Should you limit the time your child spends in front of a screen?

            Children spend countless amounts of minutes hours, days even on various different technological devices. They are spending more and more time on smart phones, tablets, Xbox’s, nintendo’s, watching tv then anything else. As the rise in amount of time children spend behind a screen continues to grow, more and more parents are unaware of the detrimental effects. Limiting a child’s screen time can have a great results in their behavior.  Christopher Mims a writer for the Wall Street Journal banned tablets in his house on weekdays and curtailed their use on weekends”. Amazing things can happen when you limit the use of screen time and what they are looking at. Children can become less bad-tempered between the ages four and six. By being limited to a structured amount of screen time it causes them to be more imaginative and happy because they are becoming more engaged. They have to think of alternative ways to get rid of their boredom.

             Many parents resort to handing their children tablets or put them in from of a television to pass time as they are trying to complete housework. This can be an issue as too much passive usage is harmful. Each hour of consumption increases the chances of developing attention issues in school.

             Time on devices, watching TV, and especially playing video games interferes with a child’s sleep. Problems with sleep will result in other issues as an effect such as memorization struggles in school. Research suggests that rather the amount of time contributing to issues what they are viewing causes the problems. As a parent limiting time watching TV and on tablets for your children may also require you to do the same as well. When wanting to limit your children’s screen time you must use yourself as an example and limit yours as an example.

Instead of allowing your child to spend so much time behind a screen, encourage them to play a sport or join a program such as Genie Academy that combines fun with math and reading!

Link: 

http://www.wsj.com/articles/banning-tablets-is-best-for-children-1477245370#pt0-180014