Kids Are Having Issues Holding Their Pencils Because of Technology
The advent of new technologies like iPads, other tablets and smartphones means young people have a wealth of knowledge at their fingertips. But given warnings from health professionals, it seems it's the way these children are not using their fingertips that may be delaying their fine motor skills.
"Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago," Sally Payne, the head pediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England National Health Service Foundation Trust -- one of England's largest hospital trusts -- recently told The Guardian. "Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not ... able to hold it because they don't have the fundamental movement skills."
Grasping a pencil correctly involves the thumb, index and middle finger moving in tandem, reports The Guardian -- something not required for using a phone or tablet.
Denise Donica, an associate professor at East Carolina University in the occupational therapy program, confirmed Payne's assertion. Donica also works for a program called Handwriting Without Tears, presenting training workshops on improving children's handwriting skills to teachers, occupational therapists, parents and administrators.
Anecdotally, she's heard from teachers she's trained all over the country that it appears students are coming with less hand strength and coordination than they used to have. But ironically, school-based expectations have increased. Kids don't just play in kindergarten today -- they're expected to write their names and the alphabet and keep a journal. It's creating a big frustration for teachers.
And it doesn't just stop at handwriting -- fine motor skill challenges could lead to trouble buttoning clothes, tying shoes and more.
Another real-life example where technology has impaired regular development: restaurants. When you think of going to a sit-down restaurant with children, a kid's menu and crayons come to mind. But now if you head to a restaurant and look around, you'll notice that most of the crayons are still lying on the table -- and children are playing with their parents' phone, tablet or some other technology.
"Instead of experimenting trying those coloring activities and using those tools in helping to develop those skills, they're engaged in technology," Donica says.
This doesn't mean that technology is necessarily bad, she points out. As we get busier as a culture, it's easier to turn to technology to keep kids occupied, because there's no mess and they include educational activities . But it still can limit opportunities for children's development. For example: Why play a board game when you can just do it on a device? Or why color when you could play a color-by-numbers app on your phone?
Donica encourages therapists, parents and teachers to turn to a host of activities when looking to help children develop motor skills:
-- Using squirt bottles
-- Playing with Play-Doh
-- Stringing beads on a piece of yarn
-- Jumping rope
-- Squeezing water out of eye droppers
-- Pinching bubble wrap
In a hybrid task, using a stylus can help children because that requires them to position their fingers onto the tool. That said, Donica thinks the use of stylus on a piece of technology is different than the use of a crayon or pencil on a piece of paper. You don't get the same resistance from tapping a device as you'd get from taking a crayon or pencil to paper, for instance.
Donica says it would be interesting to see a study that compared children who use technology to those who don't, though notes it would be difficult to get accurate comparisons between the two.
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David Oliver is a social media associate editor at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter, connect with him on LinkedIn, or send him an email at doliver@usnews.com.
