NEWS$show=/search/label/news

Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.

REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review

Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family. There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for? We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.

GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.

PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project

Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.

STEM$show=/search/label/stem

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.

CODING$show=/search/label/coding

Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.

ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics

We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware. Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions. Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.

ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics

We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them. Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available. Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.

MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making

We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun. The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something. We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.

Is it okay for toddlers to use tablets?

Yes, there's another article about toddlers getting addicted to tablets, from the UK Telegraph newspaper this time. This is the kind of thing that gets technophobes tutting and shaking their heads when they see a young child playing with a tablet or smartphone.

Is it possible for toddlers to spend too much time using a tablet? Of course it is! But for me it's not about any harmful effects caused by the use of the tablet. It's about all the other things that toddlers need to fit into their day like splashing in puddles, learning to run without falling over and scraping their knees, playing with play dough, chasing pigeons (was that just mine?) and climbing the furniture.


The media seems to focus a lot of the amount of time a toddler spends using a tablet rather than what they are doing with it.

If a toddler spent hours a day looking at picture books we'd probably think that was wonderful. What if those picture books are on a tablet. How different does that make the activity?

Likewise, drawing (well scribbling mostly) is considered to be time well spent for toddlers. Is this less valid when it's done on an electronic device?

What if parent and child play a game of virtual snap on the tablet?

And are toddler games on tablets somehow less worthy than playing with interactive toys? What if there's a physical apptivity toy involved (and we're going to be seeing more of those aimed at toddlers and preschoolers) or if it involves augmented reality and doing things in the real world.

I'm not a great fan of large amounts of passive TV watching for kids. Mine mostly got to see nature documentaries and shows like Go! Diego Go! that would ask questions and get them shouting out at the screen (but that's partly to do with me finding much of modern kids TV too painful to endure.) Tablets give us the opportunity to make much more interactive content available to kids. If kids are using too much of their tablet time to passively watch videos then I'd agree that could be a problem, though it does depend on the content.

It seems to be that a tablet does a good job of replacing the activities it displaces and that such uses of a tablet are fine.

Where there's an issue is if it starts to displace activities that it can't compensate for. Like time spent talking with parents and siblings, running around, looking for bugs in the dirt, learning to peel the back of stickers (so Mum doesn't have to) or visiting a zoo or a farm.
 Tablets are going to get more prevalent in young kids lives. The sale of iPads Android devices and learning tablets has affected the toy industry and they are looking at ways of building on the use of tablets by little kids rather than fighting it. We're going to see more and more toys that make use of a tablet.

Kids attractions are also making use of technology. Is it awful if there's an interactive display at the zoo where toddlers can touch to hear more about the animals. Does that count towards their screen-time for the day?

More and more it's not going to be a case of tablet time versus non tablet time. Technology is getting more and more integrated into everyday life. Kids can be experiencing the world and using technology at the same time.

Instead of counting the minutes that junior has access to an electronic device and imposing sanctions, let's move the focus to making sure toddlers get the chance to develop the full range of social, physical and thinking skills that they'll need as they get older.



24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Is it okay for toddlers to use tablets?
Is it okay for toddlers to use tablets?
Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
https://www.techagekids.com/2013/04/is-it-okay-for-toddlers-to-use-tablets.html
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