Is all that screen time harming children? - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Too much screen time makes your brain melt out of your ears, or at least that’s what I was told growing up.

Luckily, that’s false, but amid zero play dates and limited outings, parents and caregivers might be wondering more than ever: Is all this screen time causing harm?

“There's not a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer. There's all kinds of crap out there, and all kinds of wonderful stuff, too. A screen is not a pathogen,” said Georgene Troseth, associate professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, guidelines call for no screen time for children until 18 to 24 months, except for video chat, and that children ages 2 to 5 should get an hour or less daily. For ages 6-10, it's up to one and a half hours per day and for children ages,11-13, no more than two hours per day.

Measuring the effects of too much screen time can be murky since much of the research is self-reported and often fails to differentiate between different types of screen time, for instance lumping in video chat with playing Fortnite.

What is clear is that parents and caretakers should not feel guilty.

“With parents stuck at home, trying to work and their kids not allowed out, when they're instinct is to be with people, it’s a recipe for parent exhaustion. My message is not to feel like it's going to ruin their brain. Just have a balance with normal experiences in the world, like playing with real things and talking,” Troseth said.

While the APA’s recommendations under pandemic circumstances are most likely being ignored, there are ways to make increased screen time less noxious.

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Read more about early childhood development

Mary Ann Baldonado is the mother of two children and host of the Common Sense Media podcast, Parent Trapped.

Amid the din of online “resources” flooding the online pandemic parenting sphere, it’s a funny and short collection of interviews and tips on how parents can catch a break and how to make the most of screen time.

What both Troseth and Baldonado revealed is that content quality and what we’re doing while not looking at screens is key.

“It helps when it’s engaging and leads to conversation, rather than passive like a funnel into the brain,” Baldonado said.

But what does “engaging” screen time look like?

"Try to focus on people you trust," Baldonado said.

Top choices include content sanctioned by your child's school, The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and Fred Rogers Productions.

And despite the wild west that YouTube can be, it's where teachers, children’s books authors and illustrators are putting out guides that invite creativity, such as Draw Everyday with JJK, a Parent Trap favorite.

Signs of too much screen time

If a child cannot disengage: “As far as neuroscience, we've only looked at media addiction with older people, so there's just speculation. More of what we're looking at is their behavior; if you notice they can't disengage, roll it back,” Troseth said.

• Interrupted sleep: Screen light has been shown to interrupt natural sleep patterns for both children and adults, and cutting off screens at least an hour before bedtime is ideal.

• A negative shift in behavior: “At the end of the day if my kid or I are online too much, we become irritable,” Baldonado said.

"If we come out of this saying the amount of screen time our kids had was the worst part, we came out of this pandemic all right," she added.

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Is all that screen time harming children? - Sarasota Herald-Tribune
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