'Digital kids' spark new learning concerns( Xinhua) 20:54, September 09, 2013 Yang Hao has been letting his daughter to play iPad games since she was two. Two yearslater, he is beginning to wonder whether the digital exposure is a good thing.
"The electronic helper is great. She often concentrates on the touch screen for a long time,watching animated shows or learning poetry, and we can enjoy a few moments of peaceand quiet," said the 36-year-old who lives in Shanghai.
However, the father has become increasingly worried as the four-year-old girl seems tohave lost interest in paper books as a result of her obsession with the glowing device.
"I fear it might have consequences for her intellectual development," he said.
Yang's concern has been reinforced by some education experts who speak against thepopularization of electronic gadgets among children and warn of their negative influence onchildren's capacity to learn the Chinese language.
A report released at the China Children's Cultural Industry Forum held in Beijing in lateJuly showed that, among more than 2,700 children aged 4 to 16 surveyed in 10 Chinesecities, nearly 58 percent have mobile phones and 18 percent use tablet computers.
The report said over 60 percent of kids surveyed chat online via QQ, China's most popularinstant messaging service, and 26 percent use Weibo, an influential Twitter-like microblog,mainly on mobile devices.
These "digital kids" are most commonly seen in affluent families in megacities such asShanghai.
When the new semester started, Yang was surprised to know that two-thirds of kids in hisdaughter's class at an international kindergarten have cell phones and tablet computers.
The amount of time that Chinese children spend reading printed words has significantlydropped in the last few years, largely due to growing reliance on digital devices, said WangHuamin, secretary-general of the China National Society of Early Childhood Education.
"Parents should bear in mind that reading books on paper remains the most importantapproach for Chinese preschoolers to learn their mother tongue," said Wang, adding thatprevious research shows reading in print should account for 60 to 70 percent of children'sdaily leisure time.
Her view is echoed by linguist Hao Mingjian, who believes electronic gadgets are obstaclesfor children in mastering the Chinese language.
"Browsing on screen can't lead them to a good grasp of the pronunciation, forms andmeanings of Chinese characters, let alone the profound culture behind them," Hao said.
"Reading microblog posts that contain no more than 140 characters each will surely nothelp to understand cause-and-effect relationships in words and learn pivotal readingskills," said Sun Hongyan, a researcher with the China Juvenile Research Center.
"When necessary, I need to help my daughter get rid of her addiction to the dazzling iPadapps with professional assistance," said Yang, hoping the girl will pick up books before sheenters primary school.
Last month, China's press and publication watchdog announced that legislation is likely tobe adopted to encourage citizens to read, measures that are partly aimed at improving theliteracy skills of minors.
Despite warnings from researchers that children's access to electronic gadgets may causevarious problems, other scholars believe the tools are beneficial for children's braindevelopment.
（Editor：WangXin、Hongyu） Related reading
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