Rebooting the Connection with your Child: Screen-Free Week
Screens have become an important part of our daily lives, and this is becoming more and more true for children. According to a recent article, screen use is connected with many impacts on child development. The article on a Screen-Free Week, highlights the vitality of screen-free time and its potential benefits for the children and parents.
As of 2021, over 81 % of children aged 11 or younger in the United States use tablets on a regular basis. With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic there has been a significant increase in screen time. This is due to the formation of remote learning.
What is Screen-Free Week?
Screen-free week can positively change family dynamics. The one week intervention produced many positive outcomes, including a decrease in parental depressive symptoms, increased parental engagement, and the establishment of screen limits for both parents and children.
Additionally, screen-free time helps promote family cohesion. Families had more opportunities for play/ interactions between parents and children. This shift from screen-based activities to real-life interactions can significantly impact a child's development.
To show the key benefits in a screen-free week the article demonstrated a case study that involved 13 families. The program made parents engage in screen-free time and gave the families new alternative activities each day to switch out for the screen time. The results showed a positive effect on child development and the overall wellness of their family.
Negatives of Excessive Screen Time
Associations were found between high screen time and worse sleep, language issues, behavioral problems, depressive symptoms, and challenges with emotion regulation. This emphasizes the need for a balanced approach to screen use in children's lives. Children can learn, play, and communicate better without screens.
This isn’t to say that there is no positive to child screen use but it should be monitored at young ages. Children should not just daze off and passively watch screens all day, they need to get outside and explore what the world has to offer them.
Ripple Effect
Parental screen use can have a ripple effect on children. Many times when parents are distracted by their own screens, they may become less sensitive to their infant's needs and don’t provide the needed attention. So, children model this by not being as responsive to other people when interacting/communicating. It teaches children that they can zone out in social situations. This is why it is so important for the parents to be the role model for the good behavior they want their children to enact.
American Academy of Pediatrics
The American Academy of Pediatrics has called for the management of screen time by suggesting screen-free times. This can be done by making a schedule of when screen time is allowed and what age this begins at. And when introducing screen time, doing it in an educational manner.
To conclude, the influence of screen time on child development is a critical concern with today’s parents. This article showed that the positive effects of screen-free time are worth giving a try.
References:
ABC News Network. (n.d.). ABC News. Retrieved September 24, 2023, from https://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Family/video/analysis-finds-children-screen-time-recommended-82897797.
McClain, C. (2022, April 28). How parents’ views of their kids’ screen time, social media use changed during COVID-19. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2022/04/28/how-parents-views-of-their-kids-screen-time-social-media-use-changed-during-covid-19/#:~:text=Some%20had%20loosened%20their%20stance,mobile%20devices%20just%20before%20bed
McDaniel, B. T., Rasmussen, S., Reining, L., Culp, L., & Deverell, K. (2023). Pilot study of a screen-free week: Exploration of changes in parent and child screen time, parent well-being and attitudes, and parent-child relationship quality. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 2023, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1155/2023/5545779
