Comments on: PBS Creates Website for 3-6 Year Olds http://www.thedeets.com/2008/01/18/pbs-creates-website-for-3-6-year-olds/ Consistently against torture. Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:36:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Scooter http://www.thedeets.com/2008/01/18/pbs-creates-website-for-3-6-year-olds/#comment-4308 Scooter Tue, 22 Jan 2008 14:34:10 +0000 http://www.thedeets.com/2008/01/18/pbs-creates-website-for-3-6-year-olds/#comment-4308 We went with the multi-channel approach at my house. A computer should be in a public enough place that if the child wants to play computer games, they can ask questions and interact while gaming. I wrote my daughter a game that allowed her to push letters and see the letter, hear the letter, see a picture that starts with the letter, and hear the word - using our recorded voices. She loved it - was playing it quite a bit while she was two. If she watches t.v. we always turned subtitles on. She still asks for them whenever she's watching a movie. Yesterday, while home for MLK, she watched a show on Netflix. She's a fan of the iPod. None of those things interferes with interacting with other children and adults - we push that all the time as well. School, gymnastics, friends. And none of it has interferred with her language skills - she reads and talks like an eight year old, not a four year old (I did the volunteer reading program at Garlough for years, so I know). Websites aren't a problem, and I believe they're helpful, particularly if it's -16F. But they're only helpful if the parents are engaged, monitor use, and content, and hang out and interact with the child while they're playing on the machine - pretty much like every activity a kid engages in. We went with the multi-channel approach at my house. A computer should be in a public enough place that if the child wants to play computer games, they can ask questions and interact while gaming. I wrote my daughter a game that allowed her to push letters and see the letter, hear the letter, see a picture that starts with the letter, and hear the word – using our recorded voices. She loved it – was playing it quite a bit while she was two. If she watches t.v. we always turned subtitles on. She still asks for them whenever she’s watching a movie. Yesterday, while home for MLK, she watched a show on Netflix. She’s a fan of the iPod.

None of those things interferes with interacting with other children and adults – we push that all the time as well. School, gymnastics, friends. And none of it has interferred with her language skills – she reads and talks like an eight year old, not a four year old (I did the volunteer reading program at Garlough for years, so I know).

Websites aren’t a problem, and I believe they’re helpful, particularly if it’s -16F. But they’re only helpful if the parents are engaged, monitor use, and content, and hang out and interact with the child while they’re playing on the machine – pretty much like every activity a kid engages in.

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