It is inevitable in today’s generation for a child to grow up without at least a couple of gadgets vying for his attention. The television, the computer, the smartphone, the tablet, and the video game screens are common in most homes today. It is difficult for the homeschool parent to avoid these gadgets completely when they interact with their children.
This leads to the children becoming familiar with technology and screens from a very young age. Scientists have been studying the effect of these multiple electronic screens on the minds of both adults and children for some time now. The studies mostly come up with the fact that too much time on gadgets will not be helpful to the individual, in fact it may be harmful.
The eyes get strained and may even burst a couple of blood vessels if the homeschool student does not restrict the on screen time. The tears may dry up and cause dry eye syndrome. The hands and fingers can develop problems such as carpel tunnel syndrome. The back and spine may also be affected if the posture of the child is not ergonomically correct. Not to mention the physical aches and pains that get added because of long hours on sitting in the same position.
All these health issues pale before the findings about how the screen time affects the brain. Sections of MRI scans of the brain of people using screen gadgets for too long look very similar to those of drug addicts who are on a high from their choice of addiction. Quite literally the gadgets can become an addiction that your homeschool students may not recover from.
The only way to avoid all these issues is to make sure that you are responsible as a homeschool teacher and restrict the access of your homeschool students to gadgets. This does not mean that they never go online, or watch television, or play video games, but they need to do so in a controlled environment and for a limited time period. This way they get the benefits from the gadgets they are using, but none of the side effects on the health.
