Debbie Ellis knows the pros and the cons of technology, especially as it relates to preschoolers.
“Technology has come on strong in the past 15 years,” said Ellis, the owner and director of The Learning Tree and the Susie M. Brooks Child Care Center.
Ellis said technology such as tablets and laptops have a place in the classroom.
Take Halloween, for example.
“During the month of October, we teach the younger children the colors of orange and black. I don’t know if you have ever tried to find video material or any other kind of technology that teaches orange and black. It’s out there, but you have to find it yourself,” she said.
Ellis went on the Internet and “found lots of songs about black and a lot of songs about orange” and produced a Halloween DVD that has a lot of educational material.
The use of technology helps children learn, provided it deals with limited, easy-to-grasp concepts, she said.
It’s important that they’re not bombarded with all of the colors,” Ellis said, adding, “Children learn through repetition.”
“It’s a wonderful tool. If there is a subject matter you want to teach, I don’t care how difficult it is, if you want to teach it to children, you can find the information on the Internet that you need to design it to the level of the children,” she said.
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There’s also a downside to technology.
Cellphones can complicate the situations faced in day care, Ellis said, especially if the child is more likely to call his or her mother than simply informing the teacher-on-duty.
“‘John took my ball. It bounced and rolled and he took my ball,’” Ellis said, mimicking a common complaint.
“We get calls in the office because John took little Sally’s ball. We want Sally to let the teacher-on-duty know first so that she can try and manage that before the mother has to stop her work activity to manage that,” Ellis said.
She said it is commonplace to see children who have a cellphone by the time they enter “Big School” or first grade.
“I personally think children sometimes tend to be too young (for cellphones),” she said. “It’s a lot of responsibility, and they’re expensive.”
When older children come to the Learning Tree or Susie Brooks after school, they are asked to keep their cellphones in their backpacks.
Tablets are allowed at centers during the summer months, and the children seem to understand the rules about when it is appropriate to use them.
“We want them to interact with their classmates and interact with the adults,” she said.
When it comes to technology, “everything needs to be done in moderation, particularly for very young children,” Ellis said.
“There are wonderful stories and books and things that can be shared with children online, but none of that will take the place of a mother’s or father’s lap. Hearing their mother or father say the words — hearing their voice flow over the words,” she said.
Ellis said parents can have a greater impact than any tablet or cellphone.
“I can go into a classroom and tell who has been read to and who hasn’t. I can tell you when a child has been read to at home. They’re usually very early readers and have a very good command of the English language. Technology helps with that, but it is not the beginning or the end,” she said.
Technology in one form or another is very much a part of a youngster’s reality today.
“To have an environment without them would be foreign to them,” Ellis said.
Still, “too much of anything is too much,” she said.
Ellis said texting is also happening at an earlier age and social media poses additional problems.
“Social media seems to be a problem for very young children. It can be a problem for adults. It can even be a problem for politicians, as you know,” she said.
Ellis also uses technology and the Internet as a blogger for Delta Licensed Providers, keeping fellow day care providers up to date on important legislative matters.
“It’s not just for kids,” she said.
