Toddlers’ Favorite Toy: The iPhone, Childhood development specialists concerned

[Liberal_in_LA]

Toddlers’ Favorite Toy: The iPhone

The bedroom door opened and a light went on, signaling an end to nap time. The toddler, tousle-haired and sleepy-eyed, clambered to a wobbly stand in his crib. He smiled, reached out to his father, and uttered what is fast becoming the cry of his generation: “iPhone!”

The iPhone has revolutionized telecommunications. It has also become the most effective tool in human history to mollify a fussy toddler, much to the delight of parents reveling in their newfound freedom to have a conversation in a restaurant or roam the supermarket aisles in peace. But just as adults have a hard time putting down their iPhones, so the device is now the Toy of Choice — akin to a treasured stuffed animal — for many 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds. It’s a phenomenon that is attracting the attention and concern of some childhood development specialists

Natasha Sykes, a mother of two in Atlanta, remembers the first time her daughter, Kelsey, now 3 1/2 but then barely 2 years old, held her husband’s iPhone. “She pressed the button and it lit up. I just remember her eyes. It was like ‘Whoa!’ ”

The parents were charmed by their daughter’s fascination. But then, said Ms. Sykes (herself a BlackBerry user), “She got serious about the phone.”

Kelsey would ask for it. Then she’d cry for it. “It was like she’d always want the phone,” Ms. Sykes said. After a six-hour search one day, she and her husband found the iPhone tucked away under Kelsey’s bed. They laughed. But they also felt vague concern.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/17/fashion/17TODDLERS.html

[ejpoeta]

1. oh please. i can get so many educational games for my ipod

that i can't even get for my daughters actual toy the leapster or her sister's the dsi. i have several free or 99c educational games that my 5 year old can play. but that is a rarity. like in the doctors office while we are waiting for the doctor to come in or at a restaurant while waiting for our meal. kids like gadgets. my 1 year old loves my cellphone. she pushes the buttons and throws it on the floor.

as for kids wanting it... they are kids. of course they want it. but ipods aren't cheap. i would never let my kids play it without me right there and again not often.

[Warren DeMontague]

2. OH NO!!!!!!!!!!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_4IqAMwAGn1w/SEmR-fY-iPI/AAAAAAAADaY/mxSdRfkLhaA/s400/FREAKING+OUT.gif


If you let your 3 year old play with your iphone, you KNOW what you're going to end up with, don't you?

DON'T YOU?

DON'T YOU?





...


That's right...







A broken iphone.

[jobycom]

3. Reminds me of the old puritanical Protestants saying kids shouldn't be allowed to play.

It taught them to enjoy themselves instead of working. They lectured against using toys as rewards for doing their chores because it would teach them that the only value to work was getting to play afterwords.

That is the only value I see in work. :) Any toy can be addicting to a kid. I was addicted to books as a kid. An IPhone can at least be interactive, and it teaches kids familiarity with technology, which will help them in the job market. It can even be a learning tool, with all types of educational apps, and a parent can use it to teach their kids to be careful with valuable equipment.

And a parent who can't discipline their child's use of an IPhone isn't likely to be any better with blocks or Snuffy the Snuffling Triceratops, anyway. And if any of you actually invent a "Snuffy the Snuffling Triceratops" toy, I want half the prophets, at least, you hear me!?

[CreekDog]

4. Self-serving...they're only concerned because they failed the "Moron Test"

while their 10-year olds passed.

:rofl:

[LeftinOH]

5. The phone I played with looked like this:

-and I was perfectly happy with it. With each new technological upgrade, I feel ever more detached. I want my Playskool phone.

[vim876]

6. I think they're right to worry.

Doctors recommend no screen time for kids 0-2. The iphone has a screen. Duh. Also, some of that iphone time almost certainly would otherwise have been interaction time with the parents.