Your child and the information technology age

By Niran Adedokun
A few days back, Atim, and I got into a discussion about how technology has pervaded and even transformed every area of our lives. In the course of our discussion, we ventured into the precocity and dexterity of the average child of this age.
How our three and four year olds can navigate our own gadgets well enough to cofound us. And, how with the effortless manner with which our kids are carrying on, only God knows how many phenomenal inventors are in the future of this great country. These kids are just wonders!
Gone are the days when you could not watch the television until about four or five o clock in the evening and you had to go to bed early before the television shut down at midnight. Well, unlike our growing up days, the TV experience is now a 24/7 affair. Kids could stay up forever to watch TV if their parents, guardians and of course, the almighty PHCN would allow it. And so many parents have thrown up their hands in submission. In an attempt to ensure that our children do not appear lost or deprived among their peers, we all try as much as possible for them to have a feel of the awesomeness of the information technology age.
Atim told me the hilarious story of a Pastor who had, hitherto, guarded his regular ipad device like life. One day, however, the pastor was in a shop when a man walked in and requested a more sophisticated ipad for his teenage son for his Sunday school class. Shocked by the man's seemingly liberal attitude and realising that he had deprived his own children all along, the Pastor, on getting back home called out his children one after the other to come and touch and press his ipad. The pastor declared a free day for ipad touching and tapping, to the amazement and amusement of his kids. 
Now who would blame this gentleman? Every parent wants the best for their children, but,  I think we need to apply some discretion in exposing our children to the liberty of this new age. And as we do that, I think we should also focus on getting our children to read more. It is really worrisome that, although we all complain about the absence of a reading culture, very little is being done to instil this all-important virtue in our children. Rather than get children to read, the current fad is to give them unlimited access to television sets and internet facilities, with very little or no supervision at all.
Some very young children, who are not even in their teens yet seem to have unhindered access to the internet and television for as long as their young brains can cope with. And some parents don't see anything wrong in this as it is their own  way of displaying love and affection for their kids! True,  there are benefits in allowing our children to have access to television and the internet but uncontrolled access could be a destructive influence because these media outlets present as much harmful information as the beneficial. I read recently that too much exposure to television could make a child dumb. Oh yes, dumb! Several researches on this topic indicate that early exposure to television undermines the attention ability of the child. They also reveal that children who spend more time watching television than they spend playing with other children are most likely to lose valuable chances to learn social skills.
Another study by the Columbia College of Physicians and Surgeons noted that 14-year-olds who watched one or more hours of television daily risked poor homework completion, negative attitudes toward school, poor grades, and long-term academic failure. Those who watched television for more than three hours a day were said to be prone to learning difficulties and low level educational attainment in early adulthood. In contrast, however, reading has enormous benefits to the present and future of every child. It builds basic speech skills in our children, it improves the ability for more logical thinking, enhances their concentration skills, exposes them to other cultures, builds their self esteem, reduces boredom thereby saving them from some kinds of antisocial tendencies.
Reading expands the vocabulary of children, brings academic excellence their way and prepares them for the challenge of the increasingly competitive world that we live in. Inversely, children who grow up without a healthy reading habit are susceptible to a variety of negative tendencies. A recent study conducted by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) in the United States of America noted the following:
• Children who do not read suffer from low esteem. They grow ashamed as they struggle with a skill their classmates seem to master easily.
•Poor readers are prevented from making the transition from learning to read to reading to learn which keeps them from exploring science, history, literature, mathematics and the wealth of information that is presented in print.
• Surveys of adolescents and young adults with criminal records show that about half have reading difficulties. • About half of youths with a history of substance abuse have reading problems.
• In today’s globalized, flat, Internet-information-driven world, children that cannot read well will not be able to readily access the wealth of print information available on the Internet on just about any subject of interest.
Well-meaning parents therefore owe this country and the world at large the very important duty of encouraging every little child in our care to fall in love with reading. We should show them that we also love reading and that we love them to read. Let us find time to read with them and read to them. Set targets for them and reward them for goals that they attain. Encourage them that the most knowledgeable and charismatic human beings in the world attained such potentials because they read and studied. Make it clear to your children and wards that conquering the world is always a possibility for those who are prepared for it. And that preparation starts on the day a child picks the first book and then another and then another, starting from this holiday season!