If someone approached you to enroll your child in a social experiment, would you agree? Probably not. But that is exactly what we have done for the past decade since the introduction of smart phones and tablets. With only a handful of studies on the effects of screens, many of us allow our children so much more hours of screen time than is recommended by American Academy of Pediatrics. We aren’t even sure of the long term effects of daily tablet and smart phone use, and yet statistics show that many of the apps downloaded and 50% of the Netflix accounts are geared towards children. What’s the big deal you might ask. Here we go…
1. Excessive screen time is detrimental to overall health.
Children and adults who spend too much time in front of any type of screen often exercise less. Even if they are not overeating, lack of exercise can lead to obesity. In fact, too much exposure to screens, especially at night, can lead to sleep problems that can lead to obesity, attention, and cognitive issues. Two hours before bedtime, all screens (TV, phones, tablets) need to be turned off and a bedtime routine needs to be established to ensure a good night’s sleep! Children who get a good night’s sleep are more alert, have better processing, and are less likely to gain excessive weight.
2. Giving young children screens can lead to behavior issues.
Have you ever gone to the supermarket with your child, and to prevent a meltdown, given her your smartphone? We all have! But we all know that rewarding bad behavior with a screen is not going to solve anything. In fact, you are more likely to have meltdowns from your children if they think you will give them a tablet or phone each time. What about when you take your child for their annual shots? Some parents like to distract or comfort children with an app or a video on their phone. Although the child might stop crying, think about what they missed. What the child really needed was a warm hug, not an app!
3. Too much screen time can lead to attention issues.
Did you know that ADHD is ten times more prevalent than it was 20 years ago? A study from Iowa State University showed that kids ages 6-12 who spent more than 2 hours in front of a screen were more likely to have attention issues in school. In fact, Demetri Christakis, an expert on children and media consumption, feels the speed and flash of modern video games and TV is a big concern.
“I think that the concern is that the pacing of the program, whether its video games or TV is over stimulating and contributes to attention problems,” Christakis says.
4. Apps and video games provide TOO MUCH stimulation to developing minds.
It seems so much easier to put on a story-time app for your toddler than to actually tell her a story. The child, however, misses out on so much when we do that. When a mother tells her child a story, the child listens to her mother’s voice, She has to listen for changes in intonation as well as try to read the expression on the faces of the characters in the book. If her mother is a story-time pro, she might ask the child about the characters’ feelings, or what might happen next! All these points might seem simple, but they are training the child’s brain to read social cues, to think critically, and to be imaginative. When a child watches a story on a tablet, the characters move as the story is told. There is often background music and sound effects. Also, the child can often touch part of the story to make characters and other parts of the screen move. All this while the bright light of the tablet is inches from her face! In this scenario, the child has no chance to use her own imagination. If she wants to move a long with the story she simply has to push an arrow. She doesn’t even have to wait for the app’s narrator to finish the sentence. So many important social skills are missing, when we depend on a tablet to entertain our kids.
5. Therapies and treatments cannot overcome the effects of video games.
After 30 years of helping children overcome learning difficulties, Shirley Pennebaker has observed the following: Lack of sleep and over exposure to video games are detrimental to learning! While Brainjogging can definitely help a child affected by screens and video games, the child must STOP playing video games first. The next step would be to call Camp Academia and get the child on Brainjogging.
Resources:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/behind-online-behavior/201604/what-screen-time-can-really-do-kids-brains
http://www.wsj.com/articles/banning-tablets-is-best-for-children-1477245370
