No more than 2 hours in front of ANY screen, experts say.
Beijing, Sept. 26 (WangYiSheng) – Kids shouldn’t be spending more than 1.5 to 2 hours each day in front of any kind of screen according to researchers.
Limiting how much time your children spend in front of a screen is becoming increasingly difficult as children have easy access to such digital devices as smartphones and tablets. Parents are struggling with how long their kids should play with these devices.
It is widely believed by parents that using tablets may be more beneficial for children to interact with the real world than watching TV.
However, experts caution that apps aren’t necessarily educational.
Here are some things that you should be looking for in your child’s apps:
- Check to make sure the content is appropriate for your child. If you wouldn’t let them watch it on television, then it isn’t okay for their apps.
- Look for real brain-stimulating engagement. Sure, your child might spend hours playing on an app, but is the app forcing them to think while they do it or are they just pressing buttons repetitively?
- Encourage kids to look for educational apps. Just because educational apps aren’t advertised to your kids doesn’t mean that they don’t exist. There are a number of highly-entertaining educational apps out there, your kids just need to look for them.
- Be interested in the apps that your children are using. If you seem like you care in the progress that your kids are making while using educational apps, they will be encouraged to learn as much as they can while they are using them.
One last thing: It’s not a good idea for children under two to be using apps. They need that precious development window to work on their interpersonal language skills, and an app just can’t provide that.
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