Screen Time for kids
We all know the guidelines- no screen time for children younger than two years, no more than one hour per day for children aged 2–5 years and no more than two hours for 5–17 year olds.
…but very few of us adhere to them. Why? Because parenting is hard! Gone are the days of “the village” stepping in to help mind our children while we get important tasks done.
The research is clear, screen time is detrimental to developing brains. It is associated with behavioural problems, attention issues, emotional dysregulation and reduced executive functions both in the short and long term. Ironically, the thing making short term parenting manageable becomes a catalyst for a much more difficult parenting journey in the long run.
I am not going to stand here and say, “don’t let your kids watch TV”. It is simply not a realistic goal for most families. My own kids watch TV! What i will say is, by familiarising yourself with the research you will become more confident making simple TV programming swaps, enabling you to maintain your TV time while minimising some of the negative implications (as well as the associated mum-guilt). Win, win, right?!
Below I have linked some research papers and articles to make your self-education journey a whole lot easier! If you don’t have the time (or interest) to read them in full THAT IS OK! Set aside 10mins and just read the conclusions of each, most are a sentence or two at most! By understanding the effects of time, pace and sound on developing brains, selecting programs for your children to watch will be much easier.
Stay tuned… In my next blog i will share our personal favourites for screen-time.
The research
(and a few interesting articles)
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