Allowing your children too much screen time can be detrimental to their health, according to a recent presentation titled Screen Time and the Brain, given at the Moose Jaw Public Library.
Layne Pethick, behavioural disorder and autism consultant at Region10 ESC, and Krystal Hawkins, early childhood behavioural consultant and mental health therapist, offered their expertise on the topic of children and the effects that screen time can have on both natural development and behaviour.
The recommended dose of screen time, from ages six and onwards, is about two hours per day, and children younger than six are recommended to be having less; infants to age two, none at all.
Screen time can be categorized as any time spent using a screen: smart phones, computers, tablets, television, video games, and so on. Both Pethick and Hawkins iterated that their message was not to tell parents that screen time is inherently bad, but that it needs to be monitored and regulated to create a healthy environment for children to develop in.
Most people can list the most common adverse effects screens have on the body — eye strain, headaches, problems sleeping — but Pethick and Hawkins had a few to add to the list.
Too much screen time can affect attention, reading and language development, and the ability to distinguish reality from the screen, according to a study from the Canadian Pediatric Society. Pethick also noted that staring at a screen for too long can cause the brain to send hunger signals to the stomach and potentially cause overeating, which contributes to obesity.
Citing both research and practical experiences, Pethick and Hawkins emphasized that too much screen time can produce addiction and withdrawal symptoms similar to cocaine or heroin.
“The addictive qualities worry us the most, the sheer addictiveness that screen times can bring,” said Pethick. “It can rewire parts of the brain, it can cause social issues, behavior issues, learning issues. There's just a multitude of things that can go south with our kids with too much screen time.”
Children with a screen time addiction can have trouble with emotional regulation, social interaction, and processing skills — which can manifest as overreactions when asked to turn off the screen, moodiness when deprived of a screen, and choosing to interact online rather than in person, among others. The more advanced symptoms include psychological problems such as anxiety, depression, and paranoia.
Parents who regularly use a phone or tablet to keep their children occupied in public can actually be hindering their children in terms of learning how to self-regulate their behaviour and feelings. Boredom, as Pethick noted, is actually beneficial to children’s development as it forces them to develop decision making skills, processing skills, and self-coping skills.
The silver lining that Pethick and Hawkins offered was that parents can do their part t by limiting the time spent on screens and by connecting with their children.
“It’s just that screens aren't the enemy, but we really need to moderate and make sure that the time that we're connecting with our children is more than the time they're connecting with screens,” said Hawkins.
In light of the Momo Challenge hoax making headlines, Hawkins’ advice to parents concerned about a situation like that was to “teach our children how to engage with and respond appropriately with that kind of content.”
“We can't monitor absolutely everything they come across,” said Hawkins. “We need to teach them how to handle it, how to respond to it, and know when to not engage.”
Ultimately, both Hawkins and Pethick advise parents to be more aware of their children’s screen time usage and how it seems to be affecting their lives, and to live by example.
“The piece that I really want to drive home is that it’s just so easy, and I say that as a parent, to let our children give us our space by connecting on screens, and it is a really slippery slope when you start that habit of behavior, how quickly it can become dangerous,” said Hawkins.
“Be more involved with their children, at all levels of their lives, and to help them learn how to regulate all of the things they have to deal with; screen times, how friends work, social issues, things like that,” said Pethick, “Just be by their side and help them become the best human begins that they can.”
For parents wanting to do more research of their own, Pethick suggested beginning with the Canadian Pediatrics Society website, as they link other information of note, the American Academy of Pediatrics website, or the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Developmental study for adolescents.
