Main discussion should be 300 words. Responses to 2 posts should be 100 words each.

The Impact of Eletronic Media

Computer technology has revolutionized parenting. For better or worse, many of us—practically from birth to adulthood—spend much of our time staring at a screen

BABIES, TODDLERS, AND PRESCHOOLERS

Thousands of music, counting, and alphabet learning apps are now targeted at infants and toddlers. The apps include “flash cards” to teach toddlers to read and spell. Many parents are convinced that smartphones and apps are beneficial for preschoolers. In contrast, most pediatricians and educators say that such electronic devices aren’t educational but passive amusements like television. Because the children are staring at screens, they don’t interact with people around them, don’t use language, and don’t experience the wider world through exploration and play.

School-Age Children

A recent test of 400 popular smartphone and tablet apps aimed at children found that 80 percent of the apps didn’t offer any information about their privacy policies. Of the 20 percent that contained any privacy-related disclosure, many consisted of a link to a long, dense, and technical privacy policy that was filled with irrelevant information and would be difficult for most parents to read and understand.

Teens

Internet use among American teenagers has changed. Since 2006, 95 percent have been online, but 74 percent of adolescents, aging 12 to 17, now access the Internet on cell phones, computer tablets, and other mobile devices. This means that many preteens and teens have more autonomy because they no longer have to share desktops and laptops with other family members.

For the vast majority of teens, social and other digital communications media are a daily part of life—90 percent have used some form of social media, 87 percent text every day, and 75 percent have a profile on a social networking site, usually Facebook. A small number (5 percent) say that the Internet makes them feel more depressed and less outgoing, and 36 percent sometimes wish they could go back to a time when there was no Facebook.

Parents

Many parents are wary of the electronic media’s impact on their children. For example, 81 percent are concerned about how much information advertisers can learn about their child’s online behavior, 72 percent are uneasy about how their teenagers interact online with people they don’t know, and 69 percent worry that the online activity might have a negative effect on their children’s reputation or future academic or employment possibilities. Despite such concerns, only 31 percent of parents have helped their children set up privacy settings for a social networking site.

Another source of parental concern is cyber-bullying, willful and repeated harm using computers, cell phones, or other electronic devices. Cyber-bullying among children begins before age 12, but is most common during the teen years. Approximately 32 percent of teens have experienced some type of online harassment.

Parents often criticize their kids for spending too much time texting and surfing the Web, but they themselves may be the biggest technology abusers. For instance, 40 percent of parents admit that their mobile devices have distracted them from playing with their children, and 41 of teens report seeing their parents read or send an e-mail, or text, while driving “all the time”.

Children at Risk

Life is improving for many American children. Compared with figures from 2000, today they’re smoking and drinking alcohol less, graduating from high school in larger numbers, are less likely to die of motor vehicle injuries and to be exposed to secondhand smoke at home. There is also some bad news:

• Approximately 36 percent of children and adolescents are overweight or obese, up from 6 percent in 1980.
• Between 1991 and 2007, the number of incarcerated parents with children under age 18 increased by 79 percent.
• About 67 percent of children (up from 59 percent in 2009) live in counties in which one or more air pollutants are above the allowable levels.
• Among all industrialized countries, the United States has the highest child poverty rates and the worst record in protecting children against gun violence.

Foster Care

The obvious benefit of foster homes is that many children experience physical and emotional safety. Poverty, child abuse, and parental neglect are some of the major reasons for children’s out-of-home placements, including care by relatives, residential treatment facilities, and group homes. The most common out-of- home placement is the foster home, in which adults raise children who aren’t their own.

Nationally, the number of U.S. children in foster care decreased by 30 percent between 2002 and 2011. In 2011, 410,000 children were in foster care at some point during the year; 104,000 were waiting to be adopted. In theory, foster homes are supposed to provide short-term care until children can be adopted or returned to their biological parents. In reality, many of the children wait up to five years to be adopted, go through multiple placements, and remain in foster care until late adolescence.

Estimates vary by city and state, but between 36 and 52 percent of older youth run away at least once, and nearly two-thirds do so multiple times. Unlike other runaways, youth who run away from foster care aren’t trying to escape abuse or neglect, but want to be with family or friends, including girlfriends and boyfriends.

Of the teenagers who “age out” of the foster care system when they turn 18 years old, about half don’t complete high school, about a third are arrested, and almost as many are homeless. Only 38 percent of those working at age 18 are employed a year after leaving foster care, and among women, about half are pregnant within 12 to 18 months

POST 1: Two topics I found interesting this week are medicalization and the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and parenting. Medicalization is defining a nonmedical problem as an illness that requires medical treatment. I once examined this recent phenomenon in the case of alcoholics. Today, people addicted to alcohol are usually called alcoholics; but some of us surely have heard them called drunkards. Drunkard isn’t really used anymore because it was considered derogatory, and overindulgence in alcohol became medicalized; thus alcohol addicts weren’t drunkards anymore, they were instead victims of alcohol that needed help as opposed to people who chose to develop this bad habit and display unsavory behaviors. Our textbook helped make the connection that substance abuse wasn’t the only area impacted by medicalization. Children are becoming increasingly overmedicated for behaviors previously considered normal, disobedient, or just different. To make things worse, since medicalization of children’s behaviors is relatively new, many provided medications are potentially dangerous to them and are largely tested on only adults.

Socioeconomic status of a family made sense to play a role in the development of a child. After reading the chapter though, a few details in the middle SES bracket grabbed my attention. First was that the textbook informs us that middle SES parents speak to their infant children more than low SES parents do, but also in more sophisticated ways. I felt this needed to be expanded on because I wasn’t sure how to interpret it. Could this mean middle SES parents are doing less baby talk to their infants? Perhaps this sophistication simply means middle SES parents are better at finding creative ways to explain he world to their children upon being asked questions. Secondly, I appreciated the acknowledgement of the impact of a presence of books in a home. Apparently a home with just twenty-five books in it increases the likelihood of a child completing more years in school.

POST 2: One of the things that I learned in this module is the importance of spending time with children. The text mentioned that an important factor in a child’s well-being is the type and amount of interaction between children and parents. One of the activities that can be implemented to spend time with children is reading. Reading stimulates a child’s cognitive and intellectual abilities, also prepares them for kindergarten. Outdoor activities such as going to the park, playground or visit the zoo or to friends help to improve the communication between parents and children. For instance, my family and I like to spend time together at the beach, we use that time to talk about our daily life or about things that are bothering my children. I truly believe that spending quality time with children is key in order to develop communication and trust. So far, in my own experience, my children enjoy a lot when spending quality time with them, it makes them feel more confident.

Another thing that got my attention from this week’s module is Changes in parent-Child relationships. The text mentioned that a good parent-child relationship may shift suddenly during adolescent. In addition, the text illustrates that parents may feel rejected as teenagers become more independent, teenagers are establishing their own identity and want to break away from parental supervision. I consider these points as truth because right now I’ve experimented with some of those issues. My eldest son, (a high school senior) definitely makes me feel that he doesn’t need me too much anymore. For instance, he is now applying for different colleges and we have a disagreement about where he should go to study. At the end, he told me that I need to understand that is his life and that he is the one that would decide about it. At that moment, I felt rejected and I cried, later I realized that I overreacted, and we talk about it. I know that he is not my baby anymore but it is hard for me to realize that it is time to let him make his own decisions and now my role as a mom is to support him in his decisions.