父母要警惕：过度使用触屏致儿童握笔难

Children are increasingly finding it hard to hold pens and pencils because of an excessive use of technology, senior paediatric doctors have warned.

资深儿科医生警告说，由于过度使用科技，儿童越来越觉得难以握住钢笔和铅笔。

An overuse of touchscreen phones and tablets is preventing children’s finger muscles from developing sufficiently to enable them to hold a pencil correctly, they say.

医生说，过度使用触屏手机和平板电脑正在妨碍孩子的手指肌肉充分发育，使他们不能正确握笔。

“Children are not coming into school with the hand strength and dexterity they had 10 years ago,” said Sally Payne, the head paediatric occupational therapist at the Heart of England foundation NHS Trust.

英国国民保健制度信托基金会的儿科职能治疗师萨莉?佩恩说：“入学儿童手的力量和灵活性不如10年前。

“Children coming into school are being given a pencil but are increasingly not be able to hold it because they don’t have the fundamental movement skills.”

“儿童入学时老师会让他们用铅笔，但他们越来越不会握笔，因为没有掌握基本的运动技能。”

“To be able to grip a pencil and move it, you need strong control of the fine muscles in your fingers,. Children need lots of opportunity to develop those skills.”

“你必须对手指上的细小肌肉具备强大的控制力，才能握住和使用铅笔。儿童需要大量机会来掌握这些技能。”

Payne said the nature of play had changed. “It’s easier to give a child an iPad than encouraging them to do muscle-building play such as building blocks, cutting and sticking, or pulling toys and ropes. Because of this, they’re not developing the underlying foundation skills they need to grip and hold a pencil.”

佩恩说，游戏的性质变了。她说：“给孩子一个iPad要比鼓励他们玩增强肌肉的游戏（比如搭积木、剪切和粘贴东西、拉扯玩具和绳子）容易。正因为此，他们没有掌握握铅笔所需的潜在基本技能。”

Six-year-old Patrick has been having weekly sessions with an occupational therapist for six months to help him develop the necessary strength in his index finger to hold a pencil in the correct, tripod grip.

6岁的帕特里克连续6个月每周都去一名职能治疗师那里接受治疗，以帮助他发展必要的食指力量，使得他能以正确的三点握持方式握笔。

His mother, Laura, blames herself: “In retrospect, I see that I gave Patrick technology to play with, to the virtual exclusion of the more traditional toys. When he got to school, they contacted me with their concerns: he was gripping his pencil like cavemen held sticks. He just couldn’t hold it in any other way and so couldn’t learn to write because he couldn’t move the pencil with any accuracy.

他的母亲劳拉自责地说：“回想起来，我发现我给他电子产品玩，这几乎让他接触不到更传统的玩具。孩子上学后，学校联系我，告诉我他们很担心：他像穴居人拿棍子那样握笔。他完全不会用其他方式握笔，因此也无法学习书写，因为他不能精准地移动铅笔。”

“The therapy sessions are helping a lot and I’m really strict now at home with his access to technology,” she said. “I think the school caught the problem early enough for no lasting damage to have been done.”

劳拉说：“治疗过程有很大帮助，现在我在家里严格控制他使用电子产品。我认为，学校发现这个问题足够早，没有造成永久伤害。”

Mellissa Prunty, a paediatric occupational therapist who specialises in handwriting difficulties in children, is concerned that increasing numbers of children may be developing handwriting late because of an overuse of technology.

梅莉萨.普朗蒂是一名儿科职能治疗师，专门从事儿童书写困难的治疗。她担心，由于过度使用科技，书写技能发展迟缓的儿童可能越来越多。

“One problem is that handwriting is very individual in how it develops in each child,” said Prunty, the vice-chair of the National Handwriting Association who runs a research clinic at Brunel University London investigating key skills in childhood, including handwriting.

普朗蒂还担任英国全国书写技能协会副会长，她表示：“一个问题是，每个孩子的书写技能发展过程具有很强的个体独特性。”

Although the early years curriculum has handwriting targets for every year, different primary schools focus on handwriting in different ways – with some using tablets alongside pencils. That is a question.

虽然早期课程设置了每年的书写目标，但不同小学以不同的方式培养书写能力——有些既用铅笔又用平板电脑。这就是一个问题。