(Quebec) Quebec students have difficulty writing, expressing themselves and socializing, nothing less, according to school principals.
On Tuesday, the Quebec Association of School Management Personnel (AQPDE) presented a brief to the special commission studying the effects of screens on the health and well-being of young people.
She explained that she had surveyed her members, who largely responded that they were concerned that students “have less ability to decode non-verbal and facial expressions of those they are talking to.”
Linguistically, five-year-old students speak like three-year-olds, reports the AQPDE.
Since language is closely linked to the management of emotions, more and more students are becoming disorganized in class and staff, such as management, must use coercive measures to intervene.
“Our management has noted that this practice was rarely necessary in our primary schools three or four years ago,” the AQPDE emphasizes in its brief.
In addition, students have poorer fine motor skills and more difficulty learning to write, which could be explained by the presence of touch screens at home and the reduced time spent drawing and crafting.
In terms of social relations, school principals say they have noticed that students have difficulty making contact with each other.
“It is estimated that they no longer know how to relate to each other, so it is a great loss of social skills,” particularly in preschool, where “the management of conflict situations between students only increases,” it is reported.
In addition, social networks bring new concerns. In primary school, young girls arrive in class with anti-wrinkle cream, the merits of which are praised by influencers.
Other young people want to be exempted from their physical education classes because they fear being filmed without their knowledge and ending up, despite themselves, on social networks.
Staff and management also share this concern of being filmed or recorded without their knowledge, according to the AQPDE.