Knowing Your Child's Limit

“There are over two hundred peer reviewed studies that correlate excessive screen usage to everything from ADHS effects, anxiety, depression and even psychotic like symptoms,” --Nicholas Kardaras, Addiction expert

It is becoming more prevalent that touchscreens, tablets, and smartphones are frequent devices that children interact throughout their daily lives. This creates a concern for families and educators because there have been studies, such as this video from CTV NEWS, which has shown that excessive screen-time can develop into an addiction. As stated in the video, excessive screen-time can lead to anxiety, ADHS effects and psychotic-like symptoms. The video goes on to say that there have been children, from the earliest age of four-months old that are already interacting with electronic devices on a regular basis.

In another blog post by Advanced Psychology, it mentioned how screen-time has drastically changed over the past few years and its affects children in their early years. Unlike in the past where there was little access to television screens, there was selected content that was "genteel and paced slowly" and dedicated for educational purposes. In contrast, the article stated that children around the age of five are exposed to at least four hours of screen time. This is concerning because of the increase in media consumption, especially when the media exposure is rarely filtered and "extremely fast-paced" for toddlers (Shenfield, 2015).

Image from Free Wix (2017)

Aside from being cautious of excessive screen-time, there have been studies to support that there are positive impacts of children playing video games and how it supports their learning. Click here for more information. It mentions the article, The Benefits of Playing Video Games (2014), which lists the various ways video games can enhance children's development cognitively, emotionally, socially, and their motivation. These specific benefits includes; improvement in attention and reaction time, encourages a progressive theory of intelligence, enhances emotional regulation, and social skills when working with other players.

Overall, video games can be an excellent tool to engage children and help develop their meta-cognitive skills. It is, however, essential for educators and parents to keep track of how much exposure and time they spend in front of the screen.