Parents-children collaboration around technology in the family

Watching television has undergone a shift in recent years: whereas in the past, due to the limited number of channels and less clear-cut distinction between programs for adults and for children – or it may be simply because everything was more innocent, it served as the virtual bonfire around which sat the clan, and often the whole nation – watching television today has become an individual pastime broken down to age groups; a phenomenon television shares with more advanced technologies such as the iPad, found in most homes today with distinct applications for adults and children, all for individual use.

The Place of the Technology in the Family Home

We have switched over to individual use of the technology; this is now an established fact. The presence of a screen, both television and computer, is a matter of course in nurseries, parents’ bedrooms, living rooms and kitchens. The iPad has recently inserted itself into many homes, mostly as the family’s favorite appliance for which each family member finds their particular uses: children read, paint and play, parents surf, grandpa reads the paper and the elder siblings have turned it into a fast and well-oiled massaging machine.

Thus the question remains unavoidable: can the family reunite for a joint activity around any of those technological domestic devices? Could it be that we are missing out on the iPad as a device for family activity?

Ways and Means to Create Parent-Child involvement using iPad Applications.

Children are drawn to the iPad; they love to hold it (naturally after having cancelled radiation by switching to flight position), play with it and “control”, so to speak, whatever takes place on the screen, whether through a gaming or a reading application. Yet the parent can assume an enjoyable and active role beside the child, using the iPad as a marvelous tool to spend quality time playing together with the child.

There are many creative applications on the market today – such as Faces, Toontastic or Pirate, to name but a few – in which ideas for creative activities, feedback and the actual creative activity itself are perfectly suited for a joint parent-child experience.

Learning or educational applications more or less call upon parents to be there next to their child, offering guidance, encouragement, admiration and explanations. Yet parents can undergo a “corrective experience” due to the lightness, the colorfulness and the accessibility of the learning material some applications contain (Monkey Math, Space Boards).

And then there are the applications that offer “theatre” or “television” experience, inviting all family members to sit comfortably on the sofa and enjoy an application that is in fact an interactive children show.

It goes without saying that the participation of a parent in all applications that are meant for children makes the application gain much in effect and become more empowering and their experience more intense. Children will inevitably favor this application over other application where they play alone; just think back on your Scrabble or Monopoly evenings as children at home with your parents.

One must not forget that children can also play on the iPad together with other children, thus creating a conception in which the technology is not an individual or personal tool but rather a common, as opposed to individual, family device an experience one enjoys with friends.

The Hidden Value

The real value of turning the iPad into a family and social device is the intensification of the user’s experience. We come across so many applications that stimulate the imagination, convey knowledge and then others that are simply funny and amusing, but we tend to enjoy all this on our own. Sharing the experience with others intensifies it and leaves a deeper impression. People hold reciprocity and sharing in high esteem as that what improves our lives and makes us better human beings. And here we go and turn the technology into something where each faces it alone enclosed in their cocoon. There is definitely room for the technology in the family home – for the common fun, sharing and enrichment.