Is Screen Time Bad For My Child?

The American Academy of Pediatrics recently updated their recommended guidelines on this very topic. You may be surprised that your child should not have ANY screen time before 18 months of age (with the exception of video chatting with family and friends). While there are times when 100% pure distraction is critical (like visiting grandparents a plane ride away), this should be a rare exception. Before your child turns 3, they are not really registering the content of the shows, just the highly addictive, constantly changing colors, noises, and shapes. Read below for the updated guidelines put out by the American Academy of Pediatrics: 

Children younger than 18 months:

• Avoid use of screen media other than video-chatting

Children 18 to 24 months of age:

• Parents who want to introduce digital media should choose high-quality programming, and watch it with their children to help them understand what they’re seeing

For children ages 2 to 5 years:

• Limit screen use to 1 hour per day of high-quality programs. Parents should co-view media with children to help them understand what they are seeing and apply it to the world around them.

For children ages 6 and older:

• Place consistent limits on the time spent using media, and the types of media, and make sure media does not take the place of adequate sleep, physical activity and other behaviors essential to health.
• Designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, as well as media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms.
• Have ongoing communication about online citizenship and safety, including treating others with respect online and offline.

• Co-viewing with your child is vital for their engagement and language development

• Screens should be shut off 1 hour before bedtime to help promote good sleeping habits (the lights from screens can contribute to sleep disruption–this goes for adults too!)

• Set clear guidelines (and a timer if needed)  to end screen time– and be consistent.​

• Children 5 years and younger learn through interactions and joint engagement, not through watching and/or  clicking on a screen.

• Children 0-6 months of age are really into faces, so no need to even have a screen on for them!

• At 6 months old children can recognize pictures, but can’t yet make the reference or association of them (meaning they can’t transfer what they see from a screen to real life).

• Children from 9-12 months may seem super “focused” or “engaged” during screen time, but they are not truly getting the content of what they are seeing. Instead what is keeping their attention is the constant and frequent changes in features on the screen (e.g., noise, volume, light, pictures, etc). The people that produce these shows or games know exactly what they are doing to keep your child glued to the screen, but what they are seeing is not actually helping their development at all.

• At 3 years old children are actually able to transfer what they see or watch on a screen to real life.

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• Shows with “real life things”, like Mr. Rogers or Sesame Street, are what children actually connect  to

We hope you find this quick outline of guidelines and information helpful when making your plan of attack with screen time! ​

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​Additional Parent Resources:
American Academy of Pediatrics
Healthy Children (help with scheduling and your child’s needs)
Common Sense Media (what’s educational and what’s not, age ratings, etc)

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*Special May Giveaway*

The Speech Space is giving away a free evaluation, in recognition of May being “better speech and hearing” month! 
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Enter via email at info@thespeechspacedc.com by Monday May 15th. The winner will be emailed on Tuesday May 16th. If you are having concerns about your child’s development this is a perfect opportunity to get some answers and make a plan.