The Use of Technology & Emotional Development
February 2, 2017 l Adriana Mercuri
What Is Emotional Intelligence?
Well, for starters...
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Emotional Intelligence:
is the "ability to recognize and understand the emotions in yourself and others, and your ability to use this awareness to manage your behaviour and relationships."
Emotional Development is a very important aspect of early childhood development. Educators must try their best to promote emotionla intelligence by integrating activities that reinforce emotional development into the curriculum. Children develop emotional intelligence by interacting with their peers, sharing how they feel, and simply just by living amongst others in a community. It is important for children to develop an understanding of self and others, empathy, and an understanding of self expressions so that they can better understand themselves and others in the world. The only way children can truly develop emotional intelligence is by enagiging in interactive play with their peers, listening to their educators, and most importantly with their families. If children are always given technology, and play games for most of the day, they will not be able to fully develop emotional intelligence because they are most often isolated and the games they play don't involve any interacting with others at all.
As was mentioned above, children tend to use technology isolated from others. This prevents them from interacting with others face-to-face and it also gives them a reason not to look at what is going on around them. When children play video games or use a tablet for recreational use, they are focusing their attention and vision solely on the device in front of them, not looking at their surroundings. In addition, although children can play online and interact with other in the gaming community, I don't think they benefit from this because they do not know who they are speaking with, and most often when reading texts you don't really know how the other person is reacting nor can you tell what emotion they are feeling.
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However
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If technology is monitored and used with the right intentions, children can benefit greatly from its use. In the classroom, educators can incorporate he use of technology in several ways that will allow children to enhance their emotional development. Educators can find educational sites that that children can use to explore together and lear from. An example of an educational site is called ABC Ya! To access this site search the url provided: http://www.abcya.com
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How Does Technology Impact The Development of Emotional Intelligence?
This is an example of one of the interactive games on the site. The chidlren at my placement really enjoy this game along with several others. The children are eager to have a turn and work together with their peers to solve the problems on the screen. They enoy coming up to the smart board and using their finger to play the games.