Can audio players keep kids away from screens?

When I was three years old, like many kids in the ’80s, I was given a Fisher Price tape recorder as a gift. It had four buttons: play, fast forward, rewind and record. The aesthetic would belong in today’s popular parenting palette of sad beige, as the colors are tan and brown.

I had a few Raffi tapes that I listened to on repeat on long car rides, and I also spent a lot of time recording my own nonsense songs and letting adults listen.

It was the kind of imagination- and creativity-filled play that parents these days are desperate to give their children more of, while we’re desperate for anything that doesn’t involve a screen to distract our kids, who – like us – are happy to zoom out on an endless scroll whenever they get the chance.

New technologies between my Raffi tapes and now have fundamentally changed the way we consume music and all other audiovisual content. With a few taps on my phone I can find a recording of virtually any song I’ve ever heard, usually for free. But this unfettered access comes at a cost. The apps we use to access all kinds of entertainment are designed to keep us coming back for more, creating a loyal audience for advertisers.

When my son was three, it wasn’t long before one search for “Thomas the Tank Engine” on YouTube sent us through an endless series of train videos, most of which, taken in isolation, were cute and adorable. harmless. What was clearly not harmless, however, was the way the laptop, iPad or iPhone screen hijacked my child’s attention, turning him into a little content zombie who asked for “just one more” every time we threatened to turn off the computer to switch.

Parents are in a bind. They don’t want to deny their children access to all the music, podcasts and other content available digitally. They also don’t want their children’s consciousness to be swallowed up by the algorithm. There is mounting evidence linking screen time to developmental problems such as speech delays and mental health problems such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders.

Smelling an eager market, companies have seized on this parental fear and developed a product they’ve called an “audio player,” which is essentially a 21st century version of my Fisher Price tape recorder. After a parent pays $70-100 for the device, they can purchase content that is on a “card” (if you buy a Yoto) or on a “figure” that is indistinguishable from a toy (if you buy a Toniebox ). Other brands use similar systems.

For the price of a $9.99 Yoto card, today’s three-year-olds can “sing and dance with Raffi” just as I did forty years ago. It’s as if we’ve boomeranged into the future, discovered a new frontier of parental concerns, and ended up back where we started.

HuffPost spoke with professionals who work with children and parents who have purchased audio players for their families. While no one believes they will be the solution to the screen time dilemma, many users tout their benefits.

The biggest advantage of an audio player is that when a child uses it, he or she is not looking at a screen.

“Children can focus more on what they hear, allowing their imaginations to flow in ways that screens simply cannot and never will be able to provide,” John Bianchette, vice president of education and training at Mathnasium, told HuffPost.

It can be “refreshing” for a child, he said, to “escape the screens and exercise his ability to simply listen.”

Bianchette also noted that avoiding screens and the blue light they emit before bed can lead to better sleep for children. (The same goes for adults.)

Children with ADHD may especially benefit from an audio-only device. Emily Bly, a psychologist from New York, told HuffPost that a few years ago she bought an audio player for her son, who has an ADHD diagnosis.

“There is so much research going on right now about the link between screen interaction and problems with executive functioning, lower cognitive skills, problems related to short-term memory and language development,” Bly said. While this research does not prove that cause She believes that this association alone is enough to justify placing limits on children’s screen time, “because there are no known benefits and many potential risks.”

“ADHD children are known to have particular difficulty managing screens because they become hyper-focused, feel particularly pressured, and issues like device addiction can emerge,” Bly said.

Her son, now 12, still uses the device to play soothing audio music and listen to stories in the evenings. Bly listens to content with her children, she said, and enjoys experiencing a bit of “the old analog days of cassette tapes” and radio. She has also recommended the players to her clients.

Robert Roopa, an Ontario psychologist, told HuffPost that he is happy with the purchase of a Yoto Mini for his three children, who have had very limited screen exposure — only television — at ages 6, 4 and 16 months.

His children can use the player independently, keeping them entertained at critical times during the day.

“When they wake up early, they often turn to their Yoto player and entertain themselves. They will lie down and listen to their favorite books until we are ready to get them ready for the day,” Roopa said.

Having a calming activity, such as listening to stories that are child-oriented and compatible with bedtime routines, can be a game changer for parents.

Kassie Hanson, a mother of four children (6, 4, 2 and 9 months) in Nebraska and a speech therapist, told HuffPost that she wanted the audio player to give her family “a screen-free form of entertainment that my kids could get too.” use for quiet time, or whenever they want.” She said they can operate the Toniebox independently and that it has proven to be ‘child-proof’.

“He even survived a fall down a flight of stairs,” she said.

Hanson also mentioned listening to stories on the audio player as a good way to build children’s vocabulary.

Rupa Robbins, a child psychologist in California and mother of two children (5 and 2 1/2 years old), noted both the support for language development and the fact that even very young children can turn on the players and select content themselves. “This gives them a sense of independence and control that they developmentally crave,” she said.

All audio material must be purchased by adults, so it is controlled by parents, eliminating concerns about children encountering inappropriate content, as they almost certainly will online.

When I first looked at how these audio players work and realized that each piece of content requires its own card or figure, I laughed to myself and remembered all the Legos, game pieces, cards and other detritus I found in unlikely places around our house. liked when i kids were small. But none of the parents I spoke to said their children lost track of the cards/figures. What they did bring up was the cost.

Although they evoke the language of screen dangers, the audio players are a product, and ultimately the companies that produce them want to make a profit.

Although the cost of the device is lower than you would pay for a tablet, ongoing purchases are part of the deal. You must purchase all content on different cards or figures separately. They all have specific stories, songs, or podcasts that you can probably find similar versions for free on YouTube or other apps.

“Adding books to your collection can add up,” says Roopa. “I’ve asked my local library to start selling Yoto books, but I haven’t heard back yet to see if it’s an option.”

The Toniebox figures — which make a Target display so appealing that even my 11-year-old was drawn in — can be even more expensive. For example, a Disney princess set of 5 costs $83.65 on sale.

“I try to make sure every Tonie I get has a lot of substance to it,” Hanson said. “Some Tonies only have twenty minutes of content, but they cost the same as the Tonies that have more than an hour of stories and songs.”

Unlike an iPad, whose endless content can hold anyone’s attention, audio players are more appealing to some children than others.

“My oldest is obsessed,” Hanson said. “She takes it with her when she brushes her teeth, she likes to listen to it while she’s doing crafts, and I’ve even caught her taking it with her when she goes to the bathroom!” However, her four-year-old “only likes it occasionally,” while the two-year-old shows little interest in it. “It doesn’t hold her attention for any length of time yet,” Hanson said.

“It works better for some kids than others,” Robbins says. “I think kids who like music or stories and have a vivid imagination will probably enjoy it the most.”

In other words, a child who enjoys reading books will likely enjoy listening to them. It’s also possible that a dyslexic child will find that audio is the way to read without the usual frustration. But maybe you can’t change the tastes of a child who likes video games.

Janice Robinson-Celeste, founder of Successful Black Parenting magazine, told HuffPost that she bought a Yoto for her grandchildren a few years ago.

“I loved the idea of ​​the children listening to stories and using their imaginations without a screen,” she said. She once used it to play storytime during backyard camp with them, but says these days it functions mainly as a clock in the playroom.

“It’s challenging to keep a child’s interest when screens are so prevalent. The rapid pace of digital technology easily captures children’s attention and can shorten their focus on other toys and activities,” Robinson-Celeste said.

“At first they were interested, but in the end the screens won.”