Saturday, October 20, 2012

No screen time. Why?

I have noticed that if I am on the computer after 8 or 9 pm, I do not sleep well during the night. I mentioned this to someone who told me that research has shown that late screen time affects the quality of sleep. In addition to being a distraction that keeps you awake, an open screen actually affects the release of the hormone, Melatonin , which helps you sleep. This hormone is released as it becomes dark and the light of the screen, especially the “blue light” of the new screens, does not encourage the hormone release, making it physically more difficult to sleep. This is a reason that all people should monitor their screen use and try to avoid screens at least an hour before sleeping. It is even more critical for infants because their sleep rhythms are not fully developed and most of the day is within 2 hours of a sleep period in young infants.  Screens include television, computer screens, cell phone and i-pad screens and, yes, even e-readers.  Any lighted screen that projects visual images is considered a “screen”.  The closer to you the screen is, the more impact it will have. You usually sit some distance from the tv but much closer to the computer and actually hold the pads and phones up to your eyes.
Sleep is not the only thing that is affected by screen time.  Screen time has been associated with slower language development. Babies and toddlers who spend a lot of time in front of a screen are actually slower to speak. This is also true if babies are in rooms where the tv is on, even when they are not actually sitting in front of it. It is suggested that the indistinct noise that comes from the tv makes it harder for a baby to recognize and learn language.
There are conflicting studies with regard to cognitive development so it is not clear what impact screen time has. However, it is well known that children do not learn anything from passive input and television is the ultimate in passive input. If your child is watching Sesame Street, for example, all by herself she will get very little from the program. If an adult is sitting with her and commenting on the activities or using them for interactive games, your child will learn much more. The interaction with the adult is far more instructive without the television program.  One concern about screen time, and television in particular, is that each minute your child is watching is a minute less that she spends interacting with people or objects in the world. Those interactions are where real learning takes place.
What about those “Learning DVDs” especially for babies? The indication is that they do not educate babies. As mentioned above, without interaction, babies do not learn. Passively watching a DVD, no matter how “educational” the content, does not impress babies in the way they are supposed to.  While the founder of the Baby Einstein company has questioned at least one study that indicated that passive DVDlearning does nothing for babies, her protest was mainly concerned with her difficulty in getting the actual data of a study done at the University of Washington.
Another area of concern is that media use is that the quick pace causes attention span problems.  A first grade teacher I knew once told me that all the kids expect school to be like Sesame Street, with short active interludes involving cute animals and then jumping on to another subject. She said it was difficult for a teacher to be as entertaining. In addition, the children did not stay focused long enough to learn the material.
The content of programs is also of concern. Most programs for children are written for adults. Often children do not really understand the point of the program. One study of a program that was supposed to teach tolerance to 3-5 year olds actually had the opposite effect. The program focused on the difference that was to be tolerated for more time than it did on the group interaction. The children who watched it were more impressed by the fact that there was a difference then by the idea that they should be tolerant of differences,
Many people think that young children and babies will not understand the content of adult programs so will not be affected if they are in the room but that may not be so. In one study, children who were in the room when a scary program was played to  adults, had a more difficult time sleeping even though they did not seem to be watching. Another study of 6 year olds showed that after viewing a violent cartoon act, children became more violent but after viewing a live act of violence (a man punching another man after a brief argument) they became subdued. This study was done more than 30 years ago.
Because of the concerns about screen time and the possible effects, Pediatric groups all over the world are recommending that babies under 24 months are exposed to ZERO screen time. That does not mean that if you pass a store window with a TV on display that you are going to ruin your child. That means that you should not put your baby in the same room where people are watching  TV and should not set them at computers even with baby computer games. After 2, the recommendation is that toddlers are exposed to less than one hour a day of screen time and that the time they are in front of a screen (TV or computer) is shared with an adult who interacts with them.
The best thing for a baby’s development is to be able to explore and interact with real objects  and people in his world. Screen activities are not real.  Below are several websites and links to articles about screen time.  The first is to an activist group that is called “Commercial Free Childhood” and is concerned about the effects of advertising on children.  The second outlines the recommendation of pediatricians  regarding screen time for infants. The third is a link to a blog  called Baby Unplugged, which talks about the research on screen time as well as about what you can do with your time that you are not on screens. The 4th is the article mentioned above from the founder of Baby Einstien.

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