2023-05-30 23:23:04
Millions of students in Germany have big gaps in education!
Now an expert is making a radical suggestion: child psychologist Arnd Stein (76) suggests a mobile phone ban for elementary school students and teenagers!
Stein’s reflection: without a mobile phone, the students are also less distracted at home. You can concentrate better on homework, on reading, writing, arithmetic.
“From the spine to the daily routine, the mobile phone determines the life of our students,” says Stein to BILD: “Almost all teenagers are affected. If necessary, they all have to hand over their mobile phones, even if only temporarily. If your child can’t read, take their phone away from them.”
Stein has a particular eye on elementary school students. One in four fourth graders is currently unable to read and write properly (IGLU study). “A fourth-grader who can’t read and write shouldn’t be allowed to use a mobile phone,” was the child psychologist’s recommendation to the parents.
“It’s just a matter of typing and clicking”
Get rid of cell phones so that school performance can improve. Can this really work?
According to Stein, mobile phones have “resulted in a lot less handwriting than it used to. Instead, people type or click.”
The devastating consequence for many students: They perceive “the construction of a word only superficially” and do not internalize it properly. “Writing by hand involves far more mental and motor processes,” says Stein.
Arnd Stein (77), who has a doctorate in child psychology, warns: “Take away your child’s mobile phone if it cannot read and write.”
The so-called sensorimotor feedback (i.e. the targeted hand movement and simultaneous perception of the sequence of letters) is enormously important so that the correct spelling of a word is permanently anchored in the brain.
Don’t type, just write by hand
In other words, you learn a lot less when typing than when you write by hand.
According to Stein, there used to be a ban on television when children were bad at school. But now the problem has become more complex. You don’t just look at the phone screen, you also write on it. “Writing means coding. Reading means decoding. Both make the phone more difficult.”
According to the child psychologist, the damage has doubled.
According to expert Stein, poor writing skills are a direct consequence of too much cell phone use
Union against mobile phone ban
CDU education expert Thomas Jarzombek (50) does not find Stein’s idea sensible. He to BILD: “These statements show the helplessness of some adults when dealing with children’s smartphones. A mobile phone ban is simple resignation.”
The politician says that instead of “non-lifelike advice” parents should be told: “If your child has problems with spelling, install an educational app for him and reduce games and Tiktok!”
How do I know if my child writes badly?
Child psychologist Stein: “The most important indicator is the school grade in the dictation. If it tends towards ‘sufficient’, there are already significant gaps.”
Important: “If the child makes a lot of mistakes in school dictation, but performs significantly better in home practice dictation, it is not the writing skills that are too low, but the ability to concentrate,” says Stein.
How many mistakes in texts are “normal” at what age?
Hardly anyone can write almost flawlessly – not even adults. Stein: “Unfortunately, the length and level of difficulty of the dictations vary greatly. That makes it difficult for parents to assess.”
The best way to get an accurate picture is to count the total number of words and also the misspelled words. Stein: “If an elementary school student in the third or fourth grade makes 6, 7, 8 mistakes per 100 words, he writes 94, 93, 92 words correctly. It doesn’t matter how the dictation is rated – that’s a super achievement!”
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