Electronic toys have multiple resources up their sleeves to capture young children’s attention: bright colors, lights, and sounds. They are undoubtedly very effective in attracting children’s attention because they activate the orienting reflex, a primitive reflex that forces the mind to focus on novel visual or auditory stimuli.
It’s no wonder then that many homes are filled with these toys, which some parents have even turned into virtual “electronic babysitters.” However, these types of toys, which are sometimes sold under the “educational” label, actually have a dark side – so dark that some researchers advise against their use during the first years of life.
Electronic toys inhibit children’s language
Psychologists at Northern Arizona University conducted an experiment involving 26 parents and their children, whose babies were between 10 and 16 months old. The parents were given three sets of toys to prioritize during joint play sessions:
- Electronics – a baby laptop, a talking farm, and a baby cell phone.
- Traditional – wooden puzzles, shape sorters, and rubber picture blocks.
- Children’s books – five board books with themes of farm animals, shapes, and colors.
Researchers recorded children’s play and found an alarming relationship between electronic toy use and a decrease in communication quality and word count.
They found that children vocalized less when playing with electronic toys, compared to those who played with traditional toys and books. Parents also used fewer specific words, there was less turn-taking, and fewer verbal responses. This trend was reversed when traditional toys or books were used.
Psychologists point out that these results show the enormous differences in the development of communication and language that exist between electronic toys, traditional toys, and books.
The study concluded: “These results provide a basis for discouraging the purchase of electronic toys that are promoted as educational and are often quite expensive. They add to the large body of evidence supporting the benefits of book reading for very young children.”
The fewer things a toy does, the more things a child’s mind will do
Traditional toys and books encourage conversational turns during play, which are essential for young children’s language acquisition. These moments shared with parents lay the foundation for communication skills, not only because babies learn new words but also because they acquire the social skills necessary for conversation.
The main problem with electronic toys is that they encourage overly structured play, leaving little room for interaction with parents or peers, while also limiting children’s creativity and imagination.
Of course, this doesn’t mean that technological toys should be banished from children’s lives, but it is advisable to limit their use and not allow them to replace traditional toys, much less books, especially during the first years of life.
The features of electronic toys have enormous potential to engage children in play, especially younger children with a higher sensory threshold, but it’s important that they don’t get stuck in the closed loop of the app or toy. Any technological toy should have a clear purpose so that children can transfer and generalize the knowledge or skills they learn during play to their everyday environment.
Reference:
Sosa, AV Association of the Type of Toy Used During Play With the Quantity and Quality of Parent-Infant Communication. JAMA Pediatrics 170(2): 132-137.
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