TECHNOLOGY
• Keep your own personal viewing habits low • Make mealtimes screen free • Keep screens out of bedrooms • Don’t use screens one hour before bedtime • Set age appropriate boundaries • Get involved in their screen time
have a number of benefits for kids. By using interactive and engaging apps, educational experiences can be enhanced and learning becomes both fun and accessible. Being digitally literate from a young age can help to prepare children for future learning. Puzzles and interactive games can encourage critical thinking and problem solving in real time. Collaborative games can build communication skills, as kids chat with friends and relatives. Creative apps encourage kids to draw, paint, write code, take photos and make movies – without needing any complicated equipment.
IT’S ALL ABOUT BALANCE
predictor of cognitive effects. Children will learn from what they watch, whether that means learning letters and numbers, slapstick humour or aggressive behaviour.”
CONTENT IS KEY
While the jury appears to be out on whether screen time is good or bad for our kids, some studies are suggesting that we shouldn’t be forbidding our kids from using these technologies. These studies suggest that screens may even be providing our kids with a richer learning experience. Content is key, therefore, it is important to consider the type of screen time kids are enjoying when establishing any boundaries at home. Bethany Koby, CEO and co-founder of Technology Will Save Us says that screen time can be a very passive activity, “where children become completely engrossed and detached from all communication, interaction and participation in the family.” This passive consumption of media removes kids from reality and doesn’t exercise their brain. However, there are huge opportunities for the digital world to do the opposite, when children are channeled into activities where they are engaging and creating, rather than
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M A R C H / A P R I L 2020
Sadly, screen time can go hand-in-hand with kids becoming more sedentary. And with obesity on the rise, screen time is all about balance. POSITIVE SCREEN The Department of TIME IDEAS Health recommends that “children younger than two • Use photo editing software to edit pictures they’ve taken passively observing. years of age should not It is also important spend any time watching • Create a movie about the that they have television or using other family pet opportunities to interact electronic media (DVDs, • Write a blog about their passion with others around computer and other • Use programs such as Scratch Jr screens – this is where electronic games).” For to create games and make music parents and carers need children 2 to 5 years of age, • Ask your child a big question to jump in and get it recommends that “sitting and have them research it involved in screen time. and watching television and • If your child loves YouTube, “Screen time is the use of other electronic set them a challenge to learn just another of those media (DVDs, computer and a new skill such as origami or moments in life where electronic games) should juggling instead of watching their you can engage with be limited to less than one favourite Vlogger your child, and find out hour per day.” • Call grandparents or extended what they’re exploring When used for ‘good’, family on FaceTime and learning,” Bethany screen time can enrich a • Reading e-books is just as valid says. Spend some time child’s life, if that child reading as a printed book, most watching them play a is also getting plenty of e-readers also have a dictionary so game and encourage opportunities to get outside children can look up words they them to explain what and play. It’s all about don’t know they’re doing, or help how you use it. As well as them research their teaching kids to be savvy school project online. This interaction will about being digitally safe, we also need to also help them to engage more outside of teach them how to be an active participant in their screen usage. what they consume, to be discerning about what type of content they are consuming ‘GOOD’ SCREEN TIME and to use digital technology in a way that With the right content, screen time can contributes to their growth. K I D S O N T H E C O A S T.C O M . A U • K I D S I N T H E C I T Y.C O M . A U