Family Talk: Concerned Your 2-Year Old Isn’t Tech Savvy?

This article was written by Liliana De Jesus.

No longer is early child development solely focused on verbal, motor and social skills.   

When it comes to having a child that is tech-sayy, Randi Zuckerberg revealed that her 2-year-old son is “already a natural,” according to a New York Post report.

Sister to Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Randi is the owner of her own digital media company, Zuckerberg Media.  

Zuckerberg admitted that she does try to curb the amount of screen time her son, Asher Tworetzky, actually gets, but also expressed her concern about not wanting him “to be behind his peers who are having all this exposure to tech.”  

In our day and age, technological know-how has almost seeped in as one of the markers for developmental milestones that must be met to ensure proper development.   

Children as young as 1- or 2-years-old have the aptitude to use such technological gadgets as iPods, iPads, PCs and Macs.   

As more and more technological advances thrust us into new and expanded necessary uses of computers as well as other technological hardware and software, there is a need to teach our children the basics of computer usage at younger ages.   

The questions become how much do we teach our kids and at what age.   

Any pediatrician that I have ever spoken to would warn against any screen time, advocating more for outdoor play, social interactions and plain old traditional books.   

Like Zuckerberg, many of us will find that it is “a balancing act” as she revealed to the NY Post.   

Wanting our children to be advanced and armed with the tools they will need to succeed are included in every parent’s goals.   

However, our collective desire to have them be advanced, technologically savvy and up to their peers may prove to hinder development in the end if that aforementioned balance is not scaled to the necessary parameters.   

Teaching our kids about technology at a younger age has become a necessary part of their development.   

If only by watching their parents and older siblings, children will pick up on that early-stage technological knowledge.   

Pushing them further for the sake of making sure they are not falling behind in this arena just may be a little much when referring to a 2-year-old.