Kids Use Tech So Much They Can’t Hold A Pencil Anymore, Doctors Say
February 26th, 2018Swipetarded parents. Swipetarded children.
This should be a boon for the public school to private prison gravy train.
Via: Guardian:
Children are increasingly finding it hard to hold pens and pencils because of an excessive use of technology, senior paediatric doctors have warned.
An overuse of touchscreen phones and tablets is preventing children’s finger muscles from developing sufficiently to enable them to hold a pencil correctly, they say.
“Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago,” said Sally Payne, the head paediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust. “Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not be able to hold it because they don’t have the fundamental movement skills.
“To be able to grip a pencil and move it, you need strong control of the fine muscles in your fingers,. Children need lots of opportunity to develop those skills.”
After a while, you develop a certain tolerance towards these stories about how screwed up tech-addiction is making kids these days. But every now and then you get a story such as this one that just seems like a flashing red light no matter how inured you are to learning about such things. If tech-addiction is messing with their dexterity, you really have to wonder how much more severe must be the effect on their developing minds!
Speech delays:
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/health/toddlers-screen-time-linked-slower-speech-development-study-finds