I know this woman at work who is a firm believer that kids should be active and play outside. Electronics do not come into play, there is one desktop in the house and one land line phone, regular flip phones for the parents only.
Until her 8 year old was in an accident, broke 5 vertebrae in his back, both legs, 3 ribs and fractured his skull.
Several organ injuries as well.
Several surgeries.
The boy healed well but it took a long time and he was bed ridden, still spends a lot of time resting and in physical therapy.
Everyone at work pitched in and got him an iPad 4.
I bought him several apps about the human body, skeletal and muscular system, kinesiology etc.
Those are animated apps that show the muscles and bones in action, I use them all the time in my other job.
Not only was the child entertained with movies and books when he couldn't move, but once he could and had to start physical therapy, he fired up those apps constantly. He was no longer scared because he could see what was happening in his body, he would show the PT and ask questions, he became very proactive in his own healing.
Today, while he still needs to rest a lot, he is up and about and carries his iPad everywhere. Not to sit and play video games, but to message his teachers because he's still playing catch up with school.
He also uses it for play: he wanted to build a shelter in the backyard with his friends and looked up the information to do it on his iPad... And promptly messaged his dad to come help, lol.
Interestingly, he has not become glued to his iPad at all, but he does use it for various things throughout the day. Including to find information about chickenpox when his sister got it.
So this is a bit of a special case, but he is now 10 and he is as active as he can be given his still strengthening body and lingering limitations, and uses his iPad everyday for play, for reading, for school work because he missed so much school in 2 years he is now in summer school and contacts his teachers a lot.
He also has photos of his progress since the accident, he looks at them whenever he feels discouraged.
He's recently begun to add music, too.
I think that giving a kid an iPad depends on several factors, though parenting would be the most important one in my opinion.
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