By Thea Andrea C. Magueriano
Aside from restricting gadget time, learning about a child’s behavior offline can help parents provide a healthy online space for their kids, said the founding partner of a children’s learning center.
“If there’s anything that we have learned in the past 18 months, it’s that our children are living in the digital realm. Instead of really trying to control them or the device, we should try to focus on behaviors and choices,” Gabby Roa-Limjoco of Playworks Early Childhood Centers Inc., said during the Sept. 15 episode of Mommy Mundo’s “Internet Awesome Parents” webinar series on Facebook and YouTube.
Roa-Limjoco’s topic, “Teaching Your Kids To Be Better Netizens” was based on Google Philippines’ Internet Awesome Parents digital educational resource available on YouTube.
According to Roa-Limjoco, also a preschool teacher and director of Playworks, while it is common for people to have different offline and online personas, getting a glimpse of a child’s offline behavior is a way to peek through their online behavior.
“It’s really through interacting offline that children will learn positive behaviors,” said Roa-Limjoco.
Good behaviors that a parent would want to see in their children are good manners, listening skills, and acknowledging personal spaces. To establish these, Roa-Limjoco advised using praise and rewards strategically and wisely to not spoil children.
“It’s really being specific about why you think what they did is helpful to you, and it’s helpful to other people. So it’s not just dismissing it as ‘okay good job’,” explained Roa-Limjoco.
To foster focus and family time, she suggested parents set limits on Internet use.
“If you set a boundary or a limit, they need to know that there’s going to be a consequence,” as per Roa-Limjoco, a consequence could be lack of sleep the next day.
Children are also prone to mistakes, but the preschool director asks parents to help them do better next time. “Give them an opportunity,” she said.
Roa-Limjoco also shared the classic tip of becoming a good role model to children, which needs to start with the parents.