An alarming proportion of kids just starting school are baffled by how books work.
In a new survey of primary, or elementary, school staff conducted by the UK charity Kindred Squared, the teachers estimated that nearly a third of students in reception class — the equivalent of pre-school in the US — did not know how to correctly use books. At times, some children even tried to swipe or tap the pages like a smartphone, reported Sky News.
It’s sounds incredible, but it’s not the first that we’ve heard of the bizarre phenomenon. The Kindred researchers define “using” books separately from literacy, and instead focus on a child’s ability to intuit turning the pages, rather than trying to interact with them like a touchscreen. Even though 44 percent of parents believe this is something a child should be able to do, the reality according to the 1,000 surveyed teachers is that 28 percent of them can’t. Teachers in the survey, which focused on other aspects of school readiness beyond reading, also said that around a quarter of children weren’t toilet trained and couldn’t eat and drink on their own.
The findings are a grim reflection of how smartphones have taken over our lives and will add to the concerns over screen time’s impact on a child’s development. Parents are themselves addicted to their devices and pass their bad habits along, spawning whole generations of “iPad babies.”
A strong link between screen time and diagnoses of ADHD, for example, was documented in a study that followed tweens over the course of four years. For children four years old and younger, a 2023 study found that those that spent several hours a day watching screens were more likely to miss key development goals, including those related to language, social, and fine motor skills.
Another linked touchscreen use by toddlers to long term problems related to regulating their emotions. And further underscoring the danger of thrusting the devices into extremely youthful minds, a study of kids 12 and younger found that the younger they were when they received a smartphone, the higher the risk they were at of obesity, sleep deprivation, and depression.
All the while, AI — which tech giants are spending millions of dollars to push into schools — is adding a whole new dimension of risk to these already addictive devices, as many children and teens form relationships with their AI companions. Meanwhile, some parents are even placating their kids by letting them talk to an AI chatbot’s voice mode for hours at a time.
These concerns have spurred some schools to ban smartphones entirely. And while teachers say these measures have already lifted the mood at schools, they can’t control how parents are letting their children use these devices at home, as evidenced by the new survey.
More on education: New Study Finds AI in Schools Is Undermining Kids’ Social and Intellectual Development