Ford engineer’s daughter inspired unique sketch app feature that encourages creativity
Adults often look for ways to keep children busy while waiting in a car, sometimes turning to movies or videos or computer games. But Ford engineer Joshua Moore said his little girl inspired him to add something special.
When the car is parked, a tap on a touch screen located between the driver and passenger seats will show a rose, inspired by his daughter Rose. It is part of a Ford sketch app that works like a white drawing pad with crayons or paints or pencils and erasure capability for drawing and coloring.
The rose is, Moore told the Detroit Free Press on Monday, an Easter egg like the kind so many software developers are known to leave as surprises for consumers. Things to make people smile, especially the creators.
"To many people, a rose is just a rose. But to me, it means something more," said Moore, 28, of Fraser. His daughter turns 4 in June.
While people enjoy using the art feature to be creative, or color in images of the digital coloring book, sometimes couples leave each other notes. Pet owners write during warm weather that the air conditioning is running and dogs inside are safe, "so people don't freak out," Moore said.
What started as a special feature for the electric Mustang Mach-E is now an app that's available in the Ford F-150 Lightning, Expedition, Edge and Ranger, too, all Ford vehicles with technology known as SYNC 4A. It also offers video apps such as YouTube, in addition to gaming.
"The sketch app wasn't a top-down idea. I sort of took it upon myself to create it. And it's for everyone. Like, if you're waiting for your kid to get out of sports practice," Moore said.
Bodhi Thakur, 42, a communications professional who works for Ford and lives in Troy, said he writes notes on the app for his son, 5-year-old Ranvith, and when the child gets out of kindergarten and into the car on Fridays, he taps the screen to read his special message from daddy.
"He'll just sit there after school, and start painting," Thakur said. "He loves doing his ABCs on screen rather than writing on paper. He's not watching games, he's doing something educational."
Games are available, too, but parents are focusing on the educational and creative uses, Ford officials said, based on initial feedback from users.
When the car is not parked, the touch screen is used for various purposes including climate control, navigation, music, heating/cooling and other daily uses.
Tips on children and screen time
Focusing on educational and creative activity in the car, when children might otherwise be bored, is really important, child development experts told the Free Press. Vehicles of all makes and models often include TV screens in the back seats, for example, and depending on those is not so healthy for young kids.
Dr. Rebecca Klisz-Hulbert, vice chair for child and adolescent liaison services for Wayne State University in Detroit and a clinical associate professor in psychiatry and behavioral neuroscience, cautioned parents to limit TV and video games with young children.
Video chatting with relatives is one thing but the rest is not so good, she said. Children learn from interacting with people, observing, listening to the world around them, Klisz-Hulbert said.
Guidelines from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry advise:
Younger than 18 months old, no screen time
18-24 months old, educational programming only with a caregiver present
24 months old to 5 years old, limit noneducational screen time to an hour on weekdays and three hours on weekends, including games and all
6 years old and up, encourage healthy habits with screen time
"Relying on screens to entertain kids means missing out on other opportunities to engage them, where they could be learning," Klisz-Hulbert said. "Social learning is the way kids learn, especially under age 6. Observing parents, talking to them. If we're just plugging them in front of a screen, they're not getting that. It's OK in moderation."
She mentioned seeing kids in strollers that had screens while at the mall, which is awful. "I pushed a kid in a cart through the grocery store, narrating what we were looking for and asking them to find letters or if they could spot aisle 6. You're enriching your kid's brain."
Why drawing is better
Claire Vallotton, a professor of Human Development and Family Studies at Michigan State University, said parents need to dial back dependence on screens for child entertainment. Human interaction is essential, and that means talking about what's painted or written on the screen with children. It's essential for cognitive and language development, medical studies have shown.
"These days, children get a lot of access to screens and screen time. Just everywhere," Vallotton told the Free Press. "They’re learning to regulate their attention and emotion around those screens. They go to screens for entertainment, comfort and passing the time when they’re waiting for something. But they're not learning what to do when they don’t have a screen."
As a consequence, preschool teachers are starting to report a "real problem," Vallotton said. "It's not out in published literature yet, but we're hearing from preschool educators right now. The 3- and 4-year-olds are entering preschool where they have limited access to screens, because preschool teachers are not handing out tablets, and now they have preschoolers who are breaking down emotionally and begging for screen time. That's all they want. Children are really distressed. And so are the teachers."
Children must learn to wait on their own without entertainment without relying just on screens, because life includes a lot of waiting, Vallotton said. "They're not learning tools of self regulation emotionally or cognitively. It's becoming their one and only tool for regulating emotions, behavior and attention. They need the ability to look out the window and notice the world around them or play imaginary games in their minds."
An art and drawing app requires more from a child than just watching something, which is important, Vallotton said. "It's better if parents are talking to them about it. 'What are you doing? Tell me about it.' The more you can use technology to foster interaction instead of minimizing interaction, the better tech is for children."
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Contact Phoebe Wall Howard: 313-618-1034 or phoward@freepress.com. Follow her on X at @phoebesaid
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sketch app in Ford vehicles inspires children to draw, allows notes
