Ipad Generation: Use of Smartphones and Tablets to Pacify Children During Tantrums May Affect Parent-Child Relationship

In today's generation, gadgets are used to calm children who are having temper tantrums. In a recent study, it was discovered that parents usually hand their child a smartphone or a tablet when they start to become rowdy to help them calm down. According to a team of pediatricians from the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital at the University of Michigan, some just use this as a coping mechanism.

Those children who live in low-income houses are usually given mobile gadgets to help them calm down and maintain the peaceful ambiance of the house. According to Eurekalert, the team of researchers led by Dr. Jenny Radesky, a child behavior expert and assistant professor in pediatrics at U-M's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, said that they wanted to explore further about the different tools parents use to pacify a child. Before it was television and videos, so now that technology is evolving, they wanted to know if smartphones and tablets have the same effect on children.

According to medicaldaily.com, the study called up 144 toddlers between the ages 15 and 36 months old who are members of a low-income family. They interviewed parents as well as the children to find out how often children are allowed to use a smartphone or a tablet and under what circumstances does it usually happen. The results showed that parents allow their children to use these mobile gadgets when they are about to throw a fit, or start to show difficult behavior.

"We need to further study whether this relationship between digital technology and social-emotional development difficulties applies to a more general population of parents as well, and what effect it might have on kids' longer-term outcomes," added Radesky, who conducted the study while at Boston Medical Center, US News reported. Past studies revealed that television time can interfere with young children's language and social development because of the reduced human interaction.