Screen Time

Did you know that in October the American Academy of Pediatrics announced newrecommendations for children’s media use?  For young children the recommendations have not changed significant:

• For children younger than 18 months, avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting. Parents of children 18 to 24 months of age who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they're seeing.
• For children ages 2 to 5 years, limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

Recently I attended a half-day workshop taught by Stacey B. Landberg about screen time and children.  One of my “take aways” was to meet parents where they are.  Instead of emphasizing the AAP’s recommendations of little to no screen time, try instead to focus on encouraging parents to increase other activities and offering other “nudges” that increase interaction between parent/caregiver and child. 

Some examples:

• Low Tech (or No Tech) Tuesday
• Media Free Meal/Screen-free snacks
• Digital Free Dinners
• Screen-Free Sundays
• Media Free Morning
• No screen after 7pm
• Tech-free home zones
• Outside play twice a day
• Book sharing before bed
• TV-free kids’ rooms
• Interacting with our voices and eyes
• Putting an end to background TV
• Pretend play twice a day
• Daily Development Activities (e.g. Vroom)
• Replacing sedentary screen time with physical screen time (yoga videos, Go Noodle)