There are many benefits to screen time amongst young children. Screen use provides a range of opportunities for creativity and learning as well for maintaining friendships. Many parents agree that using devices is essential for their child’s development. However, there are many challenges too such as children finding inappropriate content or device use affecting their sleep. In order to ensure that your child’s screen time does not negatively affect them you could implement the following 5 tips recommended by internetmatters.org:
- Set rules on the use of screens in and out of home. This could include a ‘family agreement’.
- Make family time and sleep a priority over screens by creating device free meal times and no device use for an hour before bedtime.
- Play, watch and discover together.
- Take the lead when choosing what they do or see on screens.
- Set a good example with your own screen use.
Finally, remember that not all screen time can be counted equally. There should be a healthy balance between passive screen time, such as viewing YouTube videos, and interactive screen time, such as creating content.
