Sharjah Public Library in Wadi Al Helo, affiliated with Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) organised on Wednesday, a virtual session entitled “ “Technology Impact on Children”, where it hosted Dr Jamila Al Khanji, adviser at the UAE Family Development Foundation, to talk about the impact of technology on children.

 

The workshop, which targeted all family members, reviewed the definition of children use of technology, drawing attention to its positive and negative impact on children, in addition to practical steps to deal with the child's unwanted behaviours when using technology.

 

Al Khanji explained the advantages of technology being more interesting than traditional methods, and that technology has become a very important tool in the educational process saving time and effort, as well as developing the child's abilities to deal with all sorts of technologies.

 

Al Khanji indicated that technology has contributed to the development of the child's skills in the field of the modern term entitled "Digital Leader", in addition to developing the child’s higher order thinking skills, which necessarily leads to the development of motor synergies.

 

Al Khanji emphasised that technology contributes to facilitating people with disabilities communication with their surroundings using alternative communication systems, in addition to the possibility of employing high-tech software that allows words or symbols to be transferred and transformed into a communication partner through digital or synthesised voice.

 

Al Khanji also explained the disadvantages of technology, whereas children take time to learn and use these techniques, which isolates them from their family and their surroundings, which affects their social skills, in addition to reducing the child's acquisition of knowledge and mental skills.

 

Al Khanji concluded by presenting a set of strategies that can be adopted in legalisng the child's use of technology, including the participation of parents in playing and watching electronic games with children, allowing them to monitor the content that children watch, in addition to keeping parents up to date with the new technical experiences that their children practice.