Smriti Sharma sends and receives 10,000 SMSes a month. She texts between classes and while travelling, watching TV and studying. She even texts to communicate with her brother in the next room. With so much written communication, one would assume that the 11-year-old has great command of languages. Surprisingly, she failed her English test last month.
"She is so used to SMSing and writing on the web that her test paper was full of short forms like l8r (later) and other such chat abbreviations," says her mother Rohini Sharma.
But Smriti's is not a stray case. Dr Bharat Shah, a consulting psychiatrist at Leelavati Hospital, says that the overuse of gadgets and the internet is causing children to lose their grasp of languages and also other subjects.
"It is become a common phenomenon these days. Be it texting or posting on sites like Facebook, no one writes in proper English anymore. And the problem runs deeper because it is not just vocabulary that is taking a hit; the overuse of gadgets is also making kids lazy and denting their memory in a big way."
Another factor contributing to weak language skills is the lack of handwriting practice, say experts. Most children these days prefer to type out their assignments instead of writing them. Research has shown that cursive writing plays an important role in several developmental areas. It helps children refine motor skills and increase handeye coordination.
Jimmy Bryant, director of archives at the University of Arkansas, conducted a study on motor skills and cursive writing. He found that when children write in cursive hand they learn to finely manipulate the pen, maintain fluidity and apply the correct amount of pressure on paper. This in turn results in fine muscle control, which leads to an increased interest in other areas that require fine muscle development , such as art.
Cursive writing also makes one connect with the material at hand, which is lost when students type or turn away from cursive, Bryant says. "The process of cursive etches the material they write in their brains, making a permanent impact."
Dependence on technology has also affected children's sleep and rest patterns , which can have a highly detrimental effect on concentration and learning. Dr Y Machiswala, head psychiatrist at Masina Hospital, speaks of one of his young patients "who struck a note between concern and amazement" . The 14-year-old kept an extremely late bed time, sometimes 4 am, because she was up surfing the internet . "Her typical surfing session went like this: she would log on to Facebook and see a status update about a movie on her friend's page. This would probably make her want to google the movie and find its story. She would subsequently make her way to IMDB to seek information on the movie's lead actors. And from there, to the celebrity's Twitter account, and probably even hunt for movie snippets on YouTube.
"As a result, the child was extremely moody, couldn't focus on a single task for more than five minutes or even pay attention in school, making her grades slip despite her being intelligent . Kids need to get their minimum amount of sleep."
A Harvard University team looked at how the use of media affected children's brainwave patterns while sleeping and their ability to retain words they learn in subsequent days. It found that playing video games and watching TV led to markedly lower sleep quality and also a significant decline in a child's ability to remember words or memorize lessons. Markus Dworak, who led the team, said it was not clear why learning among the study's subjects suffered : because of a disturbed sleep cycle or because visual stimulation from videogaming overrode the brain's recording of vocabulary.
"When you look at vocabulary, and after that look at competing stimuli like games, your brain has to decide which information to store," Dworak writes in the study's report. "And a lot of times, kids' brains might favour emotionally-stimulating information over vocabulary."
Research says ten hours of sleep a night is a must for children, especially those under 16. According to Dworak, sleep is when our brains weave connections among neurons, preserving and etching the ones that matter and cleaning out the ones that do not.
"Unfortunately, new modes of communication like cellphones, tablets and the hours spent using them are preventing already sleep-deprived children from getting enough rest," says Machiswala. What adds to this is that most children sleep with their gadgets next to them. So, even if they get 9-10 hours of sleep, it is interspersed with interruptions like a buzzing smartphone next to the pillow.
The ill effects of overexposure to technology are long term, they don't go away as soon as children turn off their computers and cellphones, say scientists. Michael Merzenich, neuroscientist and professor at the University of California, found that the cellular structure of the human brain adapts readily to tools. To prove it, Merzenich and his team conducted a series of experiments on primate brains. They found that when the nerves in a monkey's hand were rearranged , the nerve cells in the animal's sensory cortex quickly reorganized themselves to create a new mental map of the hand. This can be applied to children's constant exposure to technology. By changing the ways of searching, researching and using the web, each new technology strengthens certain neural pathways and weakens others. Merzenich says these cellular alterations continue to shape the way we think even when we are not using the technology, and this can have a much bigger impact on a child's developing brain.
What parents can do
It is impossible to raise children completely devoid of technology, but experts insist on a balance. Here are tips to keep your child on a healthy tech diet
Monitor the language your children use while chatting or texting. If they get into the habit of using internet short forms everywhere, their language skills might suffer. Start with making them write whole words in text messages and web chats Technology addiction is similar to an eating disorder. Instead of killing it, start with slicing away the time children spend on television and with gadgets. Try things like 'no TV during dinner time' , or allowing videogames only on weekends Move gadgets to a common area. Put laptops or computers in the living room. Sometimes, just taking gadgets out of your children's room is sufficient to reduce usage Changing television content can help prevent attention disorders in children. Scientists suspect that the brain gets overtaxed by stimulation from fastpaced cartoons and TV shows, leading to a lowering of its ability to focus. Try changing to slowpaced educational programmes Auditing the time your children spend on technology on a weekly basis will ensure that they do not suffer from tech overload. Start by tracking the amount of time they spend playing videogames, surfing the internet and watching TV. A good rule of thumb with screen time is a maximum of two hours a day Add extra non-technology-related activities to your children's life. Set reading hours or buy them board games like chess and scrabble. Many children use the internet or gadgets to spend time. Adding activities will wean them away from these Many teens go to bed with their gadgets next to them. This leads to disturbed sleep since every SMS or email received during the night wakes them up. Enforce strictly a 'no gadgets while sleeping' rule Leading by example is important while trying to train children. If you stick to your BlackBerry or iPad 24x7, your children will follow suit. Start by cutting your own gadget/TV/online time. To begin with, set an hour of media-free family time each day
Sometimes, even projects and presentations have glaring errors and spelling mistakes. Instead of accepting their fault, students tell me such words are 'just abbreviations' of the actual word and are acceptable. Since we can't take away technology from kids, I think some of these abbreviations should be accepted, but definitely not at the cost of grammatical errors
Preeti Oza, PROF, ST ANDREW'S COLLEGE
Technology has been helpful as well as problematic at the same time in the field of education. On one hand, we know that students are understanding things better because of the audiovisual teaching approach. But on the other, children's use of various forms of technology like mobile phones doesn't help any form of development in them. There has to be a balance
Kavita Agarwal, PRINCIPAL, D G KHETAN INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL
As parents, my wife and I decided to gift a library membership to our son when he was very young. The whole process of selecting a book, discovering reading and understanding what he likes has gone a long way, we think, in creating a more balanced childhood for him. Of course, he still loves his technology, but books-and I don't mean those that are part of his studies-still play a very big part in his daily life
Sandesh Kirkire, CEO, KOTAK MUTUAL FUND
I'm not a strict father, but I make sure my son Raj (6) plays only those games on the iPad that I download for him. Also, we make sure he doesn't watch TV for more than an hour or two a day. On weekends, he is free to do whatever he wants. He hasn't yet succumbed to the temptations of the net, but I'm sure when he does, I'll have to be watchful. I also ensure that every day he engages in outdoor activity
Ajit Agarkar, CRICKETER