Impact of Media on Children’s COGNITIVE Development Objective

Impact of Media on Children’s COGNITIVE Development

Objective: To provoke thought about how media use and exposure might hinder or benefit children’s cognitive development.

For this assignment your task is to think about the different forms of media that children have access to (social media, video and computer games, cell phone apps, online communication tools, the internet, television, radio), and how these different forms of media might positively or negatively impact children’s cognitive development.

1. In your own words, describe what cognitive development means.

2. Pick one source of media that children these days have access to. Describe how children’s access to that source of media would hinder their cognitive development (e.g., language skills, visuo-spatial skills, math skills, memory, attention processes, problem solving, planning).

3. For the same source of media, describe in what ways it could potentially be used to benefit children’s cognitive development.

4. Pick a different source of media that children have access to. Again, describe how children’s access to this source of media would hinder their cognitive development.

5. For this same source of media, describe in what ways it could potentially be used to benefit children’s cognitive development.

6. How might children’s age play a role in whether or not access to media is beneficial or harmful?