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Screen Time - How Much is too Much? by Guest Blogger Susan Kassler-Taub, MSW, LCSW

November 20, 2009

Screen Time – How Much is Too Much?

Today our children have access to some version of screen time everywhere they turn – the TV (how many are in your house?), desktop computers, laptop computers, ipod touch, iphone, cell phones, handheld game devices, DVDs, gaming devices for the TV…Try this exercise: count how many total “screens” are owned by your household.

The questions parents ask me are: does it matter what is on the screen, and how much screen time is too much?

Young children develop best through creative play and actively engaging with their environment. In most screen time activities, the “play” is dictated by the screen, and the child’s creativity is not maximally engaged. A child sitting on the floor with a big bucket of Lego’s, or jars of play dough, or a dollhouse and dolls is going to happily use their own creativity and follow their own agenda for play. We as parents can learn so much about how their young mind is developing just by being an observer and participant in their play.  Let the child lead you as they create the story in their play; resist the temptation to create the story line yourself. Growing and learning is accomplished best through this kind of open ended, creative play in the young child.

Children also learn so much about social relationships with peers and siblings through play. If our children are watching something on a screen or playing some version of a video game with a peer or sibling, then they are not actively engaging their creativity and problem solving skills with the other child; the “game” is setting the rules and dictating the play. Our children will grow in their social skills and creativity when they and their peers together create their play and sort out their relationships without a screen to dictate the scenario.

That said, is there good screen time? Of course there is, and we all know that on occasion it is so helpful for us as parents to hand our child a screen so they can be “kept busy” for a little while, i.e. a long car ride, waiting in a long line, when we have to make an important phone call that can’t wait until another better moment. In addition, there is wonderful educational programming on television and through DVD access that can open our child’s world to places and ideas they won’t encounter in our everyday lives. There are also wonderful educational computer/hand held games that actually teach children new concepts and re-enforce learning.

What is appropriate for them to watch? What I say to families in the office is the following: for each new screen activity, watch as much as you can of everything your child sees or hears, and if you see or hear anything you would not want your child saying or doing in the middle of a crowded supermarket, then they should not be watching it.  Young children will imitate in their behavior what they hear and see, so this simple rule makes it easy to decide what is appropriate. Children also imitate adult behavior – how much of their time spent with you are you engaging with a screen of some type?

So, how much is too much? With school age children, I like to talk to them about “brain building vs. brain draining “ screen time”. Children of this age can have a real conversation about the difference and we can then negotiate appropriate amounts of time. With the younger children, when it comes to screen time, less is best. A mixture of truly educational screen time with pure entertainment screen time is just fine, always in moderation. Certainly if your child needs time to “zone out” in the afternoon while you are trying to help older children with homework, or getting to a project you need to at that moment, that is a perfect moment for some quiet, calming screen time. Perhaps track your child’s use of screen time over a few days and then ask yourself if it feels like there is a good balance between creative play and screen time, and make the adjustments that feel right for you and your family.

Susan Kassler-Taub, MSW, LCSW 
Psychotherapy: children, adults, couples 
330 North Harrison Street - Suite 6 
Princeton, NJ 08540 
609-921-1994 

Moderated by Helen Rose.

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