As a parent, you probably hear time and time again that screen time is a terrible issue, and you may have felt guilty more than once for letting your kids watch their favourite shows. After all, there’s always that one parent who has perfectly behaved kids and ‘doesn’t do screens’. And, the chances are, they’ll have a fair few convincing arguments as to why you shouldn’t either.
In truth, though, the screen time debate isn’t black and white. Parents who completely ban screens often run into notable problems down the line, as well as missing out on potential benefits that screens can offer.
So does this mean you should just let your kids get stuck into screens whenever they fancy? Definitely not. There’s undeniable evidence that too much screen time early on can cause issues including speech delays. This is especially true if television is on in the background all day, and has led experts to release age-based screen time recommendations as follows –
- No screen time before two except for face calls and other social reasons
- No more than one hour’s co-viewing per day between 2-5 years old
- No more than two hours per day except for homework from 5 years old+
It’s worth sticking to these statistic-backed recommendations if you’re in doubt. But, if those do-gooder no-screen parents start getting you down even when you do as the experts recommend, it’s important to stand your ground.
While everyone is different, setting healthy screen time boundaries for your child can be a far preferable option. In this article, we’ll consider why that is, and how your child can benefit from well-regulated screen time.
Reason 1: Taking Screen Time Off a Pedestal
When you put a complete ban on something, you risk making it more appealing. This is the reason why many experts now recommend serving sweet foods alongside a main meal, and it’s also a strong argument for regulating, rather than banning, screen time. Kids who aren’t allowed screens at home are more likely to overindulge when they do get the chance to watch anything, such as when they visit a friend’s house. By comparison, a child who’s used to watching carefully chosen programmes for set times each day won’t see screens as anything particularly special.
Reason 2: Teaching Compromise
Unless you’re imposing safety boundaries, a blanket ‘no’ is rarely a positive teaching opportunity for children. Instead of learning from an interaction like this, a child is likely to become frustrated and feel like you’re not listening to their wishes. Often, they’ll also struggle to understand why that’s happening, which can be confusing and upsetting. By instead negotiating with your child to develop healthy boundaries like set periods of screen time or a limitation to certain educational programmes or games, you can show that you’re willing to work with them if they work with you. This compromise is a vital life lesson, and it wouldn’t be possible by banning screen time altogether.
Reason 3: Educational Benefits
We hear a lot about the harm of screen time, but it’s important to note that screens also hold some vital educational potential when used in the right way. Kids’ television, in particular, tends to be targeted towards age-appropriate learning and can help with speech development, counting, and even reading in some instances. Equally, screen time games like Minesweeper and computer chess can teach skills that include patience, concentration, problem-solving, and more. All of these things are educational benefits worth exploring, and they’re benefits your child would miss out on if you didn’t allow any screen time at all.
Reason 4: Enhancing Social Skills
We often consider that screen time will stop our kids from talking to the people around them but, in the modern world, that simply isn’t true. In reality, screen-based possibilities like Skype calls can be a great way to help our children connect with family and friends at even great distances. In fact, experts believe the social possibilities of screen time to be such that they recommend letting even children younger than two engage in these screen-based communications. It’s also worth noting that, even outside of family calls and so on, many television programmes and games can also send important social messages to children. This is especially true of multi-choice games, where children can actively choose how conversations progress, and explore different outcomes and options within that.
Screen time for children can have undeniable downsides, but think twice before imposing a complete ban that could mean missing out on these benefits and others like them.
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