I had access to a mobile phone at 45 years but an infant as soon as he or she is able to bring the hands in the midline ,which is between five months and eight months, is given the access to a mobile phone !
Most parents let the infants watch animations, cartoons, picture series, or listen to songs in the mobile phone. I have watched children sit glued to the phone and stay fully occupied. Parents use this to still a child when they are occupied in other chores.
One concern which I hear form parents is, 'why is my baby not crawling even at 11months'! The story is that the baby might have been used to watching TV, handle mobile phone or stay bed bound that the infant has had no stimulus to move or go after an object of interest!
I wish parents would deliberately restrain from introducing the mobile phones to infants and return to giving children opportunity for exploratory play by using the toys we often used to offer to children before technology overtook us. Give a child to play with blocks, sound makers, small balls, miniature cars or trucks, soft toys, etc. Let a child have access to books with picture sequences meant for infants. Let the parents read to them from books by pointing to pictures. Let parents sing to them rather than only make them listen to recorded music. The action songs which parents can sing would be better than making him watch a DVD with action songs!
At least let me suggest moderation in the use of technology during the pre-school years! Let a child be exposed to a lot of physical, visual, auditory and imaginary play cavities. They would provide neuro-motor developmental skills1
M.C.Mathew(text and photo)
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