Episode 173: Screens Are Replacing The Skills Kids Need For School

Your child can be bright, curious, and loved deeply at home and still walk into kindergarten missing the skills that make school work. That’s the gap I tackle today, because early educators are sounding the alarm: more students are arriving at pre-K and kindergarten dependent on adults for basics, struggling to follow directions, and melting down when they hear “no.” When that happens, teachers are forced to pause academics and shift back to school readiness, and kids start forming an early belief about whether they “like school” or “are good at school.”

I connect educational research to real classroom realities, including what the latest reports say about screen time and device ownership, and why tablets and phones have become the go-to pacifier for far too many families. I unpack how heavy screen use can shrink attention span, reduce interest in books, and limit the hands-on play that builds fine motor skills, gross motor skills, and independence. I also talk about social-emotional learning in plain language: turn-taking, coping skills, patience, and appropriate play are not “nice to have” skills. They’re core to learning.

Then I get practical. I share simple, doable action steps to build kindergarten readiness at home through conversation, reading, puzzles, blocks, coloring, cutting, movement, and routines that teach independence. I also explain what to look for when you observe preschool, pre-K, or kindergarten classrooms so you can reinforce the same expectations at home. 

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Transcript

Welcome And Why This Matters

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Welcome to another episode of K-12 Public Education Insights, Empowering Parents of Color Podcast. The podcast that converges at the intersection of educational research and parental actions. It's about making the trends, topics, and theories in public education understandable so that you can implement them into practical, actionable strategies that work for your children. My name is Dr. Kim J. Fields, former corporate manager, turned education researcher, and advocate, and I'm the host of this podcast. I got into this space after dealing with some frustrating interactions with school educators and administrators, as well as experiencing the microaggressions that I faced as an African-American mom raising my two kids who were in the public school system. I really wanted to understand how teachers were trained and what the research provided about the challenges of the public education system. Once I gained the information and the insights that I needed, I was then equipped to be able to successfully support my children in their educational progress. This battle-tested experience is what I provide as action steps for you to take. It's like enjoying a bowl of educational research with a sprinkling of motherwit wisdom on top. If you're looking to find out more about the current information and issues in education that could affect you or your children, and the action steps you can take to give your children the advantages they need, then you're in the right place. Thanks for tuning in today. I know that staying informed about K-12 public education trends and topics is important to you, so keep listening. Give me 30 minutes or less, and I'll provide insights on the latest trends, issues, and topics pertaining to this constantly evolving K-12 public education environment. If you thought the last episode about young students declining foundational skills in toilet training, tying their shoes, gross motor skills like running, skipping, jumping, throwing, and fine motor skills like writing, drawing, cutting, and using blocks was alarming. This episode is a follow-up that addresses why so many young students are entering school unprepared to learn. The sources for this reporting were provided only a few days ago. It is worthy of your attention. In this episode, I discuss the key concerns that you need to be aware of according to the research contributing to these declines in foundational skills. I relate how a decline in these skills impacts children entering kindergarten and the best things to look for in your child's kindergarten class. I also suggest the need for enhancing the way you interact with your children so that they are well prepared for entering kindergarten. Let's gain some insight on this. Most kids these days are addicted to screens. It's unfortunate really because even the most ordinary moments in life can represent a learning opportunity for young children. For example, a trip to the grocery store provides an environment for young children to pick up new vocabulary spanning the alphabet from avocados to zucchini. But what typically happens in most grocery stores with the majority of kids that I've observed is that a parent is pushing the cart while the child sits absorbed in a tablet or a smartphone. The fact of the matter is that electronic devices have become pacifiers. From family outings to bedtime rituals, these devices have taken on a central role in the lives of children as young as toddlers. The child starts crying, stick a device in front of them. The child starts whining, give them your smartphone. Doing these things does not increase the engagement, attention, or learning opportunities that you could provide. According to a 2025 National Report by Common Sense Media, 40% of children have their own personal tablet by age two, and nearly 25% of eight-year-olds own a cell phone. The impacts of these behaviors are glaring, cut across all foundational skills, and are tough to overcome. Early childhood teachers state that young children are given too much screen time and not enough interaction with peers or adults in their environments. Young children need more conversation, not a screen at a restaurant, in the shopping cart, in the stroller, in the car, etc. Adults need to be talking to them, reading to them, and giving them opportunities to explore their community. At school, this looks like young children who are struggling with independence. Schools operate on a packed schedule with little room for delays. When students arrive at school needing assistance with basic tasks like opening their lunch items, putting their coats on, or using the bathroom, they disrupt the schedule and prevent the class from functioning efficiently. Now the teachers may occasionally expect these types of disruptions from their young students, but many educators say they are seeing a disturbing trend in which a growing number of students come to school unprepared to function independently in the classroom. Respondents in the January 2026 Education Week Research Center survey included a nationally representative group of 1,163 early educators and administrators who work with children in pre-K through third grade. These educators indicated that this has been the most dependent students they've seen in their current class of kindergartners. They have a really hard time listening and following directions. They expect the adults in the room will do everything for them. And this causes the teachers to take a step back from academics to focus more on school readiness. The students struggle to buckle, zipper, button their clothing, and they expect the teacher to do it all for them all the time. It shows that the parents would rather do it themselves instead of struggling to teach their young child these basic foundational skills, so the students don't learn these skills by the time they enter school. This translates to the fact that these younger students are not taught independence like how to open age-appropriate food items, zipping or unzipping backpacks, bathroom independence, etc. They also have a lack of communication skills in that they are unable to ask for help, unsure of how to answer questions, and lack necessary vocabulary. Many of the four-year-olds that these teachers have observed come to school unable to use a crayon or scissors. Some of the students come with so little foundational knowledge and self-help skills from home that the focus in the classroom becomes things like teaching them to wash their hands instead of what should be the focus on literacy and math. Students start their formal education expected to use their fingers and hands to manipulate objects from blocks to paint brushes to crayons and pencils. Technology allows for simplicity in motor skills, but a growing number of states are requiring students to learn cursive handwriting, generally between grades two and five. Advocates of cursive writing point to its cognitive benefits over typing, including the memory and recall of words and letters, but it also requires fairly advanced defined motor skills, which is an area where some early childhood educators say students are struggling. Survey respondents suggested that these challenges extend to a range of tasks requiring hand strength and coordination. They indicated that nearly half of their classes have students with an infant to toddler level fine motor ability. The main reason for this, in their estimation and experience, is that these fine motor skills are depleted because too many parents or guardians give their children screens and other devices instead of having them color, cut things out, play with blocks, play in the sand, etc. Many of the preschoolers and toddlers that these early educators saw were unable to manipulate their fingers, hands, and hand-eye coordination skills mainly due to a lack of use through real-world experiences. The use of tablets and screens does not require muscle building. Further, these educators state that screens during early childhood are the direct result of decreased skills for students coming into pre-K. Both fine motor skills and gross motor activities have declined over the past ten years. Basic baseline expectations in early education include following instructions, taking turns, and responding to disappointment without emotional outbursts. But students who haven't mastered these abilities are still having a hard time learning much of anything in the classroom environment. Teachers say this is a reality for a growing number of students that are new to the classroom environment. They also say that the number of students that throw a tantrum at the word no was appalling. The survey respondents indicated that they've seen a dramatic decline in children knowing how to do puzzles, play games where there is a winner, share or even wait their turn. Most of these students assume that class rules don't apply to them. They try to leave the room when they want something, choose not to do the assignments because they don't want to, will not share, or expect to have what they want instantly. The challenges these teachers face with behaviors and social emotional skills greatly impacts their ability to teach and follow a typical preschool day schedule. There's an obvious decline in social emotional maturity. Teachers are seeing a lot of students who are desensitized to aggression and violence due to screens and what they're allowed to watch. Their screen time is not being monitored and it's being used as a means to calm the child down. Many of the parents that these teachers educated have talked with, and they mentioned that the only way their child calms down is by giving them a tablet. So their children have no coping skills or social skills. Their play tends to be very aggressive, and a lot of these children do not have actual functional play skills. Early childhood educators are also seeing shorter attention spans in today's young students. Content on electronic devices moves fast, is accompanied by bright colors, flashing images, and other engaging ways of holding the user's attention. In contrast, the pages of a book are static. Students in today's early childhood classroom arrive at school having spent countless hours in front of screens, and they may not be willing or able to attend long enough to become absorbed in the storyline of a print book and all that it promises. For some teachers, asking students to pay attention during even less entertaining classroom activities and read alouds may seem like an insurmountable task. The inability to focus has increased due to excess technology use, especially tablets and gaming devices. Many of the teachers stated that their students were not able to pay attention long enough to listen to a story read from a book. When they asked the parents about this, the parents said that their children do not enjoy books, so they don't read to them regularly. This leads to a decreased attention span. Students are complaining that they're bored and they want to go home to play on their tablets. And this is in young students. With these types of declines in attention, in gross and fine motor skills, and in emotional regulation, the question is: are the young students of today ready to go to kindergarten? Kindergarten is a big deal for little kids. It is their entry into formal schooling, yet many signs suggest that the first year of school looks different now than what it once did. Kindergartners once spent only a half day in school, and classrooms emphasized play-based learning, with time devoted to exploring in centers that featured blocks, dress up, and painting. Today, school districts now emphasize kindergarten readiness. This means that districts publicize a laundry list of skills, including early literacy, numeracy, self-control, and independence that they expect incoming kindergartners to possess to some degree. Their day is long. Most kindergartners attend school for a full day, and the focus of most kindergarten classes has shifted from play and exploration to reading readiness. Susan Ingall, who is a developmental psychologist who directs the teaching program at Williams College, has written several books about children in education and recently traveled for two years to 29 kindergarten classrooms across 14 states, seeking an answer to this one question. What's it like inside a kindergarten classroom today? These are the 10 things she observed. 1. Every teacher wants order, and for kindergarten teachers, it's about helping their students learn routines and learn to wait their turn. 2. What differs from one classroom to the next is whether students are learning order or are developing a sense of internal self-control. In classrooms that are overly restrictive, the students are just obeying and they're getting conditioned to do that. 3. Every kindergarten teacher cared about reading. There's no question that it is a top priority. Some teachers focused on phonics as well as getting their students to want to know things, to think about books, and to understand the meaning of words. 4. Some kindergarten teachers focus on guiding their students to be thinkers and to include activities throughout the day to bring that out in their students. They ask questions, they take them seriously, they invite their opinions or their plans for their play. And they ask them what they're doing and why. 5. Kids leave kindergarten not only with an idea and an expectation of school, but an expectation of themselves in school, whether they're going to like school or not. Their idea about school is pretty much set by the end of kindergarten. It's the rare child who breaks out of that idea later on. 6. In the really strong classrooms, the teachers were confident in their ideas about children and what should happen in the classroom. When teachers did not have the same sense of agency, it was easily observed in the classroom. 7. Movement is necessary for kindergartners. They need to release physical energy as well as mental energy. 8. One of the key elements that was missing from the classrooms was male teachers and black and brown teachers. These role models would be very helpful for young children to see, especially since many of the classrooms had black and brown students in them. 9. The majority of kindergarten teachers didn't think about what will happen by the end of kindergarten for their students. This was a concern. It makes schools seem like some sort of regimented environment, almost treating school like a factory. That is not innovation. And 10. Many of the kindergarten teachers enjoyed working with their students. They laughed with their students and enjoyed interaction with their kids in the classroom. So what can you do with the information that I just shared? Here are the action steps you can take regarding young students being unprepared for kindergarten. When I pointed out the decline in attention by my daughter's youngest child due to her use of a tablet, my daughter immediately put the tablet in the closet. My granddaughter has not had access to that tablet ever since, and that was about four or five months ago. Since then, she is more attentive, more engaging in conversation, and her language and communication skills have much improved. They're still working on fine motor skills, but even these are getting better every day. Give your child the gift of spending time interacting with you. Refrain from defaulting to an electronic device. Parenting is about active engagement. It is not a passive undertaking. Your interaction with your child could be through conversation, through activities such as drawing, building with blocks, puzzles, games, coloring, and cutting out objects from pictures in a magazine. The building of these foundational skills, a fine motor skills, the gross motor skills, the language development skills, and more importantly, the attention skills will pay off handsomely when they enter the formal classroom environment known as kindergarten. Additionally, they need to know how to regulate their emotions as well as understanding that no is a word they might as well get used to hearing. Understanding instructions and following directions are critical for academic success, no matter your child's age. If it is at all possible, be an observer in your child's classrooms, especially preschool, pre-K, and kindergarten. You'll learn a lot about how the teacher manages the classroom as well as how well your child adapts to the classroom environment. Use your observations to guide the activities and routines at home that reinforce the skills that support your child the most. Here are this episode's takeaways. Electronic devices have become pacifiers. From family outings to bedtime rituals, these devices have taken on a central role in the lives of children as young as toddlers. If the child starts crying, parents stick a device in front of them. The child starts whining, they give them their smartphone. Doing these things does not increase engagement, attention, or learning opportunities that you could provide. According to a 2025 national report by Common Sense Media, 40% of children have their own tablet by age two, and nearly 25% of eight-year-olds own a cell phone. The impacts of these behaviors are glaring. They cut across all foundational skills and are tough to overcome. Early childhood educators are also seeing shorter attention spans in today's young students. Basic baseline expectations in early education include following instructions, taking turns, and responding to disappointment without emotional outbursts. But students who haven't mastered these abilities are still having a hard time learning much of anything in the kindergarten classroom environment. Did you enjoy this episode? If so, go to my podcast website at K12Education Insights.buzzsprout.com and leave me a text message about how you're enjoying my show. That's K12Education Insights.buzzsprout.com. Go to the episode description page and click on the Send Me a Text Message link. Again, it's K12Education Insights.buzzsprout.com. If you don't want to miss out on any of the content that I have provided and what I'll provide next, then be sure to subscribe to my podcast on whatever platform you're listening to this. And be sure to rate my podcast at ratethispodcast.com. Your rating will help me get to know you and why you listen, as well as what you like most about my podcast. It's a great way to help me make the podcast even better for you. Thanks for listening today. Be sure to come back for more insights on K-12 educational topics that impact you and your children. Until next time, learn something new every day.