Parents are often overwhelmed with pride that their children as young as three or four years are adept at handling a gadget.
This gadget proficiency, teachers and mental health professionals warn, should not be equated with academic excellence.
Underlining the difference between the two, a school principal said a child comes to school for a well-rounded personality, something they do not learn despite excelling at handling a device.
A tech-savvy child often takes the parents for a ride, said mental health professionals. Parents, instead of realising this, feel they are learning from their children who know more than they do.
The pride is such that even during admission of studens in pre-primary or primary classes, some parents quote their child’s prowess in gadgets.
“We have to tell the parents that it is not such a good idea for a child to unnecessarily spend time on the gadget. We tell them that the child should be given other options to spend their time,” said Amita Prasad, director, Indus Valley World School.
Prasad said parents were sometimes surprised at such responses and ask the school to suggest ways to gainfiully occupy the child.
Recently, the mother of a Class VIII student went to the child’s school because she had no information about the boy’s final exam. When the teacher said the information had been shared on the school app, the mother said: “I cannot handle that. My son would have to check and tell me.”
“Since parents are learning about the device from their children, they are more in awe of them. They feel their child knows everything,” said psychiatrist Rima Mukherji.
She said parents come for child consultations because of anger issues or low academic performance and an overkill of gadgets could be at the root of such symptoms.
For older children, during parent-teacher meetings, the refrain from parents is often that their “child is very good with the gadget but does not study”.
“Parents are overwhelmed that the child can do so much on a device. But that does not translate into academic proficiency. For all-round education, we tell them the child has to be able to articulate... and work in a group. These do not come from a gadget,” said Suvina Shunglu, principal of Sri Sri Academy.
Psychologist Ruvena Sanyal said it was “a fallacy” for parents to believe their children of ages 3-5 know a lot just because they can handle a smartphone.
“They learn the ropes of the gadget more quickly because they do it repeatedly. It is a simpler process than understanding a concept,” said psychiatrist Jai Ranjan Ram.