iPad for Kids, good or bad?

We just took our son, Mateo, for his 16 month check up the other day and his pediatrician asked us if we were reading to him. We told her we are reading books and electronic books to him. "Electronic books?" she asked. We told her we bought him an iPad for Christmas. She started going into her spiel about how the American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend TV, videos, or electronics for children under the age of two but I cut her off. I explained that he has apps on it that are designed for toddler learning. She complained that we are still distracting him with graphics and animations when all he really needs is person to person interaction.

After leaving the hospital, I started doing some digging. Are we doing some bad parenting? I read a study done by the Kaiser Family Foundation on electronics and 1,000 kids aged zero to six years old. I wouldn't say I was shocked by any of the findings but I did learn something. 99% of these kids lived in a home with a TV, 73% had a computer in the house, 97% have listened to music, and 97% of these kids have some sort of product- clothes, toys, etc. based on TV or movie cartoon characters. About half of the kids are active computer users. Kids who are "heavy" TV watchers spend less time reading or playing outside than kids their age. A lot of parents commented that their kids have imitated many behaviors seen on TV. They did however say that the kids imitate more positive than negative behaviors (78% positive vs. 36% negative). Children under six are averaging around 2 hours per day watching TV or videos. Most parents felt that the educational videos and games were beneficial to their kids.

I think my wife and I are trying to be the best parents we can. We spend many hours with our son. We play, go on walks, we talk with him, we read to him and let him read to us, we spend many hours of person to person interaction, thank you! When the iPad first game out, I denounced it. I thought it was silly and we would never own one. We already had our iPhones and computers, why do we need something in between? Well, we ended up buying him one for a single reason; so we could put his movies on it. We have electronic copies of all the Disney movies and wanted a device we could store and play them for him while on long car rides. Only after having it did we find out all the neat and cool things it could teach him. There are apps that teach him the ABCs. There are apps that teach him colors and numbers. We always "learn" with him, to us, it is essentially the same as when we used to do flash cards with our parents. My folks had all types of flash cards for my siblings and I growing up. My parents would flash cards while we ate cereal in the mornings. This is just an electronic version of it right? We never let the electronics babysit him so we can do other things while he's distracted.
     We definitely want to keep an eye on his electronic use but I think they can be used as learning tools and can help him develop. A few of the things I gained from the study was to make sure we don't put a TV in his room, limit electronics only for teaching, and to keep him from watching programs where he could learn negative behaviors. We are going to raise our son and future kids the best way we can and I'm okay going against our pediatrician and the American Academy of Pediatrics on this one. I think there are so many good developers that are making great programs aimed at progressing kids and we will use them. We are blessed to be able to provide him things that we were not afforded as kids but we will not abuse these blessings. Our son still prefers to be active, read books, and go outside so we are very lucky.

Article on how apps help autistic children communicate.
http://thetimes-tribune.com/lifestyles-people/apps-may-help-autistic-kids-communicate-1.1139554

http://www.kff.org/entmedia/loader.cfm?url=/commonspot/security/getfile.cfm&PageID=22754