Letter to the Editor — A concern for our next generation

CONCORD, CA (Feb. 28, 2024) — My name is Skye and I am a 24 year old college student attending Diablo Valley College. I am writing this letter to you in order to address an area of utmost concern that I have. I have worked in the childcare industry for over 7 years. And now, more than ever kids are being exposed to electronics at a very young age.

Most parents in this day and age would rather stick their child with and iPad or other forms of these devices to deal with their behavior, as opposed to actually dealing with and addressing these behaviors themselves. Over the years, I have seen behaviors in children change very drastically.

Unfortunately, these devices are very detrimental to their developmental process. Children are not able to develop their gross, fine, and dual motor skills through these electronic devices. Social and emotional skills that children usually develop during preschool age are also things that children are not able to acquire from these devices.

Due to the increase of children using these devices over the years, the National Institute of Health states that the likelihood of children becoming obese, experiencing behavioral problems, sleep irregularities and even poor academic performance has increased.

In order for children to acquire an appropriate developmental process, I believe that these electronic devices need to be limited or even eliminated from them completely.

Sincerely,
Skylar Maltbie
Concord, CA

Works cited: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10353947/

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