A Reconsideration of Children and Screen Time

Technology has transformed our daily lives and has created new questions about screen time for children. Does “no screen time under 2” mean no Skyping with Grandma? Does doing homework on a computer or tablet count as screen time for my 10 year old, thus using up some of her 2 hours? The original guidelines from the APP were composed in the 1990’s, long before screens were used the way they are today, and they essentially referred to television screen time or computer games.

New studies argue that there is a value to high-quality electronic experiences for children and even very young children. But that doesn’t replace the fact that children under 2 learn best from mom and dad and that the emphasis for older children is that “parents need to make sure that they get true nonscreen time built into their days. That means, in part, no screens in the bedroom, and cellphones left for the night in a different room. Families need to create a couple of hours of high-quality offline time each day.”

To read more from the New York Times and Perri Kalss, M.D. view the full article here.

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