How Much Screen Time For Kids?
Make an Effective Strategy With Your Children
Today, in every other drawing room we are hearing about long discussions of mommies and papas discussing their concerns about kids’ screen time, always worrying about how much time should we give to our kids for their tabs, computers, or laptops.
I have observed, parents are now distributed into two groups:
Pro-screens
Anti-screens
The first one is advocating the usefulness of the technology, internet, mobile phones, and computers, firming their argument by saying:
- It provides skills to our kids regarding the digital world.
- Children can make connections internationally.
- They can design their own games.
- Coding and programming skills will give them new insight into the digital future.
Whereas, anti screens dismissed all the possible benefits and focus more on their disadvantages. I found them enforcing their opinion by referencing studies about:
- Child addiction to games and videos
- Certain illegal content
- Aggressiveness
- Hyperactivity
- Low educational performance
They both are right at their place because whatever it is either machines or technology has its advantages and disadvantages. But before considering falling into any category or supporting any of the above groups, you must ask some questions to yourself.
What are the ages of our kids?
Why do you want to entertain them with mobile phones?
Do you have any other spending time activities at your hand?
Are you a working mom?
Do you want an assistant in the form of a tab to care for your kids?
If you have answers to all of these questions, I am pretty sure that you will have a clear vision of screen time.
But before deciding to give mobiles to your little ones, let's have a glance at what psychologists say about screen time and the age of the child.
According to AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics)following are the appropriate time duration for different age groups.
Toddlers:
Toddlers above 18 months should watch screens only for educational purposes.
Ages 2 to 5:
One hour of screen time is enough for toddlers of 2 to 5 years old, under their parents’ supervision.
Ages 5 to 10:
Allow them any media with strict limitations of time, so that it cannot take the place of physical activities.
Ages 10 to 18:
A time period of 1–2 hours around the day is enough for teens.
As excess watching screens is associated with less sleep, obesity, and low performance in problem-solving and learning.
Now, we have a clear situation before us regarding screen time, though gadgets are extremely helpful for our children in the modern age of the tech revolution, it is very crucial to firmly attach to the physical world around us besides the meta world.
Our kid’s sanity depends deeply upon this healthy balance of switching between two worlds. But, how can we teach children about healthy screen time without getting too strict or sounding like a monster?
Here are some suggestions:
Make your strategy according to children’s age and of course your workload as a working mom.
Among toddlers, encourage physical self-play. Provide them with different activities like colouring, lego puzzles, and building blocks.
Engage them with physical play as much as you can. I usually give the phone to my toddler when I have to take a nap during my schedule, meanwhile, my elder children are watching their favourite cartoons on laptops and I got some time for the rest.
With elder children make a rule chart for screen time and place it on the wall stating
- No screens during meal
- 2 hours of watching per day
- Complete your homework before watching screens
- No screen time before bed.
Divide these two hours into educational and entertainment sections.
But remember to implement all of these rules, first, model them in front of your child for better practice.
