Childhood Milestones and the Right Time to Reach them

The area of psychology that the article, “9 Childhood Milestones and the Right Time to Reach Them” by Nancy Rones deals with is the growing stages of a young child. As learned throughout Psychology 1010, there are many different steps that a child must fulfill to be able to fully develop. As learned in Psychology 1010, Jean Piaget, was a brilliant psychologist that developed four main stages of intellectual/cognitive development. In his third stage, the concrete operational stage, he describes this stage to be for 7 to 12 year olds. In this stage Piaget states this is the time for the development of organized and rational thinking to occur. Also in this stage, children begin to think logically and operationally. If the stage is fulfilled correctly, children can apply logic to physical objects, numbers, and understand the volume of objects, but not an overall meaning. Therefore, children have the ability to solve problems in a logical manner, but they cannot think abstractly or in hypothetical situations.

There are many exciting, important, and interesting aspects about the “9 Childhood Milestones and the Right Time to Reach Them” article that lead to the publication in the popular press. It is interesting because it looks at many factors that a child displays growing up. For example, it explains how children nowadays should be more comfortable with a phone at a much younger age than they used to be. The article states that a child should be able to talk on the phone when they are finally able carry a solid conversation. This age (as the article notes) is from about age 5 to age 6. In my eyes that seems fairly young for a child to be using technology. Although, the article was published for parents to be notified that knowing how to talk on a phone is very important in the modern world. Which makes sense, because in the modern world technology is so heavily used, so everyone needs to know how to generally use it. If a child is stuck at school and they do not know their parents phone number or how to use a phone, they could be left in a scary and uncomfortable situation. In the “Parents” magazine article, Sally Tannen, the director of the 92nd Street Y Goldman Center for Youth and Family, in New York City, states “Kids need to learn phone etiquette and to feel comfortable talking to grown-ups” (Rones, 2018). Therefore, by learning how to talk on the phone, also teaches young children how to properly speak to older individuals which is important for their full development.

The science of Psychology has to say that the topic of children and technology is highly important for a child’s development as a child. In the childhood study titled, “Children, wired – for better and for worse” by Daphne Bavelier, Shawn Green, and Matthew W. G. Dye, they looked at children and how their use of technology affected their everyday life. The study looked at many viewpoints, although, it seems to note technology overall as something that needs to be regulated more intensely than it is now. The “Parents” magazine article seems to promote children and technology much more than this study does. In the study it explains how technology use affects someone’s mood and long-term changes in their overall behavior. The study explains how “The Mozart Effect” is linked to a temporary increase in arousal, mood, and even IQ scores after a Mozart piece is played. Leading to them finding that that any temporary effect of technology is not very influential to a child’s long term development. As stated in the article, “Yet, as the Mozart Effect illustrates, any temporary effect of technology use, albeit important, is unlikely to be specific to technology per se” (Bavelier et al., 2010). Therefore, some minor, non excessive use of technology to benefit a child’s learning would not be the worst.

There are numerous types of media for children to watch with all different content that can lead to various behavioral effects. There are childhood television shows that help improve vocabulary and expressive language skill. In this case, technology is used to further positively develop a child’s cognitive abilities. Also, mindless technological activities like video games have shown to improve many basic attentional, motor, and visual skills. Overall, technology for a child’s growing and learning abilities has many more positive outcomes than many realize as shown in the “parents” article and the childhood study.

The study looked at the longitudinal variety of a group of children that they followed for several months. They looked at how their aggressive behavior changed when they watched a television show that was more on the violent side. When looking at violent television, it was difficult for them to pinpoint if it was the violent show, or other environmental factors that the child lived with. For example, if the child watched more violent television because they lived in lower income homes that would result in the child having lower cognitive abilities. This could have been due to the violent technology or the low education the child received. Therefore, in this case it is hard to tell if technology is bad for children, or if other factors other than technology overrule the technology factor for a child’s development. There was another study done with 800 infants that showed the higher the daily television watching the lower their language skills were. Although when the study looked at all the other factors that the infants were apart of, no one could verify that technology was the reason for their lower language abilities.

Based on the “Children, wired – for better and for worse” by Daphne Bavelier, Shawn Green, and Matthew W. G. Dye study, I feel that the conclusions/premise of the article was mostly valid. I believe that the “9 Childhood Milestones and the Right Time to Reach Them” by Nancy Rones article was mostly valid because it showed how the use of technology in children is important for them to understand the modern world. It also talked about how going to a sleepover teaches kids to grow up, just like being able to use technology and talk on the telephone. When a child asks to go out of the hose for the night, it shows that they are ready to grow up. There should be some limitations to make sure they are ready to go away for the night, but it helps them grow up to better conform to the modern world. The article also explains how giving children an allowance helps the child learn the fundamentals of how money works and how it is used in the everyday world. It teaches children to understand the basics of money, which should be learned around the age of 6 or 7 according to Janet Bodnar, who is the author of Raising Money Smart Kids. It also teaches them the importance and value of money, and to not take it for granted. It teaches children how to learn how to make small decisions dealing with money that they can use later on in life. For example, it teaches them to save or spend your money based on the circumstances.

When using technology it helps children see what reality is like at such a young age. Some may say that is not a positive thing. Some may think that children need to stay innocent and live their fun life until they have to be responsible for themselves. Although, I believe that the younger the better for a child to learn about reality and how the real world is really like the better. The use of technology (ability to use a phone, watching television, and/or playing video games), going on a sleepover, and getting an allowance all teach children how to be responsible and take care of themselves. Especially nowadays, you never know when a child will be left alone in an unfortunate situation, so for them to have knowledge on everyday tasks is nothing but beneficial.

Furthermore, I believe that the “Parents” magazine article helps bring positive ideas to parents minds. It is great that a magazine like “Parents” put an article like this in because many parents read and trust this magazine. With one of the nine milestones being technology related, I feel that technology is growing in children’s lives everyday, and it is important that they are kept up on the modern era. Technology benefits so many older individuals, so there is no reason it should not benefit the younger individuals as well. I do believe that technology should have its limits, such as not bringing cell phones to school. Although, while at home the parent/guardian has the ability to supervise their children, so the child can explore the real modern world that they are living in. Also, children can access online videos, and educational tools with technology to further enhance their learning abilities. Overall, having some entertainment on an electronic device is not the worst aspect that a child could be participating in. Overall, both the “Parents” article and the study done by Bavelier, et al show that all children grow up eventually and when to start implementing the modern world into their child’s life is ultimately the parent’s decision. In my opinion I believe that to further enhance a child’s cognitive and emotional learning abilities, the use of technology should be positively promoted in their life.

Works Cited

Bavelier, Green, and Dye. “Children, Wired – for Better and for Worse.” National Center for Biotechnology Information, US National Library of Medicine: National Institutes of Health , 9 Sept. 2010, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3170902/.

Rones, Nancy. “9 Childhood Milestones and the Right Time to Reach Them.” Parents, Parents, 2018, www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/advice/the-right-time-for-each-milestone/. 

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