Experts Say Screens Could Be Affecting iPad Kids’ Fine Motor Skills
What? According to National Geographic, a recent survey by Education Week found that 77% of educators reported younger students “having greater difficulties handling pencils, pens and scissors.” Additionally, 69% noted “increased struggles with tying shoes compared to five years ago.”
So What? Experts point to screens as one of the culprits for this loss in fine motor skills: “While learning math or creating digital art can be educational, it doesn’t develop the fine motor control that comes from writing, cutting or coloring.”
Now What? Look for opportunities to challenge your kids and insert fine motor activities into daily tasks, experts say. “Cut coupons or cook together, look for stones on the way to school, pour cups and squeeze sponges in the bath.” Push for non-screen activities, such as playing outside and reading. (Turning pages of a book is considered a fine motor skill. But reading also helps kids learn to focus and follow instructions, skills that are crucial to other fine motor skills, such as zipping a coat or tying a shoelace.) And finally, do these activities before the TV comes on or the tablet comes out. Experts suggest you’ll get far less resistance if you don’t first have to turn off your child’s screen.
Trendy Word ‘Chuzz’ Is Not a Compliment
What? The word “chuzz” is short for “chopped huzz” or “chunky huzz,” reports Indy100. It’s slang to describe women or teen girls as unattractive. But “huzz” is also often used online as a substitute for “hoe” or “whore.”
So What? Many social media platforms allow us to set up filters on our own or our children’s accounts, so they won’t be exposed to inappropriate language or disparaging remarks. But “chuzz” demonstrates how a crude term can start trending, since it doesn’t raise any red flags upon first glance.
Now What? Add “chuzz” and “huzz” to your filters, if you use them. Talk to your teen daughters about how they can respond to being called this or any other disparaging slang term. And, since this term almost exclusively applies to women, talk to your teen sons as well, making sure they know how deeply these remarks can hurt their female friends, even when used jokingly.
What? The “nocebo effect” is the opposite of the “placebo effect,” says NewScientist. Instead of experiencing relief of symptoms even though you’ve received a placebo, you’ll experience side effects and negative health symptoms even though you’re not sick.
So What? Where once the nocebo effect was relatively limited to face-to-face interactions or pharmaceutical studies, researchers are now discovering a spread of nocebo responses through social media. (Remember when teens were experiences symptoms of Tourette’s Syndrome after watching TikTok videos of the effects in 2021?) And that’s worrying, since roughly 85% of people have sought health information using social media, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Now What? Anyone can fall victim to the nocebo effect—even the researchers studying it have admitted experiencing nocebo symptoms. But studies suggest that if we are educated about the nocebo effect, we’ll be less likely to experience its symptoms. Additionally, it will lead us (and our vulnerable teens) to be “more conscious about the potential influence of the health information” we are consuming.
