The Monday Consult: Screen time is screen time
Christine threw out an interesting question last week that I thought would be perfect for this week's Monday Consult. She said her 8-year-old son was glued to last Sunday's astronomy Web site:
I have a hard time deciding how much computer time is ok, especially when he is on educational sites - it seems counterintuitive to ask him to stop learning about astronomy, but he could stay online for hours. Any thoughts?
I asked Michael Brody, a child psychiatrist in private practice in Potomac, to give us his thoughts. Brody teaches a course on children and the media at the University of Maryland and chairs a committee on the subject for the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry.
I was a little surprised to hear Brody say that he wouldn't have different rules if a site is educational. "Screen time," he says, "is screen time, whether it's watching TV or looking at educational sites on the computer. ... An hour to 2 hours a day is plenty."
Click the link below to read more of what he had to say...
(Photo of Michael Brody courtesy of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry)
Brody says that parents these days are very caught up in the notion of education. "Education is very important to parents, and particularly seductive in this day and age," he said. "However, other experiences are very important for children too…like friends, talking to family members, reading, playing with pets, going outside and sports and so forth."
"Kids need to learn to use their other senses. Even when you read a book, you’re feeling the pages...If you want your kids truly to succeed, they have to learn to socialize." That, he says, means getting outside to play with other kids and getting away from the screen to develop imaginative games and projects.
Parents should set daily limits on screen time, and help enforce those limits by keeping computers in a public part of the house -- not in a child's bedroom, Brody says. That also helps parents monitor Internet use and keep kids safe.
What are your thoughts on screen time, and how do you handle it in your house?
Categories: Screen Time, The Monday Consult
Baltimoresun.com's 
Comments
We got on an upward spiral with TV time in our house when I started letting my kids watch more in the afternoons so I could get work done. Soon it seemed they were unable to ever come up with ideas of how to entertain themselves. So now, they watch about half an hour of PBS in the morning while I shower, and then no more TV for the rest of the day M-F. On weekends they can watch about one movie per day. Often it's only one movie all weekend. At first it was hard, but after a while they figured out things to do (making block cities, painting, whatever) and things are much better. I agree that computer time is almost the same as TV time. It's still not something that uses the imagination or social skills.
Posted by: Kris | March 17, 2008 4:54 PM
It is hard to turn the tv and computer off, but I agree with Kris, the more they watch, the more they want to watch, and the less likely it is that they can come up with something else to do. It seems our more peaceful mornings are those spent without the tv - if I turn it on for a little while, there are tantrums when I turn it off.
Posted by: susanna | March 18, 2008 2:18 AM