Are Our Children Lazy?

Yahoo yesterday released an article damning TV's and Tablets for the lack of basic development skills amongst thousands of children. This is not a new debate but it is one that deserves serious consideration, and given our stance we thought we would comment. The article reads like this (minus the boring parts): Experts have suggested that combined with 'TV Parenting', preschoolers spend so much time playing with these tablets and hi-tech toys, they're falling behind on physical development and motor skills. Research has found that almost half of 60 reception children showed signs of delayed development and a further 30% had some signs of physical immaturity. Tests carried out included crawling, standing on one leg for 3 seconds and reflexes such as lifting their arms and simple head movements. The head teacher who carried out the tests, Peter Griffin (hopefully not the one from Family Guy), said "the main issue is that children don't have the same kind of physical challenge and upbringing they might have had 40 or 50 years ago. There's less creativity involved in playing on the screen or watching TV". He also goes on to state that societies 'cotton wool' culture means we lessen the opportunity for our youngsters to walk, crawl and explore. Worryingly, the children with physical development problems, more than three quarters (77 %) were also to be found to behind academically; and within an exam-based culture, it is warned that these children will struggle to catch up.

Obviously this debate has more sides than a 50p piece but here is our bit. Children's development in the early years no doubt has a huge impact on the rest on their life. At Bigjigs Toys we provide alternatives to which children can develop emotionally, physically in a fun and safe environment. All of our toys are designed to help stimulate, encourage creativity and imagination whilst developing physical attributes and motor skills. The proliferation of media outlets in recent years have meant that it is basically impossible not to come across one every day. Almost everyone has TV's, tablets, phones, laptops, consoles, MP3's etc, but who sits back and thinks about the potential damage these do to youngsters development? As the article stated nearly 77% percent who suffer from physical development problems, were also found to be behind academically - this is a terrifying statistic! At Bigjigs Toys were are continually developing products to 'rival' the so called technology boom, encouraging everyone to go back to basics with bringing our children up. Of course we are not suggesting that all media outlets should be banned, that would be impossible - how would I get my weekly fix of The Only Way is Essex....? but we should perhaps consider the damage before we switch the TV on next time. What are your thoughts of the article? Are we exposing our children to media outlets far too much? or not enough? We would love to hear from you regarding this subject.