Gadget rewards

IT’S ALL TOO EASY TO GIVE IN TO CHILDREN AND ALLOW THEM CONSTANT ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY, WRITES DR JOANNE ORLANDO

We’re all guilty of it but do you know the implications? Do you ever promise to give your child extra iPad time if they behave well at the hairdressers or on a long car ride? You’re not alone! Around 65 per cent of parents now use access to technology as their go-to strategy to keep kids in line. The usual pattern is to permit extra technology time to reward good behaviour, and to confiscate it when they’re acting up.

WE’RE all guilty of it but do you know the implications?

Do you ever promise to give your child extra iPad time if they behave well at the hairdressers or on a long car ride? You’re not alone! Around 65 per cent of parents now use access to technology as their go-to strategy to keep kids in line.

The usual pattern is to permit extra technology time to reward good behaviour, and to confiscate it when they’re acting up.

While this disciplining technique can work well in the short term, my recent research suggests that over time, using technology as a bargaining chip can lead kids to unhealthy bingeing on technology and the desire to want to use it all the time. What happens to a child’s brain when technology is consistently used to reward? The problem is associated with how our brain understands rewards.

When you give a child access to technology as a reward they have a feeling of pleasure, and a rush of dopamine in the brain. Any reward such as a lolly or a hug would have the same effect.

Consistently offering the same reward (such as technology time) for good behaviour, elevates the status of that particular reward.

It becomes more attractive to the child and as a result they will want it more. It’s much the same process as how an advertisement works.

The message is particularly potent for kids because it’s coming from the most important person in their life, their parent!

Also because you are consistently giving technology as a reward for being good, they will start to associate technology use with Mum or Dad being proud of them (even when this isn’t the case).

So, when used as a reward, technology use becomes a highly potent double-whammy dopamine hit for a kid.

They attain what you have built up to be the ultimate prize, plus every time they use it they get that warm and fuzzy feeling that Mum or Dad is proud of them.

Can we blame them for wanting to use it as much as they can? The more this happens, the stronger the feeling.

Taking away technology access as a punishment simply reinforces its importance and value.

WHEN YOU GIVE A CHILD ACCESS TO TECHNOLOGY AS A REWARD THEY HAVE A FEELING OF PLEASURE, AND A RUSH OF DOPAMINE IN THE BRAIN JOANNE ORLANDO

Using technology as a bargaining chip works against healthy screen time While it’s important to recognise kids’ achievements, using technology as a bargaining chip works against efforts to ensure that they use technology in quality and healthy ways. It encourages kids to think of technology in terms of gratification and sets them up for unhealthy binge-like approaches to technology use. Better disciplining strategies to use Using technology to reward or punish behaviour is not the answer unless you are aiming

to reprimand your child acting inappropriately in their use of technology.

Ensure the punishment fits the crime.

If their naughty behaviour is not technology-related, then use a disciplining strategy that will help a child understand and improve on the actual behaviour that is of concern. Dr Joanne Orlando leads new ideas and understandings about children’s uses of technology. She is the founder of TechClever Parents, a program that shows parents what to do, and what not to do, to ensure that technology is a positive part of your family’s life.