Day: December 7, 2022

‘Technoference’ refers to the interruption of social interactions by personal technology. An example of this might be if you’ve ever been out with friends at dinner and someone repeatedly checks their phone. This can happen when interacting with children as well. Correlational research suggests that technoference is associated with increases in challenging behaviors for children, relational difficulties for couples and co-parents, and aspects of parent- child attachment. It’s easy to just suggest to parents to “get off your phones” but consider a more compassionate and empathetic viewpoint: in a survey of mothers of children under six (self- reported,) mothers with higher levels of stress engaged in more problematic smartphone use, such as checking notifications. This use was then associated with

Reading aloud aloud to your baby is a fun shared activity— plus it's important for your baby's brain! It encourages your baby to look, point, touch and respond to questions. Your child can develop their language skills through recognizing pictures, copying sounds and learning words. You can start reading books to your baby as early as 3-6 months, or once they are able to focus on items such as a toy or mirror. For very young babies, whose vision is developing, you can start with high-contrast black and white books, like, “Look Look!” by Peter Linenthal or “I Kissed the Baby!” by Mary Murphy. By age 5 months, babies have good color vision and will enjoy bright and colorful pictures.