Why gadget usage among preschoolers should matter to teachers? a pilot study

Undoubtedly, gadgets are devices for communication, entertainment and education as well for younger children. Children play with gadgets sitting or lying down at home and worse of all, apart from lacking in physical activity, they only communicate with the apps screen rather than with their parents. Besides parents, teachers are crucial in nurturing preschoolers during the early stage of their development. As a result, the current qualitative study interviewed 14 teachers to perceive their knowledge in gadget usage, sedentary behaviour and social skills among preschoolers. Besides that, teaching methods were also uncovered to understand how the teachers enhance the social skills of preschoolers and reduce their sedentary behaviour. Inductive Analysis (IA) revealed that most teachers reported that, “Parents always give their mobile phones” to the preschoolers and interestingly, the preschoolers said, “Tell the teachers that they are playing gadgets at home.” Moreover, some of the teachers reported that gadgets are not safe for preschoolers if too much time is spent on them. As predicted, all the teachers were apparently unaware of the detriment of gadget usage on sedentary behaviour and social skills, especially for four-year-old children as most of them were quiet in preschool. The teachers’ attitude and habit were found to be moderate in lesson planning and improving the social skills of preschoolers but minimal for addressing their sedentary behaviour