HEALTHY SCREEN HABITS
GREAT NEWS; SCREEN TIME CAN BE GOOD FOR KIDS – HERE’S WHY
When was the last time you felt guilty about switching on the TV for your kids or giving them your phone to play with? Today’s parents are riddled with techno-guilt. We are inundated with messages telling us that technology is bad for our children. Even the late Apple CEO, Steve Jobs, said he wouldn’t let his offspring use an ipad. And yet, in today’s digitally saturated world, it’s impossible to avoid screens.
So what should parents do? Dr Kristy Goodwin, a children’s technology and brain researcher (and mum), has made it her mission to break down the latest research into practical tips and tricks to help parents feel confident about raising their kids in the digital age. ‘Whether we love it or loathe it, technology is here to stay,’ she says.
“The ipad will not be uninvented and we need to find healthy and helpful ways to use technology with our kids.’
ALL SCREEN TIME IS NOT EQUAL
The Department Of Health recommends that children aged two to five spend less than one hour per day on screens, but this guideline doesn’t take into account what the child is doing with the screen and whether or not they are benefiting from it.
All children have basic developmental needs such as nutrition, sleep, play, movement, language and relationships. ‘Each of these needs can he helped by technology,’ explains Dr Goodwin. ‘For example, we can use technology to help bolster language and support different ways of playing”.
On the flip side, if we don’t use technology in appropriate ways, or if we use it excessively, it can have a negative impact on a child’s learning and development.
An hour spent playing violent video games, which have been tied to an increases in aggressive and antisocial behaviours, is very different to an hour spent Skyping grandparents, which is boosting both their social and language skills.
Ask yourself if your child’s technology use is harming or helping them, and also consider the opportunity cost. In other words, what is the child not doing while they are using the screen? Have they been physically active today, or could this hour watching TV be better spent outside playing or climbing a tree?
BENEFITING FROM SCREEN TIME
Safe and appropriate screen use can develop and enhance your child’s creative, language, social, problem-solving, arithmetic and logical thinking skills, as well as provide big educational benefits.
‘There are a couple of studies that show the educational benefits of Skype, particularly for improving children’s language and relationship skills,’ explains Dr Goodwin. This is because video chat offers the ‘ping pong’ or ‘serve and return’ language interactions (where people take it in turns to speak), which children need.
Book and storytelling apps encourage oral language development by getting kids to record their own voices and narrate the story.
The Wrong Book app is one of the best of these, with the added benefit of a main narrator with an Australian accent. There’s maths apps to make simple maths concepts fun and engaging, such as Little Digits, which gets children learning to count by placing their fingers on the screen, and Motion Math’s Hungry Guppy, which introduces the concept of basic addition by getting kids to drag numbers into a greedy fish.
However, not everything your kid does on a device needs to be educational. Although it’s no substitute for outdoor play, cyber or digital play is an equally valid form of play for our little ones.
‘When children are playing on apps, they are actively engaged and using their higher order thinking skills,’ explains Dr Goodwin.
HEALTHY MEDIA HABITS
Despite the benefits of technology, children should not have free rein. It’s important that parents discuss – and agree upon – what types of technology their children can use and when and where it’s OK. Ideally, you should have tech-free zones in the home, namely bedrooms, children’s play spaces and the dining table. Switch off background TV when you can, as it interrupts children’s play.
And be mindful of your own media habits, as your kids are inheriting them.
‘It’s hard to say, “Turn off the ipad” if you’re wielding your smartphone in your hand,’ says Dr Goodwin .
, ENSURING IT S SAFE
Once you have decided on the restrictions you wish to impose, Dr Goodwin recommends employing a tool such as Family Zone (familyzone.com) to help you enforce them.
It’s a physical device that plugs into your modem and allows you to set specific parameters per child and device, for example: ‘Tom can watch
‘ASK YOURSELF IF YOUR CHILD’S TECHNOLOGY USE IS HARMING OR HELPING THEM’
Sesame Street on the ipad from 10-10.30am on Monday-friday’.
The Common Sense Media app is another great tool for parents, as it gives reviews for movies, games, apps and TV shows to let you know the quality and age appropriateness.
One of the best safety tactics is to co-view technology with your child where possible, or at least know what they are doing on the device.
A recent study by global internet security company Kaspersky Lab showed that a toddler watching child-friendly videos on Youtube is only ever three clicks away from inappropriate content.
Critically, two to five-year-old children don’t necessarily have the language skills to communicate to us if they’ve seen something that is inappropriate or troubling them.
Co-viewing also allows you to foster your little one’s language and thinking skills by discussing what you did or saw together on the device after it’s been switched off.
HOW TO AVOID THE TECHNO-TANTRUM
Tantrums are unfortunately a normal part of toddler development, but there are scientific reasons why your toddler has a major meltdown when you switch off a device or take it away from them. When a child has positive interactions with technology, for example using an app where they are praised or rewarded for completing an action, their brain releases the neurotransmitter ‘dopamine’, a feelgood hormone.
So, when a parent comes and takes the device away, the child is literally craving that feeling of the dopamine hit.
Here are some tactics you can employ to avoid tantrums or lessen their intensity:
Before you even hand over a device, set up clear limits.
Toddlers don’t understand the concept of time as a metric so there is little point telling them they can watch ‘10 minutes’ of TV. It is much more effective to give them a specific quantity, for example: ‘You can watch two episodes of Play School.’ The most important thing is to stick to these limits and be consistent.
Set up a positive transition activity for when she switches off. Give her a choice of two activities you know that she enjoys: ‘When we switch off the ipad, would you like to play in your cubbyhouse or do some painting?’
Get your child to physically switch off the device themselves. ‘It gives them that sense of control and empowerment,’ Dr Goodwin says.