How much screen time should children have daily?

I want to start off by stating that I do not advocate that children do not watch television at all and get to spend no time on the computer or with hand-held electronic games. However, I do feel very strongly about how much time children spend in front of screens and what they are seeing during that time. Television, computer and games, in moderation, can be a good thing. Our young children get help learning the alphabet and learn how to count on television and our school-going children (as well as ourselves) can learn about the world around them from television and the internet.

The American Academy of Paediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under 2 years old do not watch any TV at all and by the time they are teenagers, they should be spending no more than two hours a day in front of the TV watching quality programmes. 

Yet recent research suggests the following:

• More than three-quarters of infants and toddlers watch a screen an average of two hours a day
• Children under the age of 6 years have an average of three hours of screen time a day
• Kids and teenagers between 8 and 18 years spend nearly four hours a day in front of a television and almost two additional hours on the computer (outside of schoolwork) and playing video games

Please note that none of the current research considers time spent on cell phones or gaming or time spent on PSP, X-Box and Wii, to name a few.

The first two years of life are considered a critical time for brain development and television and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing and interacting with parents and others, which encourages learning, as well as healthy physical and social development.

Why should we limit the time our children spend in front of screens? Consider this:

• Television prevents your child from scanning, sifting and analysing information and then applying it to everyday situations
• It stops them from practising motor skills (gross and fine motor skills)
• It limits the opportunity to practise coordination of eye and hand
• It does not encourage using more than two senses at a time to expand the appreciation of their environment
• Television does not provide an opportunity to ask questions and receive educational answers
• It prevents them from exploring and using their natural curiosity and imagination
• There is no opportunity to exercise initiative or motivation
• Children are not challenged by the television and are not encouraged to develop their problem solving skills
• They do not learn to think analytically
• It does not provide the opportunity to practise their communication skills and improve their verbal, writing and reading skills
• Logical or  sequential thinking is inhibited as the action shifts constantly backwards and forwards and laterally in time
• Finally, being in front of the screens do not promote the ability to concentrate for long periods because of the television's flicker

In addition to this, recent research has indicated high levels of aggression, depression and epilepsy in many children who spent a lot of time on these activities.

As kids get older, too much screen time can interfere with activities such as being physically active, reading, doing homework, playing with friends and spending time with family.

Dr. Sigman of the British Psychological Society referred to television as “the greatest unacknowledged health scandal of our time”. Wow!!

Watching too much television has a negative effect on our children’s weight, physical development and health in general. Little couch potatoes do not move their muscles enough and this can lead to inadequate muscle strength, as well as poor muscle tone and inadequate coordination in addition to poor bone density. Sitting in front of the television does not encourage adequate calorie burning which means the children will often gain weight. Children with poor muscle tone or who are overweight often experience social difficulties at school as they are unable to take part in social and sporting activities with their peers and classmates.

Another area that is impacted on is sleep. As we know, children require at least eight hours of sleep per night and the bright lights and flickering screen of the television reduces our levels of melatonin, which is essential for our waking and sleeping patterns. Therefore our children struggle to fall asleep easily or may be restless throughout the night, thus waking up tired, which is not conducive to learning at school.

The eye specialists have been making noises about the effect of television watching on the eyes (I’m not talking about the “square eyes” that our mothers used to threaten us with!). When you look around, your eyeballs move with the use of the eye muscles. However, when look at a television, as it is not so close, your eyes become fixed at one distance and your eye muscles don’t work at all, thus they become inefficient and activities that involve moving the eyes make the eyes sore and itchy. In addition to this, your focus at a distance means that things that are happening close to you are not noticed, so your visual input is effectively limited as well.

Finally, too much television has a tremendous impact on listening skills – this you must have noticed when you try to talk to someone sitting next to you who is watching a television show and they don’t hear a word you say! Listening is a skill that needs to be developed through practice and it requires the interaction of two people talking and listening to one another in order to develop appropriately. Ask your children what they have been watching and the bulk of their memory will be from what they saw rather than what they heard.

Okay, so having listed all the negative effects of television viewing, how do we go about letting our children watch without them being negatively affected by it?

• Limit the amount of time spent in front of screens
• Ensure that your children have access to other forms of stimulation, such as books, magazines, toys, puzzles, board games, etc.
• Keep televisions out of bedrooms
• Don’t eat in front of the television
• Set good viewing habits yourself and turn the TV on to watch as specific programme, rather than happily channel hopping until something bearable is found
• Don't allow the kids to watch TV while doing homework.
• Treat TV as a privilege to be earned rather than a right.
• Establish and enforce TV viewing rules, such as TV is allowed only after chores and homework are completed.
• Try a weekday ban. It’s not easy to find time to get everything done during the week with extra murals, homework and then the usual home routine
• Preview programmes before your kids watch them.
• Be aware of the age-restrictions on programmes, films and games – they are there for a reason
• Watch TV together. If you can't sit through the whole program, at least watch the first few minutes to assess the tone and appropriateness, then check in throughout the show.
• Talk to kids about what they see on TV and share your own beliefs and values. If something you don't approve of appears on the screen, you can turn off the TV, then use the opportunity to ask thought-provoking questions. You can use TV to explain confusing situations and express your feelings about difficult topics (sex, love, drugs, alcohol, smoking, work, behaviour, family life).
  

Posted: 8 March 2010