Did you know 20 years ago this month the first ever text message was sent. A Vodafone employee sent a message from his computer to a colleague’s mobile phone – then known as a telenote message (and for those interested it said ‘Merry Christmas’). Fast forward twenty years and telenotes have become texts and around 3 billion texts will be sent in the UK this week.
From an educational point of view texting has had a huge impact – with an estimated three-quarters of 10 years old owning a phone. Many schools have now banned phones within schools because of the disruption they cause in class but the introduction of texting has been much more far reaching. Texting has changed the way we communicate, making it instantaneous but at the same time slightly removed. We can’t see the face of the person we are talking to or pick up on subtle expressions that tell you more about what a person is saying. Texting is very easy to do – a quick message dashed off without thought, especially from another child and without context, can upset your child. On the plus side it allows children who might otherwise be shy face to face a way of communicating and building friendships.
It has also significantly changed the language we use, from the introduction of text speak to disappearing punctuation. We often hear from parents that they are concerned about text speak replacing conventional language and that it might impact on their child’s academic achievement. Although the last thing we want to see is bad grammar and sentence construction we view language as constantly changing. We feel encourgaging any form of communication and language use is a good thing and you can always modify how your child uses language as you go along.
If you have any concerns about your child and their literacy skills then one to one tutoring (we cover Manchester and Cheshire) can help, contact 121 Home Tutors.