Ways to enhance your kid’s screen time
A major topic nowadays
There is one study that says that the average amount of screen time a teenager spent is about 7 hours a day and a preteen’s about 5 hours a day. That is a pretty long time when we have only 24 hours in a day. There are some guidelines that you can cling to, that the American Academy of paediatrics has published, for example, on kids less than 2 years of age the recommendation is to avoid screen time at all if possible. They learn from direct caregiver directions, so that is what is most important.
And if you are going to do some screen time, make sure that you are present there with them, guiding them through it. In terms of the pre-schoolers like 3 to 5 years of age, the recommendation for screen timing is an hour a day. Again a lot of time can be spent with a parent guiding them through it, or a caregiver.
Something important for parents to take care of
The important thing is to make sure that you try to decrease the amount of time that you use devices to calm or to distract your child. It is very important for your child to learn the natural process, other mechanisms of patience and self-soothing.
In terms of the older children, that is where the things start getting messy or complicated. There are no guidelines or rules set that you have to follow; it is according to your will. But what the essential thing is that as a parent you have made it sure that you pay attention to your child that they are spending more or enough time other activities rather than the devices.
The American Academy of paediatrics has made a very effective website named as AAP Media Plan where you can set up the settings. You can mention the age of your child, and according to the age they provide you the recommended sleep time for your child and then it provides you with the all the other activities other than the screen time that they do in a day. Experts at the nursing dissertation help, suggested this site beneficial in their studies on paediatrics.
Now you can create the plan for your child, and once the settings are done, the limits are all set, cling to them.
Obviously, we understand that things can differ day to day, which depends upon what is going in your home or what planes you have for the day. At least for most of the part cling to those guidelines or advice provided and if there needs to be any change, any adjustment, you can include your child in it.
It is what works for your family, your loved ones. So take care, keep a check on the ones who are close to you. Keep maintaining social interactions with your family members. Try to figure out what is best for you and your family.
A guide on screen time for babies and toddlers
A new-born baby’s brain starts developing in the first two years of life. This is the reason the babies and little toddlers need to discover their surroundings and look at many of the sights, the sounds, the tastes and different types of textures. Talking and playing around with different people benefits kids to experience and learn regarding the environment or the other kind of things in the world surrounding them.
This is the purpose; AAP made the website. As the world moving too fast, it is a bit difficult to keep the kids away from all these devices around them like television, computers, tablets, androids and gaming consoles.
We need to face the fact that screens are like everywhere, no matter where we are while travelling or going camping, technology has a reach to everything today. Your kids are the ones among these billions of kids engaged in these devices. About this, a parent has to take some steps about whether to try distancing the kids away from these devices or make it effectual for them.
Productive ways
You can let 18 to 24 months toddlers enjoy a little screen time along with a caregiver or a parent beside. Set 1 hour a day for the kids of 2 and 3 ages not more than that.
Now a good and productive screen time is when you and your kid is playing colour games, shape and educational games but the bad screen time will be when you make your kid sit in front of the television just for watching your favourite T.V show.
Advice on screen time
- Make good use of screen time.
- Fix sometimes for your family and have talks with your kid and make them learn the lessons regarding the world and the good and bad things in it. Do not leave them alone in anytime just to sit blankly in front of the screen; it can be a bad impact on the.
- Show them an example, Do it because kids learn more when they see you doing it.
- The rules you apply to the screen time is just like the rules for other things.
- Set a limit for everything that it should never exceed and have talked about it.
- Stay with your kids while they are using devices and keep socializing, which include learning and productive games, interesting activities, making them learn more and more about good habits.
- Keep research of good games before you present it to your kids, apps and social media cannot be trusted nowadays. They claim to be educational, but they are not, so take care of that.
- Make a timetable on the colourful chart for non-screen time activities. Playtime is an important part of the young phase of a child. Plan family picnics in the parks and family lunch or dinner plans to distract kids more from screen time activities.
Hope the above ways will help you schedule your kids’ screen timing, wish you best of luck!
