Children swiping books to turn the page

[wondering7777]

I just watched a news report on Channel 4 where a primary school teacher was saying she’s come across children who use a swipe motion (as you would with an iPhone/tablet) to try to turn pages in a book.

It was part of a wider report saying that there’s been an increase in children who aren’t ready for school on their first day - they’re still using bottles and dummies and wearing nappies.

AIBU to be shocked and saddened by this, particularly the book thing?

Also should 4 year olds even really have tablets? I think it's too young 🤔

I think it's a problem of nurseries and parents not providing adequate continuous education.
I was blasted for saying they are better off being prepared for school by a sahp consistently, rather than a bit of care here and there.

Our kids used to watch movies on long car journeys or read books or sleep and let their sleep pattern go out for a bit. Think screens for little ones is a bad idea.

I don’t really see the difference between watching movies in the car and sceeens? Isn’t it the same thing? Ime young children are only “watching tv” on tablets anyway, peppa pig etc. They don’t really get games until 4 or so. It’s not like they’re on Instagram

Not shocking. I work in a school and some of the nursery kids cant hold on to a crayon. Hand writing in KS1 is appalling in some.

My child is at school and still uses bottle, dummy and nappies.

All three are at bedtime only now, we reduced to that slowly in the months before school started.

but I’d really like to bring my child up with minimal screen time before they start school if I can.

And that's great for you . You have that choice and that right. Just because it will (possibly) work for you and it's what you want , it doesn't mean it should apply to all kids, or that the parents who make different choices are wrong or less than a parent than you.

I will never believe that the minimal fine motor skills you can get from swiping, pinching or tapping a screen will be better than the physical benefits of climbing, hanging, building, threading, rolling, using tweezers, cutting with scissors etc. Young children need to develop gross and fine motor skills, upper arm strength and strong pincer grip before they can develop the strength to write.

Why does it have to be one or the other? Many kids can do and actually do both.

t seems like I'm going against the grain here but I just can't see the need for tablets for under 4s.

I think at that age most, if not all their learning needs can be met in play. The three most important factors at that age are communication, social development and physical development. These skills are inherently important before you start to learn at primary school aged 4 onwards.

My twins are autistic and are 3. One won’t play with toys at all and the other only wants to sort and match and gets bored of colour sorting the same lot of bricks, cards etc over and over.

When they were 2 I got an app on my iPad for colour sorting and he quickly got the hang of it. Now he has all sorts of maths games, word games (sorting letters into words, words into sentences etc). He’s extremely bright and learning a lot from it - he recognises numbers and letters and can sort them into the right order, but he doesn’t understand any spoken words and can’t speak.

His twin brother won’t draw with a crayon or pencil, he’d just eat it. But he loves drawing on an app on the iPad. He’s just demonstrated to me that he can sort by colour too, again on the iPad - he’d never do it with toys, but it shows he understands.

iPads have been a huge help to us.

I do it because of my kindle. I’ve tapped newspapers, magazines, books, paperwork you name it!!

It doesn’t make me sad for kids, things are just changing

You can read quality literature on a kindle but you have to be a bit of dummy to think you can swipe or pinch a paper book to zoom in

@Caucho it's force of habit rather than intelligence or lack thereof.
I read a lot,mostly on the kindle app, the first time I had an actual book in more than a year I caught myself trying to swipe once or twice. Brain engaged in the story and on autopilot.

20 years ago my sis was working as a teaching assistant in a Reception class. She said some kids didn't know which way up to hold a book. This was a fancy middle class area. Same thing.

Cherry coke - my kids never tried to swipe the dvd player in the car. They didnt have a tablet each to play on. There is a difference.

There's a funny video on YouTube where a medieval monk is trying to explain a book to another monk who is only used to scrolls. The screen /book issue is a bit like that.

Yeah books are just as addictive as screens - all those threads on mumsnet about kids who just wont stop reading and if you take the book away from them they get aggressive

The book thing isn't new. There was a video that did the rounds a few years ago of a Japanese toddler trying to swipe the pages of a magazine.

I thought it was horrendous then and still do now. But then I don't own an iPad and have no plans to.

I didn’t realise it was the action of swiping that was so terrible- I thought you were referring to the content of the ipads! What’s so bad about swiping?

vulpine I was completely addicted to books. I used to stay in my room alone reading all summer holiday and would get annoyed with anyone who interrupted me. I also used to lie about being Ill to get out of school and other activities so I could stay at home and read 🤣😭

If they are reading books on their tablets, that should actually be a good thing.

Has anybody ever done the opposite - tried to turn the corner of an iPad as if it were a book and accidentally thrown it at the floor?

@Passthecherrycoke same here. I used to get in massive arguments with my mother because she wanted me to go outside or do homework or be a real child or whatever . I wanted to stay in. She'd be all "oh look at x playing ,she did all her homework and now she's outside. You could be too."

Except I didn't want to be, I wanted to be left alone to read my bloody book!!

In my dd’s reception class there were two children still in nappies - my daughter was one and her friend the other. Dd has autism and the little boy has Down’s syndrome. Dd was 5 and a half before she was toilet trained (still in nappies now at nighttime that we have to order as shop ones no longer fit) and her little friend is still in nappies day and night, they’re both in year one now. I don’t know of any children still in nappies of an age that they should really be trained by that do not have any special needs. Neither do I know of any children who have dummies at an older age but I wouldn’t judge if I did, I don’t know the reason and it’s frankly none of my business anyway, I doubt they’ll be 14 and still have a dummy.

I find the book thing a bit sad but only because I love the feel and smell of an old book and getting really into the story, it’s just modern times. We still have plenty of books in our house that our two read/look at but they know their way around an iPad too. The iPad helped my dd talk, she was non-verbal for a long time, it started with echolalia and now she can have basic conversations. It’s been brilliant for her.

So many luddites. So so many

I don't own a tablet myself and so never bought DS one (he's 6). I hate reading on an e reader, I like paper books so we only use those at home. I'm not hugely into gadgets anyway to be honest, I own a TV, laptop and a mobile and that's the only tech we have in the house.

DS loves watching youtube and plays games on my phone though.

I was a huge reader as a child, very imaginative and one of my primary teachers insinuated that there was something wrong with me as I always had my "head in the clouds!" Can't win.

I really don't think there's any need for children to have dummies, bottles and nappies at school age though (UNLESS they have additional needs). I took bottles away at age one and dummies away cold turkey when DS was 2 (only a couple of days of fuss, perseverance won out on my part) and potty trained him at 2 and a half. Yes it is hard work but I don't think it's doing children any favours by letting them get to school age still using those things.

Channel 4 surveyed 100 primary school teachers who said that it is a rising issue.

Not statistically significant nor a robust methodology.