Thursday, April 12, 2018

This Is A Rather Important And Cautionary Story - To Say The Least!

This appeared last week:

Parents are snubbing their infants in favour of digital devices according to leading WA paediatrician

EXCLUSIVE, Katie Hampson | The West Australian
Wednesday, 4 April 2018 4:00AM
Babies are missing key developmental milestones because their parents are glued to digital devices at times when they should be interacting with their infants, a leading WA paediatrician says.
Joondalup Health Campus paediatrics head Desiree Silva said the $26 million Origins Project was investigating the impact of electronics on a child’s health as part of a decade-long study of how a child’s environment influenced their risk of chronic health problems.
“Social interaction from an early age is changing and we are finding that some babies at six weeks of age are not smiling ... and smiling at six weeks old is a key milestone,” Professor Silva said.
“What we’ve noticed is a lot of parents are holding their phone or iPad and not actually looking at their child. What worries us, as paediatricians, is that platform of the child’s brain might be affected.
 “That early brain development could be affected by that lack of interaction, or reduced amount of interaction, because parents are distracted by their phone.
“These devices are very addictive. So what does it replace? Basically, interacting with your child, or looking at what your child’s needs are, or responding to what your child is doing.”
More here:
I have little to add rather than to suggest we focus on the nippers, and not devices, when they are nippers. After that they can use their own devices, associated with whatever issues that causes!
David.

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