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A Relationship-Based Framework for Early Childhood Media Use
Published in Mary Nolan, Shona Gore, Contemporary Issues in Perinatal Education, 2023
Jenny S. Radesky, Katherine Rosenblum
It is important to consider not only the amount of ‘screen time’ children use per day, but also how media are used through daily activities and family routines. Family routines such as meals, bedtimes, and travel (e.g., car or bus rides) offer times for parent–child conversation, emotional connection, and co-regulation; yet, with the portability and instant accessibility of mobile devices, it has become common for parents or children to use technology during family routines (McDaniel & Radesky, 2018; Raman et al., 2017). Moreover, family downtime – when play, exploration, synchrony, and countless other positive parent–child experiences can occur – may be perceived as ‘boring’ by parents and a trigger for media use (Radesky et al., 2016a). Parents who describe their children as having social–emotional delays (Raman et al., 2017) or who have lower perceived control about parenting (Radesky et al., 2016c) are more likely to give their toddler a mobile device during family routines or to keep things quiet.
The school years
Published in Julia Whitaker, Alison Tonkin, Play for Health Across the Lifespan, 2021
When children are engaged in sedentary screen watching, they are missing out on both the resilience-building play behaviors outlined in Table 4.1 and the all-important face-to-face interactions with parents and peers. For school-aged children, screen time disrupts the development of healthy play behaviors because it decreases their ability to imagine the world, the development of the so-called mental imagery skills (BBC 2020). A child who is playing a digital game, or fixated on a television screen, is missing out on the physical and psychological benefits of real-life play experiences; and a child – or parent – who is glued to their phone is missing out on the close connection of an authentic relationship based on trust and unconditional love. The longer we can postpone the introduction of screen media into the lives of children, the bigger the window they have for creative play and for developing the skills and attributes that will prevent their dependence on it (Linn 2008). Dr Juana Willumsen (cited in World Health Organization 2019) puts it simply: ‘What we really need to do is bring back [real] play for children’.
Screen-Based Activities and Social Media
Published in Cathy Laver-Bradbury, Margaret J.J. Thompson, Christopher Gale, Christine M. Hooper, Child and Adolescent Mental Health, 2021
Vicki Bright, Cathy Laver-Bradbury
Health promotion advice about screen time in relation to behavioural and sleep problems can be conflicting and confusing. In practice in CAMHS we see many young people who have sleep difficulties associated with screen time prior to and during sleep time. Many parents or carers find that their child has difficulty stopping internet activities when asked. It is acknowledged that children and young people are not adequately equipped with the skills to navigate their lives online, and work is being undertaken by Wise Kids to develop a digital citizenship task programme for 4–14-year olds.
Association Between Screen Time of Mobile Devices and TV and School Readiness in Preschool Children: A Cross-Sectional Study
Published in Developmental Neuropsychology, 2023
It is known that intense screen exposure in children has consequences on academic achievement (Adelantado-Renau et al., 2019; Pagani, Fitzpatrick, & Barnett, 2013). However, studies report different results. While some studies have revealed negative consequences (Steinberg, 2017; Syväoja et al., 2013), some others have reported positive effects (Skoric, Teo, & Neo, 2009). Many factors related to the use of screen devices such as screen time, media content, or context can affect the results associated with this activity. Among these, one of the most frequently researched topics is screen time. Screen time refers to the time spent on screen-based activities (LeBlanc et al., 2017). A recent systematic review reports that screen time is negatively associated with physical and mental health indicators (Stiglic & Viner, 2019). Another review reported that screen time, particularly TV time, was inversely related to academic performance. However, in the meta-analysis part of the same study, no relationship was found between total screen time and the academic performance of children (Adelantado-Renau et al., 2019). Based on the findings, the authors conclude that it would be more accurate and consistent to evaluate different screen types separately.
Digital Eye Strain Epidemic amid COVID-19 Pandemic – A Cross-sectional Survey
Published in Ophthalmic Epidemiology, 2021
Pratyusha Ganne, Shaista Najeeb, Ganne Chaitanya, Aditya Sharma, Nagesha C Krishnappa
The recommendations from this study include: (i) teaching institutions should limit the total duration of online classes to less than 4 hours a day,19 give adequate breaks between classes when students can look at distant objects (20–20-20 rule),7 and inculcate lectures on ergonomic use of digital devices; (ii) people should reduce other screen-related activities like watching television, browsing social media and internet to compensate for the screen time spent on online classes or work from home. Parents and care-givers should become role-models to modulate this behaviour of their children, (iii) ergonomic practices that can ameliorate DES should be followed like adjusting the ambient light in the environment to avoid glare and reflections,29 use of anti-glare screen filters to improve contrast, maintaining the computer screen at distances greater than 36 inches and smartphone screens beyond 40 cm30,31 placing the screen 20 degrees lower than the eye level,32 use of computer glasses (blue-light filtering glasses with anti-reflective coating),29 and use of night-mode during the evening hours (Figure 4).33 It is understandable that for many people it is difficult to reduce the overall screen time during this pandemic. Hence, we hypothesize that the level of eye strain experienced may be ameliorated by giving our eyes an ‘adaptation time’ of a few weeks during which we gradually increase the screen time rather than abruptly subject oneself to high screen times.
Prospective associations between pre-sleep electronics use and same-night sleep in healthy school-aged children
Published in Children's Health Care, 2021
Christine J. So, Matthew W. Gallagher, Cara A. Palmer, Candice A. Alfano
Theoretically, there are several mechanisms by which screen time may individually or interactively affect sleep quality (Cain & Gradisar, 2010), including sleep displacement (i.e., screen time use that extends into the nighttime sleep period), heightened physiological and/or psychological arousal related to media content that disrupts sleep, and/or the arousing effects of blue light (i.e., blue light emitted from devices suppresses the release of melatonin, promoting alertness). At present however, the impact of each of these individual factors on children’s sleep quantity and/or quality is unclear. Such questions may be particularly salient for certain populations of youth, such as those with more of an eveningness chronotype (e.g., Arrona-Palacios, 2017) and children entering adolescence (Carskadon, 2011), both of which are associated with a delay in sleep timing.