Education 4.0: how to guide younger children in the use of cell phones

Young children often show little shyness when using the phone. but it is It is advisable to establish some basic rules of how to deal with the mobile: not everything is intuitive for them.

“Hello?” says a child holding an object to his ear while an adult talks on the phone. It seems to be commonplace in multiple cultures: Children love to imitate a telephone conversation and pretend they are taking a call, especially if they can answer a real phone. They see that adults attach great importance to those moments. And above all to the mobile, since they do not even let go of the hand.

This is how children learn and they are hardly shy when it comes to talking on the phone. However, or precisely because of that, it is good that they learn to incorporate some rules of behavior, particularly considering that more and more children have a mobile at an early age or in primary school.

“It is necessary that the little ones incorporate the telephone step by step”, says the specialized media educator Irene Schulz. The first of those steps is for the child to let their parents know when the phone is ringing. The next step is for the child to dial a number, for example, a number for the grandparents that is already scheduled on the mobile. It is often good to allow them to take a call before they are of school age.

How much the more permission children are given to handle the mobile or conventional telephone, the clearer the rules have to be, stresses the pedagogue. They should know that mom’s work cell phone is strictly prohibited and that they can only answer a call if they know the sender. They also need to know to hang up if a stranger calls. “The fundamental thing is that they learn to distinguish what they can report and where they should be reserved or cautious.says Schulz. “For example, they must be very clear that they cannot send photos to a stranger.”

It is very important that they become aware of it.especially after the pandemic made it all the more natural to send photos and videos as part of an everyday conversation or communication. During the pandemic, the children saw that everyone was talking to their grandmother over Zoom and that the uncles were sending new photos of the newborn cousin to the family WhatsApp.

The spectrum of dangers

Adults never cease to be surprised by how clever little ones are when they pick up a mobile, even if they are not even two years old. “That dexterity makes adults lose sight of the possible dangers a bit.”, says the pedagogue, who suggests explaining the limits using a language that the little ones can understand. They could be told, for example, that one does not open the door of the house to any stranger.

It is essential that minors have an idea of ​​the risks, especially when they already have their own mobile in primary school. But there are things that circulate among young people that adults may not know about. “There are chain letters, for example, that are forwarded as audio by messaging apps and scare some kids,” says Schulz. It is important that they feel that they know how to handle these situations or how to act when they receive a marketing call. Or that they even know which calls they don’t even have to answer.

Hold a conversation

Banning everything to protect them is not a solution, maintains the media educator. “The older they are, the more lax the limits linked to technology can be, because children are also increasingly better able to evade any prohibition.” The specialist assures that it is much more important to establish clear and transparent rules and routines from the beginning, as well as to maintain the conversation with them, show interest in the games and applications they use and, above all, try to be a role model..

Instead of making calls many prefer to communicate via WhatsApp and even feel intimidated if they have to have a conversation on the phone or with someone from workobserve the coach Joachim Auer, careers adviser and coach of young people on how to make good callings. He has the impression that many adolescents find it difficult to establish a connection through a telephone conversation..

Yet that’s exactly what can make a difference in the workplace, says Auer. “The interlocutors will only remember those who have made a good impression on them. Maybe those kinds of conversations are what later lead to a contract, a better price, or even some kind of benefit or refund.”. That is why Auer, in his courses, makes everyone practice how to “make conversation”. “Many teenagers don’t know how to do it anymore.”

It is something that everyone can practice at home, even within the family, with the same method that the pedagogue recommends. “Being able to hold a conversation is essentialsays Auer. “Parents can talk, for example, at dinner with their children about what they did during the day, what they liked best, what positive experiences they had,” he recommends..

During moments of conversation, no one should look at the mobile. Knowing when to take the mobile and when not is just part of the necessary learning. More if it is a personal conversation. Of course: it will only work if the parents abide by the same rules.