Parents who boasted about their kids not having a Facebook account were forced to create one, as well as grant permissions to countless other apps. Screens that were once forbidden have become essential everyday tools, but concerns haven’t weakened. Should parents worry about the effects of screen time on their developing children? What does a child’s online engagement look like? We seek to answer these questions with the help of BOOKR Kids psychologist, Dominika Gyányi.

In today’s digital world it’s nearly impossible to avoid screen time, which makes it no surprise that for children growing up in the age of the internet, electronic devices are a part of life – not to mention the current period of online learning. Recent studies have shown, however, that the main question when it comes to screen time is not how much time is spent in front of a screen, it’s what is being consumed. Consumption of different types of content has a different effect on the nervous system.

We can group digital content that children interact with into four categories:

Entertainment and social media can have unwanted effects on not only the children but adults as well: entertainment media seems to dampen intellectual processing and verbal skills, while social media has proven to be associated with depression. Educational screen time on the other hand has been linked to doing better in school and has no negative health effects. 

It’s hard to say how long high schoolers will be stuck in their rooms, and when we can all go back to classroom learning. What will the return be like? Will certain schools and teachers carry on using methods adopted during the pandemic, or will everything go back to the way it was?

Answers should be based on what’s best for the students. Online learning has put an unprecedented amount of pressure on parents, teachers and students alike. Students are required to focus even harder at a time when a lack of routine and social interactions can lead to difficulty concentrating and a lack of motivation.

I sincerely hope online learning doesn’t stay with us for years, because the digital world can’t replace real-life physical interactions, which are such an important part of social classroom learning. At the same time, the digitalization of learning has given parents and teachers the opportunity to discover useful modern educational technology.

English language is not only an important visa into the globalized world of science, art, diplomacy and economy. It is also a bridge language, a so called “lingua franca”, a medium of communication between people whose native languages are different, or “multilingual” as we will call it in this article. Though we cannot really expect a 5-7 year old child to understand these reasons when we talk about the importance of learning English. Children between the ages 5-8 forego an enormous cognitive development from a life dominated by fantasies and intuitions to one that starts to be governed by logic and reason. From preoperational to operational period – using the terms of the great developmental psychologist Jean Piaget.

What we know nowadays from the complex system of learning motivation is that it is never exclusively intrinsic motivation (the pure joy of learning or carrying out assigned tasks) or totally extrinsic motivation (driven by an anticipated prize or by the fear of castigation), it is more of a mixture depending on the given tasks and circumstances.

A thumb rule might be, that if we perceive that our child has a genuine interest in learning something or enjoys the process itself – because feeling competent is in itself very rewarding –, we might ruin this intrinsic motivation with external, predictable rewards or competition. But if the intrinsic motivation is not strong with respect to a specific task, external motivation, like rewards, appraisal from the teacher or parent, or a healthy competition can give the kid’s motivation a much-needed boost.

Recent research in psychology, linguistics and psycholinguistics are investigating new forms of motivation regarding learning English as a second language. Professor Zoltán Dörnyei from Nottingham University focuses his model on the students’ ability to vision themselves as positive, competent and successful second language speakers.

Dörnyei states that a positive English speaker’s ideal-self and a close ought-to-self are motivating for learning. He also suggests that motivation can even be contagious in a group.

Family and the closer social environment of the child are the bases for developing confidence in their parents, in themselves and the world in general. In a loving, stable and predictable environment children develop the confidence to explore their interests and curiosity. They learn the most in an environment where learning and exploring new information is valued, or where there is genuine dedication to hobbies or jobs.

Attributing fixed personality traits or characteristics to children (“she is the lazy one”, “he is the scattered”, “you never do anything right”) at an early age often brings disadvantages in later learning motivation. According to Carol Dweck’s studies, a fixed mindset approach to learning can result in individuals giving up when learning becomes too challenging, while students with a growth mindset embrace opportunities that provide challenge and where failure is a normal part of the process.

Let’s see a somewhat simplified example! Let’s say my son is crazy about trains from a young age: by letting him play with trains, set up track systems and look at books about trains he is experiencing his autonomy.

By giving an example regarding the positive attitude towards English language, its use and learning in general, while creating a supportive environment, and a growth mindset, we are nurturing our kid’s self-confidence in learning.

Research confirms direct effects of healthy self-confidence regarding learning a foreign language: both listening/reading and speaking/writing fluency are linked to children’s self-confidence when using the language.

We were mesmerized. At the end of the tale, one of us could blow the candle out. Thanks to her, reading has become an instant comfort zone to me, easing my mind whenever I needed to distance myself from the everyday troubles and difficulties.

With 8 September being International Literacy Day (ILD for short), we would like to encourage you to reflect on your reading habits,  your favourite stories and to introduce new habits into your everyday life.

In 2021, ILD focuses on literacy teaching and learning in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, on the role of educators, and on changing pedagogies. As parents and teachers, we gained valuable experience during this overwhelming period, faced new challenges and experimented with new ways of improving our kids’ literacy.

These new ways of reading might be worth implementing, too.

So here are three tips for you to increase reading a habit:

The same goes for grammatical systems. According to researchers, a single network for both languages develops in the brains of bilingual children, and this network is used later to learn additional languages.

While if a monolingual child learns a new language later, he or she will form another brain network for each new language.

These research findings do not say that bilingual children are smarter than their monolingual peers, but rather that they can achieve the same linguistic development as monolingual children in a field made more difficult by bilingualism. As a result of adaptation, they can more easily accept new information and become more open and flexible in some respects.

In my experience, they don’t feel lost in a foreign language environment, not understanding something first is an everyday experience for them.