iBaby

With a new technology era in front of us, with a landscape of ever changing data and tools children are being exposed to technology often from the day they were born.  I remember sitting in the waiting room of the hospital getting text messages from my brother and his wife- count down, doctor said it's time to push, and an hour later, before we were even allowed to see her, we had a mass picture message sent to our phones.  My niece, who is now nearly two, will sit on my lap and flip through my iphone, giggling, toggling around- even taking picture of herself and laughing.

Dispite our best intentions, many professional suggest that computers are not developmentally appropriate for children until about 3 years of age.  The rational for this limit is closely tied to Piaget's theory of childhood development.  Under the guide of his work, Piaget suggests that children at the age of three are learning and absorbing on a active bases.  They are exploring symbols, language, pictures and numbers are are mobile and active learners.  Reinforces by the work of Howard Gardner, age three is when students are learning in a variety of ways, not simply the direct teacher student model.  For these reasons it makes developmental sense to include technology when working with students 3 and older.  Technology offers many new and exciting ways to engage students in learning from an early age- hopefully making students intrinsic and life long learners!  Now what parent wouldn't want that!!

Some early ways of integrating technology are listed below:

Early Childhood ipad apps

Brain Pop!

MET for Kids

Click for more information on development abilities:

Early Childhood