Trial gets kids off devices and outside — and sleeping better
Children also developed better social skills, ‘Play’ results showed
Dragging children away from screens can be a nightmare for parents but a new trial has a strategy for getting youngsters active outdoors.
It’s called Play, a soon-to-launch app and rugby ball like no other, created by Spark.
Families who took part testing it for 10 weeks reported improved sleep and better development of their child’s social skills.
Children were given a ball which contained a special microchip calculating their time spent outdoors using it.
It then awarded them a certain amount of screen time, which could be decided by the parents.
Though child psychologist Dr Emma Woodward, who ran the trial, stressed screen time should not be used as a reward, she did see the benefit in prompting a change of habit that could be developed over time.
“To be honest, I struggled with the transaction idea of swapping screen time for play time.
“I don’t think that’s a good message to put out there because play time [being outdoors] is the reward in itself, it’s not the work.
“But children being children, they don’t have that mindset so it is helpful to kick-start the motivation until children realise there’s so much more fun to be going out playing ball with mum and dad for example,” Woodward told the Weekend Herald.
Ten families from across New Zealand took part in the trial, which ran over the Christmas and New Year break.
Some families reported major improvements in their children’s sleep, and development of better social skills.
World Health Organisation guidelines say infants under the age of 1 should not be exposed to any screens, and children between 2 and 4 should have no more than one hour of “sedentary screen time” each day. For children aged 5 to 18, it’s two hours per day.
Ministry of Health 2019 research has shown a direct link between excessive screen time and an increase in behavioural and mental wellbeing issues, such as an increase in anxiety, poor attention span, acting out behaviours and reduction in quality sleep.
Woodward said parents were often busy and relied on screens more than they thought.
“It’s not judgment, because I do it myself, but we do need to be very aware of the way screens impact developing brains and if we are not on top of that we will see a blip in a few years time of a generation who can’t selfregulate.”
She said screens weren’t bad, because they could be a great tool to access information quickly, but the danger was the amount of screen time some children were getting and the unstructured leisure use of that time.
“For example the rolling over of Peppa Pig or flicking through YouTube videos.
“What we are seeing is that children can’t tolerate frustration, can’t tolerate boredom and they don’t selfregulate because the screen has done all that for them, and as a result their brains are underdeveloped.”
Woodward said devices don’t provide all the experiences or stimulation children need.
“With non-tech play, you’re moving around, you’re exercising your body and improving co-ordination and balance.
“When you interact face-to-face, you’re using real-time communicative feedback.
“Real-world experiences are also slower paced and allow kids to learn how to tolerate feelings such as frustration and boredom.
“All of these elements are extremely important for developing resilience and good social skills, which are fundamental to our wellbeing.”
The Play ball and app is still being developed and is expected to be made publicly available later this year.