IF I TURN IT OFF, HE/SHE CRIES. Children and Screens

Alice Di Leva, Pedagogist and trainer. Founder @nadì_natidigitali

I remember very well when, in 2018, I decided to write my master's thesis in Pedagogical Sciences on the relationship between screens and children aged 0 to 3; I especially remember the anxiety that assailed me when I realized that in Italy only one specific research on the topic had been published.

Today, I would be much luckier in finding sources! In fact, I have a hard time reading a literature that is constantly updated on a daily basis.

However, the ' pedagogical urgency to build a media education not only dedicated to early childhood, but rethought to involve the ' the entire family system was clear to me since then. This is why, together with my thesis , Nadì-natidigitali was born, a dissemination project dedicated primarily to families .

Involving family systems (of any social background) in a process of critical problematization of the ' use of digital technology requires constant dissemination work, adapted to the socio-cultural contexts in which we operate which do not necessarily have access to ' scientific and specialist information nor , even less, to support paths for parenting. And that's what, in my own small way, I try to do on my Instagram page.

Why Digital Born and not Digital Natives?

No, it's not a typo. In my work I never mention the mythological species of digital natives for a very simple reason: they don't exist.

Mark Prensky himself, coiner of the successful neologism “ digital natives” in a 2001 article, in 2011 he wrote that the distinction between digital native and digital immigrant had become much less functional than it had been a decade ago. ' years earlier, emphasizing the need to abandon this neologism to search for digital wisdom for all " (Prensky, 2013).

It therefore appears necessary, in the construction of a media education that relates to the family system, to dismantle prejudices and false beliefs regarding the innate skills of the so-called digital natives , bringing them back to the ' attention to the need to develop digital competence.

What makes the new generations undeniably different from the previous ones is the pervasiveness and presence of screen technology in their daily lives .

Today, according to the data in our possession, we can in fact affirm that:

• Screens are present in 98% of homes where a child under the age of eight lives.
• the ' 84% of children under eight use a screen from early childhood
• ə children under two years old use screens more than 1 hour a day, an average that increases between 5 and 8 years old (about 3 hours and 30 minutes)

So, what to do?

However, talking about screen time in a quantitative way risks being reductive. Not all screen time is the same . Passive and autonomous use of technologies appears completely different from ' relational use of the latter.

Fundamental aspect in the ' the use of screen technology with children is in fact the dimension of ' child-caregiver interaction. The “ parent involvement” has in fact the power to increase children's predisposition to transfer the concept learned from the 2D world to the 3D one.

This is thanks to the caregiver's preparation of a context , that is, a learning context that is participatory and interactive: talking about what they are seeing and doing , thus mediating the ' experience as a narrative voice (Barr & Lerner, 2015).

THE ' interaction and repetition therefore seem to be tools with very high potential.

It is important to point out that, to be effective, repetition must also involve the surrounding world with constant references to concrete objects to increase and make possible what in literature is defined as transfer of learning , or the aforementioned transfer of a concept learned through screen devices to the real world. (Barr & Lerner, 2015).

An interactive attitude, which is conducive to the transfer of learning, specifically means being close to children while they play or interact with screens, asking questions about what they are doing, correlating the experience with concrete experiences in real life.

To recap: are there any clear rules we can apply in the family?

• Never use screens during meals (not even TV) and before going to sleep. Never to calm a crying baby (for that you need our body and our voice)
• Screen time should be limited (before 18 months and preferably up to two years only short video calls with distant relatives; from 2 to 5 years maximum 1 hour per day).
• The cartoons are they look on the smart TV and through kids profiles with parental controls set, not from an adult's smartphone
• Let's not leave children alone while they watch/do things with screens, let's comment and participate in their screen time.
• Consult the invaluable website pattidigitali.it and propose the digital pact at school and in the educational contexts attended by our children.