blue lit which the screens emit disturbs the sleeping
pattern. Irregularity in sleeping patterns suppresses hormonal activity of the children adding
more problems to the issue already present. Continuous exposure to online games, TV and
mobile utility, make the children immobile and a couch potato. These children have eating
disorder with an increased chance of being obese (Mohamed, 2017). Outdoor activities have
significant benefit on a child’s health, exposure to daylight initiates natural production of
Vitamin D which is essential for bodily functions. Kids these days are heavily dependent on
artificial sources of Vitamin D.
Technology creates a platform to meet and interact with new people virtually. This is
has the power to bind the world completely but can turn out to be a biggest foe for your child.
Technology reduces social activity in the children. It is seen that children do not want to step
out of the house of meet and interact with people (Primack et al., 2019). This damages their
social skills and curtails the further development of social skills (Charmaraman, Gladstone &
Richer, 2018). Children who use computers extensively have a tendency to interact less with
their peers. They face problems in handling any conflicts and have trouble to initiate
conversation with someone new. They have trouble expressing themselves as their emotions
are tangled. This in turn affects their relationship with their friends and parents. They mostly
isolate themselves from the crowd and like staying on their own by avoiding maximum
interaction (Primack et al., 2019). Children fail to develop meaningful relationships and
understand social cues which in turn disconnect them from the physical world as they are so
invested in the virtual platform.

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Technology if used under the guidance of parents can help the children develop
advance thinking skills and encourage them in their education process. Technology opens
new avenues for children to explore to gain influential knowledge.
In conclusion, kids need to enjoy technology and not be obsessed with it. Parents
should let their kids use technology for a stipulate amount of time under their guidance.
Technology cannot substitute the raw emotions of a person and social connections which
make an individual human. There are prominent evidences that technology overdose has
serious impacts on children but by imparting proper values in our kids, the consequences can
be avoided and we can gift a better world to our kids.

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References
Charmaraman, L., Gladstone, T., & Richer, A. (2018). Positive and Negative Associations
Between Adolescent Mental Health and Technology. In Technology and Adolescent
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Lauricella, A. R., Wartella, E., & Rideout, V. J. (2015). Young children's screen time: The
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Mohamed, A. (2017). The Negative Influence of Socio-Technical Developments on Eating
Habits and Health. Current Nutrition & Food Science, 13(3), 156-162.
Primack, B. A., Karim, S. A., Shensa, A., Bowman, N., Knight, J., & Sidani, J. E. (2019).
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Isolation. American Journal of Health Promotion, 0890117118824196.
Sayal, K., Prasad, V., Daley, D., Ford, T., & Coghill, D. (2018). ADHD in children and
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Toda, A. M., Valle, P. H., & Isotani, S. (2017, March). The dark side of gamification: An
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