A Reconsideration of Children and Screen Time

by ParentCo. March 25, 2016

Important read about screen time and kids from the New York Times: "Whatever we may learn about what young children can or cannot learn from the screens in their lives, what we know is that they need human contact and interaction — and there’s a real worry that screens may take up time and space in babies’ and toddlers’ lives and replace some of what they most need. Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician who directs the Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children’s Research Institute argued in a 2014 editorial in JAMA Pediatrics for the value of high-quality electronic experiences even for very young children, and for up to an hour a day of what might be considered playing with educational digital toys. What we should be emphasizing for older children, he said, is that parents need to make sure that they get true nonscreen time built into their days. That means, in part, no screens in the bedroom, and cellphones left for the night in a different room. Families need to create a couple of hours of high-quality offline time each day."


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