London, April 16 (IANS): In an alarming trend, children at nursery schools in Britain are not been able to play with building blocks properly but are smart at swiping the tablet or smart phone screen.

Teachers warn that children are being given tablets to use as a replacement for contact time with the parent.

“Teachers talk of students who come into their classrooms having spent most of the previous night playing computer games and their attention spans are so limited they might as well not be there,” Colin Kinney, a teacher from Northern Ireland, was quoted as saying in a Guardian report.

She addressed the association of teachers and lecturers' conference in Manchester Tuesday.

Excessive use of technology damages concentration and causes behavioural problems such as irritability and a lack of control, the report added Kinney as saying.

According to Kinney, “an increasing numbers of young pupils who can swipe a screen but have little or no manipulative skills to play with building blocks is a worrying trend”.

Teachers called for immediate research into the effects of tablet addiction on nursery kids.