The number of children with special educational needs (SEN) has tripled in the last 5 years, reaching over 70,000 in the 2023-2024 school year. And we are talking about the official data sent by the Ministry of Education. Unofficially, however, we have many more students with such problems, and one of the causes is the excessive time they spend in front of screens – phone, tablet or computer. Experts warn that early access to technology can seriously affect the way children learn or make connections.
Children using phones and tablets PHOTO SOURCE Shutterstock
The number of students with special educational needs (SEN) has tripled in the last 5 years, reaching over 70,000 in the 2023-2024 school year. Specifically, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Education, the number of students with CES in mainstream education is 51,784, and those in special education is 19,450. Thus, Romania officially has over 71,234 schoolchildren with special educational requirements. But the number could be much higher, because we are dealing with under-reporting, point out psychologists, who claim that parents are afraid to issue such certificates for children, for fear of stigma, and some refuse even when teachers support presents their advantages.
“Parents accept the assessment when they have no other choice, they see very poor school results, and finally they accept the child's assessment, not willingly”says support teacher Marilena Băltănescu.
People born after the 2000s had early access to TVs, computers and smartphones, and this is reflected in the growing number of children with special educational needs. The most common are cases of mental deficiency and TSI disorders (specific learning disorders): dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia, according to the psychopedagogue. These are not the result of reduced cognitive abilities or mental deficiencies, but rather are the consequence of differences in the way the brain processes information.
“In 24 years of education, I have noticed that there are more and more children who have this school failure because they have learning difficulties. And if they are not recognized among children with impairments, do not have CES, they cannot be supported and do not benefit from an adapted program”, says psychopedagogue Marilena Băltănescu.
Screens, brain poison
Moreover, numerous studies show that early access to technology causes delays in learning and social skills, as well as behavioral or concentration problems.
“Their brain continuously receives information and (…) they no longer have patience with the natural rhythm of life. Because we speak with a certain cadence; at school, the teacher speaks with a certain cadence. They, being used to an extremely fast pace, can no longer concentrate, that's why they can no longer read, and many, later, are said to have attention deficit. But it's simply the way their brain was taught to receive the information and the fact that the information remained unclosed, the loops remained unclosed. If we look at TikTok or even at Facebook, Instagram, there are a lot of videos that start at one point and end at another point, but the information is not complete. And then the brain is no longer used to start an activity and carry it through to the end, to close the activities, the loops. And then there is chaos both in behavior, in communication, and in the way the child manages his time. He sits down to his homework and gets up in two minutes. The same thing happens at school,” explained parenting expert Urania Cremene.
Delays in brain development
A study published in the journal JAMA Pediatrics last year found that 1-year-old babies who spent more time in front of screens had a greater risk of delays in communication and problem-solving development at ages 2 and 4. . And the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, done by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that follows the brains of 9-10-year-old children, even shows that the front of their brain is thinning, the frontal cortex is thinning. The serious thing is that this is the very judgment center of the brain, as experts say.
Also, two hours a day of screen time for children aged 3 to 5 was associated with a 1-point drop in intelligence quotient (IQ), according to a study conducted in France. What's more, watching the TV during family meals can lower your IQ by 1.5 points.
“It's like sending the child away, it's very easy for the parent to give him the phone. But sitting in front of small and large screens simply leads to the cessation of brain development. In early childhood, this habit is very harmful because it stops the brain connections from happening, the child looks, but does not in any way activate the brain. It can lead to mild forms of autism, addiction, compulsive reactions and irritability. They become agitated, they become intolerant of frustration,” says psychologist Mariana Mihalache.
Basically, little ones up to the age of 2 should not have access to technology at all, and children between the ages of 2 and 4 can spend between 30 and 60 minutes on screens, says Urania Cremene. The time increases to 3 hours for teenagers and pre-teens. The WHO recommends, in turn, a total ban on screens for children under 2 years of age and limiting them to a maximum of one hour for children under 5 years of age.
However, most children by age group exceed these maximums.
“According to psychologists and neuroscience specialists, a child up to 2 years old should not have access to technology at all, but play should be done through direct experience: climbing, cubes, slide – everything that means free play. Between 2 and 4 years, specialists agree that between half an hour and an hour would be enough. The time can increase, but it must not exceed three hours in preadolescence or adolescence; this also means homework that they do with the help of technology. These are some data that precede the so-called pandemic period, but the truth is that these numbers have exploded. I mean, today, if you tell a parent to let their child sit in front of the screen for an hour a day, they laugh in your face. Without a doubt, reality shows us that a child between 4 and 7 years old spends at least two hours a day in front of a screen, if not three or four, when he is with his grandparents or during a weekend, when he is not outside a favorable time”, states Urania Cremene.
The dangers of screens
The moment a child connects to a screen, regardless of what he is watching there, he disconnects from himself and disconnects from the reality in which he is at that moment, the expert shows.
“This lack of connection to one's own emotions, one's own body – the lack of connection to reality – leads to behavioral changes that parents see. Every parent will say: My child, after watching cartoons for an hour or playing on the computer for an hour, it takes me at least a quarter of an hour, half an hour, to reconnect with him. This leads to difficulties in communication, in managing one's own emotions. Children who consume more screen time (…) are more emotionally fragile, they get frustrated more easily”, emphasize this.
Over time, children given unfettered access to screens can become antisocial. “The adult who spent his childhood in front of the screens could become antisocial, not in the sense that he will become aggressive in society, but somehow he will be lonely, taciturn, all the time in front of a device, without entourage, with a low degree of sociability. It will have a surface function opposite to the part of culture, of information, because it will access them very easily without controlling their authenticity. It will be a problem related to adaptation to society, the ability to accept others, to tolerate them as they are”, adds Mariana Mihalache.
Risks of excessive screen use, according to Healthychildren.org:
Insufficient sleep
Obesity
Delays in learning and social skills
Negative effect on school performance
Behavior problems
Problematic internet use
Risky behaviors
Sexting, loss of privacy and risk of sexual assault
Cyberbullying
