Thesis statement: Technology which is growing at a very fast pace and becoming more of a primary want in life can have great impacts on the development of a child, helping or hindering a child’s development. Technology when used appropriately helps child development cognitively, socially, and promotes their attention (Donohue, 2014).
How appropriate use of technology helps the cognitive development of a child
By default, technology is intrinsically appealing for children. The graphics and sounds that come courtesy of technology catch the attention of young children. With appropriate technological software and tasks, children develop some creativity and highly-cognitive eyes to make things happen. They become more aware of things around them and begin to think wider to make things happen. For instance, when children responsibly play computer games, the spirit of competition towards victory builds their cognitive muscles greatly. This helps them to be able to coordinate and collaborate different tasks and methods towards achieving victory and by so doing they develop their mental capacities greatly (Donohue, 2014).
The attraction and zeal to discover and learn technological tasks and overcome technological challenges, helps children become more proficient as they flex their cognitive muscles to match up the task or challenge. Technology therefore provides basic skills for children to be competent cognitively in critical thinking and applied learning. Computers allow children to be able to work on their own and solve tasks independently thus enhance learning (Donohue, 2014).
Technology helps a child in social development
Technology and basically computers helps children develop skills in communication and language. As children read and access online books and stories they learn proper communication and word articulation skills. The multisensory skills attain through interaction with technology are very vital in the development of a child. Through learning communication and language, children become better in the social development. They gain the skills on how to co-exist owing to a better understanding of each other since they can communicate well and language is no barrier (Donohue, 2014).
As children interact further with technology, their social development is boosted. They gain better social skills and problem solving is easier. They are able to share their ideas fully with their peers through technology and play games together, and since humans are social beings, the more social the children become, the better their development into socially responsible beings (Donohue, 2014).
Technology helps children become more attentive to their tasks in their development
Attention is the sole gateway to active thinking. Without attention, it is a struggle to achieve all the other aspects of active thinking like memory, perception, creativity, problem solving, reasoning, learning, language, and decision making. A child’s ability to concentrate, stay consistently attentive and effectively focused is very vital to their development. Attention is therefore very fundamental in the development of a child and is greatly determined by the environment in which that child grows in (Donohue, 2014).
A child that grows in a technological environment is seen to be more attentive and more enlightened. Technology has a way to simulate and condition the mind for active and consistent attention. It helps children to learn concentration and build more attention span. For instance, well managed video games much improve the attention-ability, reaction ability, visual sensory capabilities and the capability to discover details. This means that the child with exposure to technology will develop having an attention to detail and will therefore be able to learn easily than a child who lacks the exposure (Donohue, 2014).
Reference
