Children and screen time during e-learning

Children and screen time during e-learning

This question is quite recurrent in the last few years, at least in our profession: “How much time do you find appropriate for my child to be in front of a screen, on a daily basis?”.

More than ever, during the last few months, where digital media is everywhere (e-learning, therapy, activity/hobby, contact with family) your children are more exposed to screen time than they should. So, how to find a “good balance” for the family?

Here are some points we need to consider and to remember

• Watching and learning with the support of a screen request more focus from your child, rather than listening in a classroom;
• Tiredness and lack of attention are factors that you can observe more frequently and rapidly;
• Helping your child to sequence his work during screen time will help him having a better attention for a shorter time;
• Monitoring food and sleeping time every day is essential as it can have impact on his fatigue and attention;
• You need to dissociate “screen time for school from screen time for leisure”, even if, in my opinion, leisure time should be spent away from the screen. It allows your child to have a calm moment, to relax and receive other stimulation by playing with concrete and real games

Screens and social interaction

At the moment, digital media is a topic that raises conflict. There are lots of different articles where we can find opinion and thoughts about the age and time frame for children to be exposed to screens. And this can lead to several discussions.

Some researches and analyses have shown that children between 12 to 36 months have their screen time increasing rather drastically and causing negative consequences. So, it would be ideal to reduce screen time at this age range and possibly even eliminate it in favour of more social interaction with peers and family members.

Interaction, board games, creative games, experimentation are all important for your children’s development and it has a positive impact on the development of their cognitive skills, especially at an early age!!!!

Written by Coralie Hannoteau – Speech Therapist The Children Medical Center