Just think of giving your child a Malayalam puzzle or word game if they show discomfort while having food it will be more or less like our old Malayalam proverb ‘kill two birds with one stone’. As our kids screen time is increasing exponentially causing serious threats to their cognitive abilities and significantly reducing their attention span, it’s high time to make a change, so for that instead of cutting out it completely we should look for options to make it productive. Utilize the chances of digital platforms and using screen time for health and happiness let’s look forward to that.

Screen time and cognitive abilities, how does it affect your child?

Excessive screen exposure is directly associated with negative cognitive outcomes in children. According to relevant studies children in between 5-12 years of age with a screen time above three hours recorded a relatively low cognitive score to those who consumed screen for less than two hours. So even if you want to integrate productive session, instead of adding screen time incorporate it into the existing time frame itself. Since our target is Malayalam learning we can nurture their language skills.

Why Malayalam into screen time?

Malayalam being a vast language with rich heritage and culture and contain a lot of imageries in its art forms and literary contents it has a lot to convey. For tapping to this rich resource of our own culture and heritage the language is the only thing which bridge them. Since the Malayali diaspora is mostly exposed to English and other foreign language, they will be used to it and kids on the other hand living in these surroundings will be obviously seasoned to the languages which they interact with. Even if the parents communicate in Malayalam in their household the chances are less for kids to imbibe it. So, diverting them to Malayalam lessons must be in an entertaining way like making them watch a Malayalam lullaby in you tube and singing along with it or giving them basic world puzzles to solve builds the interest for language among the kids.

Showing them animated videos, making them hear lullabies, and short stories entertain them and at the same time it will get registered in their mind easily, so shift from old school learning techniques to modern learning methods must be explored.

If planned wisely screen time could be useful for: -

• Get in touch with Malayali culture
• Exposure to art forms and literary contents by hearing folklores and local legends
• Gradual development in vocabulary and reading comprehension
• Easy identification of letters and phonetics

Parents contribution in the learning process

Being a stake holder in this learning process parents also has an important role in their kids learning journey.

• Sitting together with them while learning and asking them questions based on the content which they are interacting with
• Appreciating them for their progress
• Sing along with them if they recite any poems or sing any songs which they have learned.
• Sharing their progress with others in front of them encourages them for further learning.
• Set simple tasks and give them small gifts if they accomplish the task.

Just don’t try to make changes overnight on their schedules for diverting them to learning, focus on gradually building interest because here we are dealing with a language, without their interest nothing can be done effectively. Try to create a Malayalam only digital space by incorporating Malayalam content into their screen time, keep in mind to start small and then gradually introduce them to more Malayalam content and also could be introduced to online Malayalam classes for children if they show more interest.

Don’t forget to set a healthy boundary

Make the children practice the 30-30-30 rule for screen time, it is the practice that after every 30 minutes of scree time makes them look something 30 feet away for about 30 seconds, introduce this as a kind of game between their learning session. It helps in reducing dryness of eyes, headaches which is possible results of prolonged exposure to screen time. For that we have to choose quality content over quantity, maintain them under parental supervision and slowly disconnect them from doom scrolling to practice healthy scrolling habits for meaningful learning.

For a bright future start working now

For the Malayali diaspora and the parents who fear of their child being drifted away from the culture and heritage, this is a high time to involve and start working for their future. Let the digital lessons, storytelling and word games enlighten them so we can create a generation that keeps Malayalam in heart instead of screens. Kids who are interested to learn more about the language can be introduced to a structured beginner Malayalam learning class online for building from scratch to a level where they can read a short story without any assistance. Akshharam being an online educator, we are committed to give them proper guidance and direction in their learning journey while engaging them with modern learning methods. Let them speak Malayalam with pride and confidence.