The combination of children and too much screen time is not lacking in worries: cognitive delays, executive operating problems and higher levels of depression, anxiety and insomnia are all associated with leaving small eyes on smartphones, tablets or other screens too early and too often.
However, research – as well as disastrous warnings, issued by all American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry To the psychologist and social author Jonathan Haidt, who does not plead for any smartphone before high school – is always ignored by many parents.
According to the results of a Harris survey commissioned by Bright Horizons, the National Early Education Company. And almost three -quarters (73%) admit that their children could use a “detoxification” of technology, including 68% of parents with children under the age of 6.
Screen time recommendations for American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says that it should be extremely limited for children under 2 years of age, and then only if it is co-visible with an adult who can speak and teach alongside the program. “Children under 2 years of age learn and grow when they explore the physical world around them. Their mind learns better when they interact and play with parents, brothers and sisters, caregivers and other children and adults, ”notes guidance.
For 2 to 5, in the meantime, screen use must be limited to one hour per day, and should mainly (or only) consist of bidirectional video cats or an educational program like Sesame Street.
But according to Common sense media dataChildren under 2 years old look at a little over an hour a day, while children 2-4 look at two hours and eight minutes a day.
Why do parents do not take into account warnings, especially since 49% say they are concerned about the mental health of their children, according to the Bright Horizons report, and 42% are worried about the screen time in which their children are committed?
Part of this seems to be desperate – as 55% of parents said they used screens like negotiation to bring their children to make chores or homework, while a even higher percentage (58%) say they often count on screens to keep their children silent during purchases or restaurants.
In addition, like psychologist Becky Kennedy, alias Dr. Becky, previously said it Fortune,, It is an unexplored territory. “I don’t think parenting has come naturally,” she said. “But the idea that parenthood would be natural in a digital world with everything that is available to our children is at best a joke – and at worst, a means of making parents feel deliberately.” She pointed out that parents should not beat them themselves. And the more we are immersed in our own phones, she explained, the more difficult it is for us to set limits for our children.
However, said Kennedy, who joined Haidt create a guide For parents looking for help for children and screen time, the potential cost of not setting such borders “has never been higher”.
This is why Rachel Robertson, academic director of Bright Horizons, finds the conclusions of the new investigation so disturbing and stresses that it is important to “think of playing at the long game” with regard to the development of the child.
Risks with a screen time too early and too much for small children
“We help these little people to develop the basics they need for the rest of their lives,” says Robertson. “They will be future adults. What do children now need in their development, in the first five years of life, who prepare them to prosper for the rest of their lives? The screens will not add to any of this early development – and in fact, they can really divert it and we cannot recover this moment. ”
For example, says Robertson, an early education expert, if you take your little child to the grocery store and they start to compete while sitting in the basket, you could give them a screen as a distraction. “It certainly helps them, for the moment, to calm down. But in the long term, they missed the opportunity to develop regulatory skills, manage emotions and build their executive function to persist through waiting times, ”she explains.
Providing this easy screen, she says, does not build the fundamental social cognitive and emotional skills they need and on which they will count for the rest of their lives. Doing it once or twice is not a big problem, she says – but using a screen as a distraction each time at the store “will have an impact on important development for children”. She also underlines the work of Haidt, which highlights a range of studies showing that anxiety and other social, emotional and mental health problems, especially in adolescents, are linked to the use of long -term screen.
A scientific corpus argues that, in order to develop cognitive, language and other children’s skills, young children must live the practical world, explains Robertson, for example by playing with toys or interacting with caregivers. Watch the screens less available to interact or hear words, increase the possibility of language, cognitive or social delay, found A recent study.
Another study found that children of preschool age who had more screen time than recommended by the APA had a lower development in the part of the brain of support for language and skills in early literacy, while still another found The more a child of 1 to a year has spent screens, the more they would probably have delays in communication and problem solving at 2 to 4 years.
Below, Robertson offers advice on how parents can start counting less on devices with their children.
Be intentional
A problem that Robertson has seen is what it calls a “lack of intentionality”. When there are screens integrated into grocery carts and the rear of the taxis and planes seats, she says – or even in your hand when you scroll and hold your child simultaneously not to be exposed to it. »»
And you just need a little creativity to avoid screens with your little one, she says – like gathering an interesting range of Knicknacks, such as plastic bottles, action characters and paper and pencils, in a bag to keep in the car. “Then when you have to wait somewhere, this special bag comes out and you can see what creative things can happen,” she said. “There is a reason why children love the cardboard box” instead of the toy, “she adds. “It’s so open and creative.”
Another simple tip is to have just a few old -fashioned games that you initiate if necessary – “Simon dit” or a color or shape competition or “I hope” when you are in a supermarket or in the car or a waiting room, for example. And don’t forget the books.
“Children really like rehearsal, as with the same book again and again,” she says. “They like to be able to start to predict. They strengthen confidence from it. They feel safe from that, and their imagination can explore from this. ”
Help children to use screens for specific purposes
Robertson does not say that you never let your child use a screen again. But how is it used is important, she says.
Let’s say that you rush to cook dinner after a day erected at work. Although you have your child involved in the extent of the ingredients is an excellent way to hire them, it could be too much for the moment. Instead, let them use a screen to discover something – to discover a recipe for spaghetti sauce, for example. The mission will not only occupy them while you chop, it will actually be useful with its response.
“Then they do research and they are critical thinkers, using technology for the purpose, then they can contribute,” she said. “It is therefore an excellent use of technology, and I think it allows them to always use it – not as an entertainment device, but as a tool. And that’s really what all technologies should be: a tool.”
This story was initially presented on Fortune.com
