{"id":121,"date":"2007-11-29T08:31:00","date_gmt":"2007-11-29T08:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/feilerfaster\/2007\/11\/tech-for-tots.html"},"modified":"2007-11-29T08:31:00","modified_gmt":"2007-11-29T08:31:00","slug":"tech-for-tots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/11\/tech-for-tots.html","title":{"rendered":"Tech for Tots"},"content":{"rendered":"

From my experience, this article<\/a> about tech for tots is dead-on. The Times says the hot toy items this year feature a screen and allow preschoolers to emulate their parents. Forget the toy phones, we want REAL phones Mom and Dad. But with screens now overshadowing
\nwheels and dress clothes on toys, sounds like we have to start monitoring toy-time as well as tv time. Call me fuddy (my mother-in-law does!), but I certainly think so.<\/p>\n

“The bigger toy companies don\u2019t even call it the toy business anymore,\u201d Mr. [Jim} Silver of Toy Wishes said. \u201cThey\u2019re in the family entertainment business and the leisure business. What they\u2019re saying is, \u2018We\u2019re vying for kids\u2019 leisure time.\u2019 \u201d
\nTechnology has been slowly permeating the toy business for a number of years, but the trend has been accelerating. On Wednesday, six of the nine best-selling toys for 5- to 7-year-olds on Amazon.com were tech gadgets. For all of 2006, three of the top nine toys for that age group were tech-related.
\nThe trend concerns pediatricians and educators, who say excessive screen time stifles the imagination. But more traditional toys \u2014 ones without computer monitors, U.S.B. cables and memory cards \u2014 are seen by many children as obsolete…
\nWiring toys for a young audience is worrying some children\u2019s advocates and pediatricians. The American Academy of Pediatrics advises against screen time for children ages 2 and younger, and it recommends no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming on televisions or computers for older children.
\nDonald L. Shifrin, a pediatrician based in Seattle and the spokesman for the academy, said tech toys cannot replace imaginative play, where children create rich narratives and interact with peers or parents.
\n\u201cAre we creating media use as a default for play?\u201d Dr. Shifrin asked. \u201cWhen kids want to play, will they ask, \u2018Where\u2019s the screen?\u2019 \u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From my experience, this article about tech for tots is dead-on. The Times says the hot toy items this year feature a screen and allow preschoolers to emulate their parents. Forget the toy phones, we want REAL phones Mom and Dad. But with screens now overshadowing wheels and dress clothes on toys, sounds like we…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":352,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family"],"yoast_head":"\nTech for Tots - Feiler Faster<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/feilerfaster\/2007\/11\/tech-for-tots.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tech for Tots - Feiler Faster\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"From my experience, this article about tech for tots is dead-on. The Times says the hot toy items this year feature a screen and allow preschoolers to emulate their parents. Forget the toy phones, we want REAL phones Mom and Dad. 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