A new era in the development of humanity has begun and a different and thriving civilization is emerging. It is the age of the Internet, an online connection that has changed the entire economic, political, labor and social pre-established pattern and has prescribed the new form of human interaction. Despite the solid arguments against the uses of Internet, it is undoubtedly useful for kids as well as for adults on the new era. Internet helps them to stay connected with families and friends through out social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, among others as well as it is helping special needed kids to cope with their disabilities using Apps specially designed for them.
Furthermore, kids and teens do benefit from computers usage in their classrooms; enjoying programs that improve their curriculum; enhancing their motor skills and their cognitive functions; and preparing themselves to entering in the future competitive workforce. Internet skills at early stage of children life will help them to be smarter and prepared and should be part of the developmental milestones of the emergent human civilization. Unfortunately, Internet browsing is not immune from risks. The possible loss of privacy, the cyberbully and the exposure to inappropriate content are the most dangerous of all. Children and teenegers are more vulnerable because they are not trained to understand the dangers hidden behind the Internet. The absence of face-to-face interaction in communication through social networks, has raised harsh criticism of its use, alerting that the Internet generates contact but not socialization.
By other hand, the detractors of the Internet argue that students do not strive to make their projects and assignments since they only use a few minutes in their information searches and end up copying and pasting with just a click, which has considerably increasing plagiarism. In addition, the more convenient the Internet has become, the lower has been the physical activity that children and young people perform. The danger lies in the increasing tendency to addiction to the Internet and its fatal consequences on the physical and mental health of children and adolescents. Undoubtedly, Internet usage helps children and teens to stay in connection with their friends and families through social networks. First of all, it is indisputable the fact that with the advent of virtual social networks has led to the reunion between known people who, due to distance or lack of time, had stopped communicating. Internet has allowed kids and young people sharing in real time with family and friends on special occasions, erasing the geographical factor and converting the distance into a non-existent border. Facebook has more than 2000 million users per month, while Instagram with about 600 million and Twitter with about 317 million members connected monthly.
Forty-five percent of eight to eleven year old kids connect with friends using social networks. The photos and videos that are published are seen and commented by the contacts, and are the way to share a moment that they consider worthy of not perishing. It is an exponential communication, giant, active and in real time that ,otherwise, would not exist. Kids enjoy communicating with peers through private messages, and posting comments, and their own status updates. They feel comfortable on social network communication. When look at teen, 73% of them are on a social network. The average teen has 201 Facebook friends, 37% send messages to friends every day and more than 18% use Tweeter. What they do on social network? 86% of social network-using teens comment on a friend’s wall; 83% comment on friends’ pictures; 66% send private messages to friends; 58% send IM or text messages using the site; 52% send group messages.
It is there a good parental control? 67% of teenagers say they know how to hide what they do online from parents; 43% of teens say they would change their online behavior if they knew that their parents were watching them; 39% think their online activity is private from everyone, including parents; 20% of kids think their parents have no idea what they re doing online; 18% have created a private email address or separate social networking profile; 10% have unlocked parental controls to disable filtering. (Taylor Thomas, 2017). Looking at these statistics, we can easily understand that social network activities are widely accepted for kids and teens and have became essential part of their social lives, even with their parent disapproval but many times with a great social impact.
The best example is #Neveragain, youth movement created after the mass shooting at the Marjory Stoman Douglas school in Parkland, Florida to raise their voices demanding greater and better gun control, massively spreading their struggles, not only to rest of the country, but to the whole world through social networks. Proactive parenting can help to find the good on social networks. Internet social sites help kids to stay connected with friends and family; volunteer or get involved with a campaign, social movement, or charity; enhance their creativity through the sharing of ideas; and meet and interact with others who share similar interests. Furthermore, Internet is helping special needed kids to cope with their disabilities using Apps specially designed for them. Mobile devices enable children with developmental delays and other special needs to acquire life skills, engage in self-directed play, and facilitate interaction with their caregivers.
Julia Rosenberg, a mom of two special needed kids wrote a complete list of most useful mobile Apps, including Assistive Communications apps like ProloQuo2Go, and Talk Tablet; Visual Schedules Apps like Visual Routine; Social Cues Apps like Social Skill Builder and Hidden Curriculum for Kids; Language Apps like Speech with Milo, and Splingo”s Language Universe; Literacy Applications like Bob Books Reading Magic; Early Learning Apps like Injini: Child Developmental Game Suite and Bugs and Bottoms; Fine Motors App like Dexteria; among many others. Applications designed to help kids and teens with disabilities are improving therapies in many fields and help parents to be enrolled with their own kids needed therapy. Strengthening skills through play is a proven strategy to help kids learn. For kids with special needs, video games can offer opportunities to practice everything from communication skills to organization, even social interactions, in a comfortable environment where players set the pace. While games designed specifically for kids with special needs can address certain issues, many mainstream titles can support kid’s learning.
Mainstream games can boost a sense of independence and confidence in kids with special needs, provide the ability to ask for help, and let them challenge themselves. As a mother of a kid with speech impairment, I know as first hand how helpful have been Apps designed not only for therapy but for improves communication when need it. My child was able to communicate with others and me all his needs, feelings and emotions using iPad Apps when he could not do so with his verbal natural skill. Digital tools, if chosen carefully, can be very effective in bridging developmental and achievement gaps. Some general-purpose apps or apps for young learners can work wonders for special-needs students. The key is to look for the strengths that balance the challenges of every child. Kids and teens do benefit from computers usage in their classrooms; enjoying programs that enhances their curriculum; improving their motor skills, and their cognitive functions; and preparing themselves to entering in the future competitive workforce.
The most recent Pew Internet Project survey finds that 87% of all youth between the ages of 12 and 17 use the Internet. That translates into about 21 million people. Of those 21 million online teens, 78% (or about 16 million students) say they use the Internet at school. Put another way, this means that 68% of all teenagers have used the Internet at school. Eighty-six percent of teens, and 88% of online teens, believe that the Internet helps teenagers to do better in school. Eighty percent of parents and 83% of parents of online teens agreed with that proposition. Students are always curious and creative by nature. They are smart enough to know how they can use the Internet to search for almost anything. The vast majority of teens and their parents believe that use of the Internet helps students in the classroom and in their studies, it do not matter if they are studying at a private school or public school. My kids are using school app to do their homework as part as their curriculum.
They access with personal accounts and personalization activities to apps like Prodigy, Ten Marks, Achieve3000, Smarty Ants among others to learn and enjoy while learning. School’s curriculum are based and supported with Internet resources in other to interact school-home in the kids learning process and consolidation. The importance of the Internet as a learning tool is significant. The development of Internet technologies has raised the education level in all countries and it has changed the way students are being taught at schools. That’s why it is very important for the present generation that they provide Internet education for their young generations. Nowadays children are able to understand and interact naturally with technology as if it were part of their genetic background. We continue to evaluate the psychomotor development starting from the pre-established bases for the generation of their parents and grandparents without fully understanding that they are part of a civilizatory change where their genes are also being digitized.
Digitalisation is part of the new generation of children and young people, such as making the digital clamp or learning to hold the pencil in writing position. The day that society fully understands the digital revolution it faces and that the Internet is part of the psychomotor development skills of the new individual, may come to know intrinsically the new generation, including the autistic and the misfits. That day, maybe the different ones will be us.
