We reviewed 100 studies about little kids and screens. Here are 4 ways to help your child use them well
theconversation.com
Many parents worry about screen use and their children. Research shows it helps if you watch with your kids and talk about the program.
  • kambusha@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    95·
    4 months ago
    1. Make screen time together time
    2. Choose age-appropriate content that encourages play

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    1. Don’t let screens get in the way of parent-child interactions
    2. Don’t have the TV on in the background
  • flicker@lemmy.worldEnglish
    282·
    4 months ago

    Anecdotally, I’m seeing a lot of parents with kids as old as 10 in carts at the grocery store, and those kids are sitting there staring at a tablet or a phone.

    As young as 2, also.

    It’s constant and nonstop and they don’t look up for anything.

    I’m concerned.

    • cestvrai@lemm.eeEnglish
      6·
      4 months ago

      Even if they were reading a book, a 10 year old in the cart still sounds a bit silly.

      I remember being very active as a kid at the super market running “missions” to get items. One time I dropped a jar of tomato sauce on the floor and I felt so bad about it. Another time I remember college kids making fun of me for pushing the cart (to be fair it probably looked quite ridiculous). Now I look back and laugh…

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.eeEnglish
    19·
    4 months ago

    1. Don’t be like me, who pretty much spends most of his free time in front of a screen.

    2. Don’t become absolutely addicted to your screens, like me.

    3. Don’t spend most of your time inside, like me.

    4. Profit from not being someone like me. Screen life gets boring after a while.

        • robotica@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          3 months ago

          It’s really tough to get your attention span back, especially if you have an attention disorder. I know that for me it’s so easy to fall back into old habits (like I’m doing now) if life is not going exactly perfectly, cause I just get tired and doing anything else is just too much effort that I already exhaust at work and chores.

          I wish you luck in trying to move away from screens, or if you stay on screens, that the time is spent on more memorable activities - movies, TV shows, educational content, documentaries etc.

  • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.worldEnglish
    131·
    4 months ago

    When my much younger twin cousins were born, my Aunt and Uncle decided to restrict them almost 100% from screens for the first 3 years of their lives, to the point where they would ask people to put their phones away when around them.

    At the time, I thought that was a bit extreme, but seeing those two grow into the most active, intelligent, and happy kids I’ve ever met (especially in their generation), I no longer question their parenting methods. There are obviously a ton of other factors and good parenting practices they followed, but seeing the numerous issues “iPad kids” tend to have, I can’t help but feel they were really on to something.

      • exprEnglish
        9·
        4 months ago

        The negative impact a lot of screen time has on kids is very well documented. Basically, even educational shows do basically nothing for young kids. It’s passive and doesn’t help development in any way. Kids benefit a lot more from active exploration, play, and socialization.

        “Moral panic” is a phrase reserved for complaints that have no basis in reality.

  • zero_spelled_with_an_ecksEnglish
    23·
    4 months ago

    Moral panics gonna panic.

    Edit: nothing new under the sun.

    In 1941, Mary Preston published “Children’s Reactions to Movie Horrors and Radio Crime” in The Journal of Pediatrics. The American pediatrician had studied hundreds of 6- to 16-year-old children and concluded that more than half were severely addicted to radio and movie crime dramas, having given themselves “over to a habit-forming practice very difficult to overcome, no matter how the aftereffects are dreaded”

    Read about this and more at https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1745691620919372

    • Clusterfck@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
      7·
      4 months ago

      I think this genuinely valuable research. Attention spans in kids are nearly non-existent. My own daughter refuses to be in a long car ride without her tablet.

      A small help/guide about how to use this great technology to my child’s benefit rather than detriment is fine with me.

      • ruse8145@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
        3·
        4 months ago

        Yeah god knows I was never like that as a kid, wishing I could be home playing my N64 instead of sitting on a car ride for hours and hours and hours on end. Who would ever prefer video games to the freshly recycled air pumped over you for the 100000th time that day while staring out at corn?

        • Clusterfck@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          3·
          4 months ago

          Oh, I agree it’s definitely a good thing but it’s also good for kids to be without it as well and learn how to be bored. Because one day the battery will die or they’ll need to sit through something boring and not able to whip out their phone out.

          I struggled quite a bit missed in college to pay attention without just getting my phone or phone out and zoning out (which I’m not convinced may have been from undiagnosed ADD or something similar, but I still needed to learn to keep my attention on something less exciting)