This article appeared on Tuesday 9 September 2014 in the South China Morning Post print edition as “Screen time for youngsters: how much is too much?”.
- Is it OK to give my three-year-old daughter an educational phone app when she starts to cry at a restaurant to calm her down and avoid causing a scene?
I am noticing more and more children as young as two years of age with their own iPhones or iPads. It is common to see parents engaged in social gatherings give their children electronic devices as babysitters, and this trend is disturbing.
I remember taking my daughter to gatherings at friends’ homes, and I normally packed a bag with things to keep her busy, such as paper, pencils, crayons, toys and books. I am so glad electronic devices were not as popular when she was a toddler because we could share stories together. I believe electronic products rob children of opportunities to be creative.
It all comes down to how parents make use of hi-tech gadgets. If we use them as a dummy that pacifies the children but doesn’t address what they want, the gadget becomes a tool of an instant gratification style of parenting that might cause children to have shorter attention spans and make them angry more easily.
A famous marshmallow experiment in the late 1960s and early ’70s led by Stanford University psychologist Walter Mischel illustrated the importance of “delayed gratification”, or having the child wait to obtain something that they want. The children were led into a room without distractions where a marshmallow was on a table. The children were told they could eat the treat, but if they waited for 15 minutes and resisted the temptation, they could have a second one.
Mischel observed that some children would “cover their eyes with their hands or turn around so that they couldn’t see the treats, others started kicking the table, or played with the marshmallow as if it were a tiny stuffed animal, while others would simply eat the marshmallow as soon as the researchers left”.
In follow-up studies, the researchers found that children who were able to wait longer for rewards tended to have better college entrance test scores or body mass index (BMI).
Another well-known study by influential psychologist Albert Bandura suggested that violent video games can promote aggressive behaviour in children, but many other types promote positive outcomes. Playing less violent video games can enhance visual awareness, attention span, or lead to processing their thoughts faster. It was the content of the game rather than the platform that mattered in assessing the potential impact on children.
Another study by Chinese University’s Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences indicated that myopia (short-sightedness) in Hong Kong children has been increasing over the past 10 years: 30 per cent of the children in the study were short-sighted by age seven, and half of the children by the age of 12.
A Health Department survey done in 2003 on preschool children and primary and secondary students in Hong Kong indicated that television viewing was very popular with children eight months old, using tablet PCs was popular at 16 months and using computers at 24 months.
One of the results was a set of tips for parents in establishing a healthy amount of screen time for their children. Among the recommendations were: no screens during dinner to promote the sharing of the meal as a family; find more non-electronic activities for them, such as reading, board games or arts and crafts; no TVs or computers in the bedroom, as they can disrupt sleep; and keep children who are not yet two as screen-free as possible, and then add gradually.
As they get older, parents should make rules about when screens are allowed (a certain number of hours a week and only after homework and chores are finished, or on weekends only), and be involved in discussing with the children which games are chosen.
In my view, there are no right or wrong answers that apply to all children when it comes to the use of electronic devices. But the most critical issue is that parents are the ones making the devices and the media available, and thereby giving them the approval to use it casually.
With that in mind, parents should not be just passing out devices to their children without demonstrating how best to use them to enhance learning. Learning how to interact with other children is far more important, and the device itself can’t provide that. The more time spent on electronic devices and media the less time is spent interacting with family and friends, and reading.
For those interested in the topic of children and balancing technology, Cris Rowan will conduct a talk on September 22 for teachers, parents and occupational therapists. For more information, visit bringmeabook.org.hk
