Most families who we work with now have iPads or tablets at home, and children are spending more and more time on devices each year. Some common questions we hear from families include:
“Should I let my child have screen time?”
“How much is too much screen time?”
“Does screen time affect my child’s language and learning?”
If these questions feel familiar to you, read on for some information, ideas for using devices for positive reasons, and tips for limiting negative effects of screen time.
Screen time recommendations to support language and communication development
There is more and more research about the effects that screen time can have on children’s language and overall cognitive development. Current the best practice recommendations, based on current research, are:
- No screen time for children aged 0-2, as any screen time for this age group may be connected with delays in language development
- Limit screen time for 2-5 year olds to one hour per day. More screen time than this has been linked to communication, social, cogntive and physical difficulties
- Older children should have limited daily screen time and experience a range of activites including reading books, physical activities, social activities and creative play
Read more about the current Australian recommendations by the Department of Health.
Tips for making screen time a useful and positive experience
- Have daily limits for screen time in line with your child’s age (see above recommendations)
- Help your child know when the end of screen time is coming up by giving notifications for 5 minutes, 2 minutes and 1 minute left. This will reduce challenges with ending screen time, as the end won’t feel like a surprise
- Offer a fun, motivating and exciting non-screen based activity after screen time to help your child be motivated to participate in a range of activities
- Be aware of your own screen time, and how you model this behaviour for your children. Try limiting your screen time and participating in more active, creative and varied activities with your child like playing in the park, playing with toys together, baking cookies, etc
- Sit with your child when they watch TV or play on the iPad, and make comments and ask questions about what they are watching or playing. This makes it a more interactive experience. Talk about what they are going to do, what they are doing, why, and what you can see
- Add in the language of prediction to describe what you and your child think will happen next in a TV show, and compare your guesses witth what actually happen. Use the language of justification to share reasons for why you had those thoughts
- For educational games like Reading Eggs or Mathletics, play the game yourself and check carefully what skill it is teaching your child, and how it teaches. Does it give your child feedback to help them know when they got an answer right or wrong? The best educational apps will make sure kids can’t guess the answer, and it will give them feedback about their responses so they can improve for next time
- When you sit with your kid while they play, add to an app’s feedback. Give your child extra information about what they did right/wrong and help them improve
