I worked at a kindergarten for a year, and Jesus Christ these kids are falling behind on so many milestones
Everyone knows who the iPad kids are
I've seen it all from kids who don't know how to use scissors, and can't perform the motions right compared to other kids in that age group, to kids who can't write the alphabet or spell their names (the older ones)
And one of the most startling thing I encountered was every now and then we have a country day, where we choose a country, color in the country's flag in the colors and watch a little film about said country.
And I was overseeing the coloring, and one boy just refusing to color
It happens, stubbornness, bad days, 'just don't wanna' s happen, but I sit with him and continue to try and encourage him and figure out why he doesn't want to
And he keeps saying he doesn't know how to color
And I'm like ??? Just pick up the pencil and put it on the paper buddy, cmon
So I'm showing him how, and he refuses to try over and over
So then I try like, coloring while guiding his hand, and again this is a flag were coloring it's a giant rectangle, not much precision is needed
And I realize while I'm helping him, literally moving his hand to color for him, he's CLEARLY never colored before. He's 4, there is no excuse for this when kids start coloring at like, 2 maybe younger.
By 4-5 kids can generally color inside the lines well enough and draw recognizable figures like people and landscapes and pets
Eventually he got into it, understood how to do it and requested to continue on by himself, which was great! I told him I was proud of him and we continued on with our day but it absolutely shocked me that these iPad kids are so beyond stunted like jesus
He didn't know how to grip a pencil, he didn't know the wrist movements and motions, he didn't understand the pressure control, he had no control over where or how he was coloring like, these kids NEED TO learn these things it's STARTLING how many kids don't have these milestones and are just not developing these fine motor skills
Ask any kindergarten attendant and they'll tell you the same thing-
The best thing you can do for a kid is buy them a shitton of construction paper, decorative child-safe scissors, and coloring books
Please please please kids need to cut paper up and color. It helps them develop so many fine motor skils
Now don't be mistaken, the percentage of these kids are low, for now. It's definitely not every kid, and thankfully not the majority but it is still a problem
annaxmalina
origamiaround
izzy806
discoholicmusic
blakekathryn
