EVERYONE knows that babies crawl before they walk, and that tricycles come before two-wheelers. But at what age should children get their first cellphone, laptop or virtual persona?
Hadi Farahani
These are new questions being faced by 21st-century parents, and there is no wisdom from the generations for guidance. You can’t exactly say to your teenager, “When I was a boy, I didn’t have an unlimited texting plan until I was in high school.”
Some parents eagerly provide their children with technology. “My 4-year-old has been on the Web since he could sit up,” said Samantha Morra, a mother of two from Montclair, N.J. “My 6-year-old has an iPod and wants a cellphone, although my husband and I aren’t sure who he’d call.”
Others, like Christine Jorgensen, a mother of three from Flemington, N.J., are more cautious. “I’m not a huge fan of flooding my children’s lives with the latest gadget,” Ms. Jorgensen said. “My children go online for schoolwork, but our computer is in my sight, and protected to the teeth.”
What’s the right approach? Studies of child development offer some middle ground. Long before the invention of the first microprocessor, the Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget identified four stages of cognitive development by watching his own children. His theories bring some logic to the debate about how to support your child’s growth with the latest technology.
AGES 0-2 Babies and toddlers cannot use a mouse until at least age 2 ½, and flat monitors do not offer much in the way of stimulation in Piaget’s first stage, “sensorimotor.” To work at this age, technology products must act like a busy-box, with lights or sounds that respond to a child’s actions. Toys like the Laugh and Learn 2-in-1 Learning Kitchen ($71, http://www.fisher-price.com/), which has doors and switches for a baby to explore and a crawl-through doorway, fit well with this stage.
But even these activities should take a back seat to real experiences. It makes sense to stick to materials that squish in a child’s hand. Invest instead in a camcorder to catch those first steps.
AGES 3-5 “Preschoolers today are growing up in a digital world, and they see their parents using devices like cellphones and computers,” said Prof. Sandra Calvert, director of the Children’s Digital Media Center at Georgetown University. “They like to play with pretend cellphones as if it were the real thing.” This pretend-play is actually an important part of the Piaget “preoperational” stage, when children first understand that they can control the events on a flat screen.
This is an age when they can take real pictures with cameras like the V.Tech KidiZoom ($60, http://www.vtechkids.com/), and can explore interactive versions of their favorite shows on PBS Kids (http://www.pbskids.org/) or Nickelodeon’s Noggin (http://www.noggin.com/). For $10 a month, the subscription version of Noggin removes the ads, and the activities adjust to a child’s level.
A TV can be made interactive with the growing number of TV toys like ClickStart: My First Computer (http://www.leapfrog.com/, $60), or video game consoles running games like Go, Diego, Go! Safari Rescue ($40, http://www.take2games.com/, for Wii and PlayStation).
Portable game systems that can make it easier to wedge a wriggling preschooler into a car seat include a Leapster (http://www.leapfrog.com/, $60) or Nintendo DS, running software like Scholastic’s Animal Genius ($30, http://www.animalgeniusds.com/).
All of these are well suited to this stage of development.
AGES 6-11 At the age a child can ride a bicycle comes the ability to search the Web, and the whole digital world starts to open up. Suddenly they are hooked on favorite video games and watching funny videos on YouTube. But Piaget labeled this stage “concrete operations” because children still have trouble with abstract ideas. Professor Calvert reminds parents that electronic devices should be used to “supplement rather than replace real experiences,” and encourages them to “make sure there’s an overall sense of balance” in activities during this stage of life.
This is a time when parents need to keep an eye on the screen and steer children toward good sites, like Club Penguin (http://www.clubpenguin.com/), which introduces the notion of chatting and the online stand-ins known as avatars. It also teaches them that there is no free lunch online, and that paying members ($6 a month) can have a fancier igloo.
While video game consoles like the Wii and PlayStation have fewer gimmicks, they have been known to eat up large chunks of a childhood if used unmonitored in dark basements. Fortunately the number of games with redeeming qualities is growing. The just-released Pokémon Mystery Dungeon for the Nintendo DS can exercise reading skills, and Wii Fit has recently captured the curiosity of phys ed teachers. Wild Earth: African Safari (http://www.majescoentertainment.com/) can turn a child into a wildlife photographer, and Boom Blox ($50, http://www.ea.com/ for Wii) and Lego Indiana Jones ($50, http://www.lucasarts.com/ for multiple platforms) are thick with collaborative problem-solving opportunities.
By age 10, many children can start editing videos and programming with software like M.I.T.’s Scratch (http://www.scratch.mit.edu/), a free download for Macintosh or Windows. Scratch lets children drag and drop routines that take the form of jigsaw puzzle pieces.
AGES 12 AND UP Besides being much harder to wake up, middle- and high-schoolers are reaching the cognitive functioning of an adult. They have entered Piaget’s “formal operational” stage, able to juggle synchronous streams of information from phones, MP3 players and laptops. Communicating with friends is on par with breathing, to the delight of your wireless provider.
In fact, cellphones are now more or less mandatory for children at this age. Besides providing a social advantage, phones can reduce parental stress in a crowded mall, get children in touch for homework help, serve as a call to dinner — and be withheld as punishment that really works.
Parenting skills for this age include reading phone bills. Lori McCoughey of Mahwah, N.J., a mother of two, saved $200 a month by switching to Verizon’s friends and family plan. There are also pay-as-you-go plans like those from Tracfone (http://www.tracfone.com/). For $50, you get a working LG 225 camera phone, preloaded with 100 minutes. A meter counts down the remaining time.
Giving collegebound children their next digital prize, a laptop, while they are still in high school gives them time to set up their MP3 players, learn how to find Wi-Fi zones and write papers before they are on their own. They can also create portfolios on Google Page Creator (http://www.pages.google.com/) to show off their accomplishments to college admissions offices or future employers.
If he were alive today, Piaget would probably advise parents that for a young child, everything — whether it has batteries or not — is a discovery waiting to happen. But toys work best when they are matched to a child’s level of development.
译文:
年纪轻轻，全副武装
小孩子要学会走路，先要学会爬。要骑两轮自行车，先要骑三轮车，这谁都知道。但现在的孩子几岁开始用手机和笔记本，几岁开始拥有虚拟身份才合适呢？
这是21世纪的家长们面临的新课题，在这个问题上我们无法向上一代取经。你不可能对年少的孩子说：“我小的时候，一直到高中我才有机会大发短信。”
一些家长迫切地给孩子们提供高科技产品。住在新泽西州蒙特克莱尔的Samantha Morra是两个孩子的母亲，“我6岁的孩子已经有一个ipod了，现在他想要一台手机，虽然我和我丈夫还不知道他究竟要给谁打电话。”
其他家长，如来自新泽西州弗雷明顿，拥有三个孩子的Chrisine Jorgensen对此持谨慎态度。Jorgensen太太说：“我可不喜欢让我的孩子生活在充斥中最新科技产品的环境中，他们可以为了功课的需要上上网，但不能在我不在的时候使用，而且作为家长我们要实施严格的监护。”
到底怎样做才是对的？针对儿童成长的一系列研究为我们提供了一些折中的做法。早在第一代微软处理器发明之前，瑞士心理学家Jean Piaget通过观察自己的孩子，明确了人类认知能力发展的4个阶段。他的理论给围绕怎样利用最新科技帮助孩子成长展开的讨论提供了逻辑基础。
0-2岁的宝宝和刚开始学走路的孩子在2岁半前是不能使用鼠标的，而且平面显示器也无法提供Piaget理论中第一阶段所需的认知刺激——“运动感觉”。孩子这么小的时候，技术产品必须像个一刻不停的小箱子，总是射出灯光发出声响，以此来回应孩子的动作。像“边笑边学二合一学习厨房这样的玩具（http://www.fisher-price.com/71美元，它配有门和各式按钮，帮助宝宝探索。还有可以让宝宝爬过的门框，对这个年龄阶段的孩子相当有帮助。
但这些活动可比不上实际生活中的经验。坚持使用孩子捏在手里会发出叫声的材料是合理的。而是应该花钱买一个便携式摄像机记录下孩子学步的样子。
3-5岁阶段 乔治镇大学儿童数码媒体中心主管，Sandra Calvert教授说：“现在的学龄前儿童是在数码世界中长大的，他们看着自己的父母使用手机电脑之类的产品。他们喜欢玩具手机，总是装作自己真的在打手机似的。”事实上这种模仿游戏在Piaget的“前运演”阶段起很重要作用，在这个阶段，孩子们开始意识到自己能够控制平面屏幕上出现的东西。
这么大的孩子可以用如V.Tech KidiZoom（http://www.vtechkids.com/60美元）这类张像机拍真实的照片，还可以自己参与研究PBS儿童台最喜欢的互动节目(http://www.pbskids.org/) 或Nickelodeon’s Noggin(http://www.noggin.com/)。每月花10美元，Noggin就为订购者提供无广告版本，以及适合儿童年龄层次的节目。
随着ClickStart之类的游戏越来越多，电视游戏变得具有互动性：“我的第一台电脑” (http://www.leapfrog.com/, $60),或操作如“野兽大救援”($40, http://www.take2games.com/, for Wii and PlayStation)之类的电子游戏。
便携式游戏设备帮助家长更轻松地让一刻都闲不下来的学龄前儿童乖乖地坐在车里，这类游戏包括“跳蛙”(http://www.leapfrog.com/, $60) 或 Nintendo DS ，以及运行软件“动物小博士”($30, http://www.animalgeniusds.com/)。
这些游戏都有利于这个阶段儿童的成长。
6-11岁，还是可以学自行车的时候就有能力上网了，也可以开始探索整个数码世界。忽然之间，他们开始沉迷于自己喜欢的电子游戏，在YouTube上观看有趣的视频。但Piaget把这个阶段称为“具体运算阶段”，因为孩子们还不能完全掌握抽象概念。Calvert教授提醒家长，电子设备应该被用来“补充现实生活经验，而不是代替现实生活经验”他还鼓励家长在孩子成长各个阶段的活动中要“确保孩子全面发展”。
孩子到了这个年龄，家长有必要留意着电脑屏幕，引导孩子登陆有益的网站，譬如“企鹅俱乐部”(http://www.clubpenguin.com/)，这个网站向孩子们介绍网络聊天和人们称为虚拟任务的网络替身的概念。它还教导孩子天下没有免费的午餐，只要支付会员费（6美元）就可以得到一个比别人漂亮的圆顶小屋。
像Wii和PlayStation这样的电子游戏系统花样就少了，大家都知道孩子们会把大量的童年时光用于躲在黑暗的地下里玩这些游戏的。幸运的是，已经设计出了一些能够弥补这些缺陷的游戏。Nintendo DS新上市的“青之救助队”可以帮助孩子练习阅读能力，而且Wii Fit最近也吸引了一些心理学家及教育专家的好奇心。“狂野非洲”(http://www.majescoentertainment.com/)可以把孩子培养成一名野生动物摄影师，“轰炸方块”（$50, http://www.ea.com/ Wii游戏）和“乐高印第安纳琼斯”($50, http://www.lucasarts.com/ 适合多种游戏机)中设计了许多机会方便锻炼孩子合作解决问题的能力。
到了10岁，许多孩子开始用M.I.T.’s Scratch这类软件对视频进行编辑及编程，这个软件可免费下载，适用于Macintosh或Windows系统。Scratch把例行程序变成拼图的形式，让孩子们可以自由拖放摆置程序。
12岁及以上儿童。中高中学生除了早上爱赖床，他们还到了具备成年人认知能力的年龄，进入了Piaget称为“正式运算”的阶段，可以随意摆弄电话，Mp3播放器以及笔记本电脑中的信息流。让无线设备供应商开心的是，通过这些设备和朋友交流变得和呼吸一样重要。
对这个年龄的孩子来说，拥有手机可以说是自起码的了。手机除了能方便社交，还可以让家长在拥挤的商场中不再那么有压力，方便孩子们在功课上互相帮助，还可以打电话叫孩子吃饭。孩子犯错误的时候，没收手机就是有效的惩罚。
到了这阶段，家长要懂得读电话账单。居住在新泽西州Mahwah市的Lori McCoughey是两个孩子的母亲，自从她开始采用Verizon的朋友及家庭规划方案，没有省下了200美元话费。像Tracfone(http://www.tracfone.com/)这样的网站还提供“量入为出”的付款方式。只要50美元，你就可以得到一个LG 225照相收集，预充100分钟通话时间。还有显示剩余时间。
孩子快要上大学的时候给他下一个数码礼物吧，一台笔记本。当他们还是高中生，给他们时间在独立之前设置自己的MP3播放器，让他们学会如何找到Wi-Fi无线上网区，如何写论文。他们还可以再Google网页制作器(http://www.pages.google.com/)上创建文件夹，向大学招生办公室和未来的雇主展示自己的成就。
Piaget要是现在活着，他大概会建议家长不要过早给孩子一切，不管这个东西是否用电池，应该让孩子自己去探索。但给孩子适合其年龄阶段的玩具才是最有效果的。