Ensuring children are students at home

VACATION time, especially around Christmas, is always a memorable experience for children; a vacation period they especially look forward to. This academic year is even more special in that schools are out for a month instead of the traditional three weeks. Many parents are, however, challenged with balancing their work/domestic commitments in addition to ensuring their school-aged children are adequately supervised and engaged.

Unfortunately, tech gadgets have become the default babysitter for many parents. It is extremely important that parents do not over-rely on these gadgets. While there are many advantages to their engagement, there are also many dangers that parents must be acutely aware of, especially for younger children.

It is crucial that the vacation period compliments the activities of schooling. In this regard parents are well advised to ensure their children are students at home. This means ensuring they are engaged in structured activities at all times and not left on their own for extended periods. These activities must include supervised physical play, such as team sports, to assist with their physical and emotional development.

Physical play not only assists with psychomotor development, it is critical for developing interpersonal skills – a trait that has become increasingly deficient in the screen-addicted generation. Poor interpersonal skill has become a leading cause of physical conflicts in schools among children of all ages – a direct result of over-engagement in solitary screen time.

Children must be guided by strict rules that are enforced with consequences for infractions. Parents must establish and enforce limits of behaviour in the home environment akin to what obtains in school. This along with a programme of constructive structured activities like leisure reading and conversation/storytelling in the company of responsible adults greatly assist children in their adjustment to the schooling environment. The home thus becomes an extension of the school and vice versa.

The inability of children to conform to rules in school is a direct result of their unfamiliarity with a disciplined environment at home. Digital overexposure forms the basis for their misconduct at school. From a tender age children must be taught the importance of respecting the space, property and opinions of others. If this is not done it translates into intolerant and disrespectful behaviours in schools, which ultimately escalate into verbal and physical conflict.

Interpersonal conflicts among children saw an exponential increase in schools in the post-covid19 period. There is an abundance of scientific evidence to link this increase to the overexposure of children to digital overstimulation impacting significantly on their ability to focus, engage and learn effectively in the classroom setting.

Parents must be acutely aware that unregulated and excessive exposure to digital content disrupts the traditional dynamics of learning and must never be a substitute for personal interactions or unstructured play. The immersive and entertainment-driven digital world is in stark contrast to the demands of a structured academic environment.

It is dangerous to expose the brains of children to an excessive amount of sensory input, especially from high-speed, dynamic content characteristic of today’s digital entertainment world. This over-stimulation can lead to long-term changes in children’s brains, impacting their capacity to engage in responsible decision-making, control impulses, as well as their attention span and ability to self-regulate.

Over-exposed digital children are at a higher risk of developing an over-reliance on external stimulation, making it very difficult for them to find intrinsic motivation in lower-paced or less stimulating activities such as reading or problem-solving.

Digital overstimulation from video games and social media conditions the brain to expect constant novelty and instant gratification, compromising their capacity to concentrate, endure and engage intently. In contrast to these media, the school environment can now seem dull and boring, causing students to become detached.

Very often children are sleep-deprived on account of overexposure to digital entertainment, resulting in digital fatigue and mental exhaustion. Children need sufficient sleep for healthy cognitive development.

Parents thus have a responsibility to ensure digital bad habits are not developed or reinforced during the vacation period. They must ensure a balanced relationship with technology use in the home, such that it compliments cognitive and emotional development.

Outdoor and free play, board games and good old-fashioned shared reading experiences can arrest the over-reliance of parents on digital entertainment. Modelled behaviours are critical in this regard, mindful that children learn what they live.

Controlled and regulated digital consumption can be a great Christmas gift to children to enable them to be better students at school.