screen sense
Filed Under Tips & Tricks | March 6, 2009
This month Sharon Selby, a local child counsellor and the creator of the Phonics Wizard, delves into the touchy topic of “screen” time:
We live in a world of “screen” time – computers, TVs, video games and movies. As parents it can be challenging to know how to monitor the content within this mass of media, but our role is to evaluate what our kids are exposed to. We want our children to be respectful and not use swear words, but it creates mixed messages if we’re allowing them to listen to music or play video games with themes of violence and disrespect. A healthy media diet is as important for your kids as a healthy nutritional diet.
Dr. David Walsh from the National Institute of Media and the Family pinpoints how an unhealthy media diet can affect a child’s academic development:
- Curiosity: Children are naturally curious, but if they spend the national average of 25 hours a week in front of a screen, this innate skill atrophies.
- Imagination: Your child’s imagination is a powerful component in learning but it’s restricted by overexposure to TV and other media which either doesn’t allow participation or the participation is scripted.
- Ability to Focus Attention: Children need to be able to focus to learn. Many TV shows, video games and computer games require a very limited amount of attention.
- Ability to Maintain Attention: Television shows, internet games, and video games all train children to expect constant sensory stimulation. If children become used to this, their attention wanders when they don’t have it.
- Persistence: To work hard in school takes persistence, but TV and other media provide instant gratification. Too much screen-time can affect your child’s ability to persevere with an activity when things get frustrating.
- Language: Children need to speak well and write well to be successful. Video games, TV, movies etc. are picture based not language based.
- Inner Speech: It is important that children develop critical thinking skills by learning to reflect, and have an inner-dialogue with themselves. This enables them to think about their actions and control their impulses. Video games, while interactive, generally don’t train your child to have critical and reflective thinking skills.
Reducing your child’s “screen” time by encouraging playing games, reading, or play with toys also means more time for being active and spending time together as a family.
Sharon Selby, B.Ed., M.A., is a local child counsellor. She is the author of The Phonics Wizard Reading Series: a fun learn-to-read program for parents to teach their own children early literacy skills for ages 2-7. Click here for her previous columns.
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