ELECTRONIC POISONING: EXCESSIVE USE OF SCREENS AND ITS CONSEQUENCES ON CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND LEARNING

Abstract

Continuous social growth gives people greater access to technology, which affects their entire functioning structure. Within this, children become the main victims of evolution, as they end up using these technologies excessively, especially audiovisual devices, at a time when their emotional and cognitive processes are most vulnerable, and this can cause significant harm to their development. Given the above, it is necessary to evaluate how the intensity and frequency of this use have become detrimental to development and possible difficulties in learning. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate how excessive use of screens can affect the cognitive, social and motor development of school-age children. To this end, playful activities were used with volunteer children and a semi-structured interview with their guardians. Six first-year elementary school students and their respective guardians participated in this research, totaling 12 participants, who were divided into two groups composed equally: group 1 was composed of students from private schools and group 2 of students from public schools. By analyzing the data, it was possible to conclude that the students in group 2 who used screens for a longer period of time, replacing play and other activities, showed damage to their maturation and healthy development. While group 1, with more controlled and supervised access, in addition to a greater active participation in the family routine at home, had a more satisfactory performance in the proposed activities, so it was possible to observe how excessive access to audiovisual devices can harm child development.