Do you remember your childhood?
Let me share mine...
5 in the Evening and a friend calling out my name (thrilled), screaming outside my house to play Gallery! A daily pattern...
I used to have my deadline of finishing my homework before 5 pm, but a few minutes of delay in going out to play, hearing my super excited friends already playing, got me butterflies in the stomach! This was our childhood : Endless hours of play, watching Dekh Bhai Dekh on DD Metro with the whole family, pillow fight with cousins, Gully Cricket, Stapu (fancy name Hopscotch), Poshampa, etc. All these small pleasures of life are now things of the past, extinct! just like dinosaurs!
Children today are growing up in a virtual world surrounded by Smartphones, i pads, tablets and internet. Play is decreasing, social interactions reduced, physical activities and sports cut down (to spend more time with Gadgets) and Cherry on the Cake: easy access to junk food and advent of technology giving way to sedentary lifestyle, thereby producing obese children!
Let's face it...! Life of a parent is messy and here is the easiest solution.... park the children in front of the TV and finish your laundry, cooking, etc. and some sane time maybe... Sane time with a child! Really? I am writing this article early in the morning when my husband and son are still asleep, over my two cups of tea and mind at peace!
Screen Time huh? How does it start? And how come at such an early age of 2-3 years!
Nuclear families, lack of support in raising children, EMI driven lives, demanding careers, house chores and children! Buying some time to strike off a few jobs from your daily to do list and some 'me time' for you by handing over a screen to the child and vice versa, befriends your child to a new Angelic Devil friend, 'A Gadget' - TV, internet, smartphone, tablet, i pad, etc, commonly called 'Screen Time'. Kids are allured by their screens, as a single finger swipe brings about a response full of surprises, colours, sounds, animals and more! It releases dopamine in the child's brain : a key chemical released in the brain's reward system which is connected to pleasure, desires and cravings.
Dopamine hits in the brain can make a child too used to immediate stimuli response and hence the addiction. It's like drugging a child!
Have you ever been startled by your child trying to swipe a picture or a poster or tap his finger on a book as if it was a touch screen? Does your child spend hours with his/her screen and hence there are no tantrums and hardly any physical play? Is the screen being used as a calming/distracting companion most of the time? Does your child respond/ talk to you when you initiate a conversation, or is only hypnotised by his screen? Let's admit, that most of us, the young parents of this generation, face these problems in varying degrees. The sharp contrast between their childhood and our childhood clearly shows that we are dealing with a different level of parenting altogether. Also, we are the first generation of parents whose children are exposed to a world overloaded with technology!
And, most of us can't even guess what lies ahead!
Research all over the world has shown that excessive screen time is detrimental to the mental and physical development of children. The harmful effects of excessive screen time are discussed below:
1. Hampers Brain Development - Excessive screen time hampers the cognitive development of a child. Young children receive sensory stimulus from their immediate environment i.e. home and school, and learn through movement. Multiple physical activities like crawling, hopping, jumping, running etc and interaction with family members and caregivers, play a pivotal role in their development. A child is born with trillions of neuron cells in the brain. So, its not really the brain cells but the connections between these neuron cells (called synapses) that account for the brain development. Formation of synapses is based on the child's early experiences in life as this is the time when the brain size increases rapidly.
However, children during their screen time are in a passive state and there is no connection with the real time environment, and hence, less sensory stimulation. As a result of which, the Neuron Connections (synapses) are weaker in children spending too much time with Gadgets.
Most importantly, it kills the natural creativity and curiosity in a child. Children need to read books or listen to a story to enhance their creativity. Books are an amazing way to get those creative juices flowing in children's brain as it makes them naturally imagine the things being told. Ironically, in case of a handheld device, the device does the thinking and the child is merely a passive viewer whose creativity is being washed away!
2. Reduces Social and Language Development - Smart Phones, no matter how smart they get, can never be a replacement for a two way human interaction or real-world face time. During screen time, the child is in his own zone, cut from the real time environment, thereby suppressing their natural capability and instinct to communicate and express themselves. Some children even have problems making friends.It can be because of lack of language development, lack of interest in spending time with other children due to screen addiction, also the instant stimuli - response pattern becomes the child's expectation from humans too! When these expectations are not met, they loose interest in socialising, and ultimately get into a default mode of loneliness.
3. Sleep Disruption and Vision Problems - Another adverse effect of excessive screen time: Sleep Disruption. The blue light emitted by the screens of the handheld devices disturbs the sleeping pattern and can even cause insomnia. Specifically, screens at bed time can backfire, making it extremely difficult to sleep at a normal time, which in turn can cause drowsiness in children, also affecting their academic performance. Children in elementary schools spending more than two hours with the screen during the day in any form, complain of problems like irritation in eyes, headaches, dry or strained eyes, neck/shoulder and bad postures (sitting like a couch potato and looking at the screen), lesser span of attention and a major outcome - 'Poor Eyesight'. Its high time we work on it!
4. Obesity - When children are allowed to 'Generously' spend time on e-devices, it gradually becomes a substitute for outdoor physical play, making the child lazy, shiftless, lethargic and sluggish, leading to weight gain and obesity. Thanks to 'Junk Food' too, arriving at the Doorstep! Lethal Combination!
5. Behavioural Problems - Videos, Games and Cartoons today involve plenty of violence and aggression influencing children to behave similarly and use aggression to solve their problems.
Withdrawal of the gadget/devise gives way to frantic behaviour associated with childhood hyperactivity. A few more problems amongst many others are irritability, poor behaviour and reduced attention span.
So, Screen Time: Much more than we thought, isn't it? A humongous challenge for us at hand, the first generation parents dealing with it... It is us who need to control how much and when to use these Gadgets. The Gadgets should not be given the power/right to decide that on our behalf. That's where the problem creeps in. Technology is an amazing creation of man that should be used mindfully!
In the next article, I will be sharing about Detox and Healthy Screen Time Habits.
Till we meet again and even after that, Celebrate Life!
Sukhmeen Kochar
Chief Learning Officer
Little Millennium
Uday Baug/Sopan Baug
Row House No.2
Garden Enclave Villas
Uday Baug, Ghorpodi, Pune, Mah - 411001
Let me share mine...
5 in the Evening and a friend calling out my name (thrilled), screaming outside my house to play Gallery! A daily pattern...
I used to have my deadline of finishing my homework before 5 pm, but a few minutes of delay in going out to play, hearing my super excited friends already playing, got me butterflies in the stomach! This was our childhood : Endless hours of play, watching Dekh Bhai Dekh on DD Metro with the whole family, pillow fight with cousins, Gully Cricket, Stapu (fancy name Hopscotch), Poshampa, etc. All these small pleasures of life are now things of the past, extinct! just like dinosaurs!
Children today are growing up in a virtual world surrounded by Smartphones, i pads, tablets and internet. Play is decreasing, social interactions reduced, physical activities and sports cut down (to spend more time with Gadgets) and Cherry on the Cake: easy access to junk food and advent of technology giving way to sedentary lifestyle, thereby producing obese children!
Let's face it...! Life of a parent is messy and here is the easiest solution.... park the children in front of the TV and finish your laundry, cooking, etc. and some sane time maybe... Sane time with a child! Really? I am writing this article early in the morning when my husband and son are still asleep, over my two cups of tea and mind at peace!
Screen Time huh? How does it start? And how come at such an early age of 2-3 years!
Nuclear families, lack of support in raising children, EMI driven lives, demanding careers, house chores and children! Buying some time to strike off a few jobs from your daily to do list and some 'me time' for you by handing over a screen to the child and vice versa, befriends your child to a new Angelic Devil friend, 'A Gadget' - TV, internet, smartphone, tablet, i pad, etc, commonly called 'Screen Time'. Kids are allured by their screens, as a single finger swipe brings about a response full of surprises, colours, sounds, animals and more! It releases dopamine in the child's brain : a key chemical released in the brain's reward system which is connected to pleasure, desires and cravings.
Dopamine hits in the brain can make a child too used to immediate stimuli response and hence the addiction. It's like drugging a child!
Have you ever been startled by your child trying to swipe a picture or a poster or tap his finger on a book as if it was a touch screen? Does your child spend hours with his/her screen and hence there are no tantrums and hardly any physical play? Is the screen being used as a calming/distracting companion most of the time? Does your child respond/ talk to you when you initiate a conversation, or is only hypnotised by his screen? Let's admit, that most of us, the young parents of this generation, face these problems in varying degrees. The sharp contrast between their childhood and our childhood clearly shows that we are dealing with a different level of parenting altogether. Also, we are the first generation of parents whose children are exposed to a world overloaded with technology!
And, most of us can't even guess what lies ahead!
Research all over the world has shown that excessive screen time is detrimental to the mental and physical development of children. The harmful effects of excessive screen time are discussed below:
1. Hampers Brain Development - Excessive screen time hampers the cognitive development of a child. Young children receive sensory stimulus from their immediate environment i.e. home and school, and learn through movement. Multiple physical activities like crawling, hopping, jumping, running etc and interaction with family members and caregivers, play a pivotal role in their development. A child is born with trillions of neuron cells in the brain. So, its not really the brain cells but the connections between these neuron cells (called synapses) that account for the brain development. Formation of synapses is based on the child's early experiences in life as this is the time when the brain size increases rapidly.
However, children during their screen time are in a passive state and there is no connection with the real time environment, and hence, less sensory stimulation. As a result of which, the Neuron Connections (synapses) are weaker in children spending too much time with Gadgets.
Most importantly, it kills the natural creativity and curiosity in a child. Children need to read books or listen to a story to enhance their creativity. Books are an amazing way to get those creative juices flowing in children's brain as it makes them naturally imagine the things being told. Ironically, in case of a handheld device, the device does the thinking and the child is merely a passive viewer whose creativity is being washed away!
2. Reduces Social and Language Development - Smart Phones, no matter how smart they get, can never be a replacement for a two way human interaction or real-world face time. During screen time, the child is in his own zone, cut from the real time environment, thereby suppressing their natural capability and instinct to communicate and express themselves. Some children even have problems making friends.It can be because of lack of language development, lack of interest in spending time with other children due to screen addiction, also the instant stimuli - response pattern becomes the child's expectation from humans too! When these expectations are not met, they loose interest in socialising, and ultimately get into a default mode of loneliness.
3. Sleep Disruption and Vision Problems - Another adverse effect of excessive screen time: Sleep Disruption. The blue light emitted by the screens of the handheld devices disturbs the sleeping pattern and can even cause insomnia. Specifically, screens at bed time can backfire, making it extremely difficult to sleep at a normal time, which in turn can cause drowsiness in children, also affecting their academic performance. Children in elementary schools spending more than two hours with the screen during the day in any form, complain of problems like irritation in eyes, headaches, dry or strained eyes, neck/shoulder and bad postures (sitting like a couch potato and looking at the screen), lesser span of attention and a major outcome - 'Poor Eyesight'. Its high time we work on it!
4. Obesity - When children are allowed to 'Generously' spend time on e-devices, it gradually becomes a substitute for outdoor physical play, making the child lazy, shiftless, lethargic and sluggish, leading to weight gain and obesity. Thanks to 'Junk Food' too, arriving at the Doorstep! Lethal Combination!
5. Behavioural Problems - Videos, Games and Cartoons today involve plenty of violence and aggression influencing children to behave similarly and use aggression to solve their problems.
Withdrawal of the gadget/devise gives way to frantic behaviour associated with childhood hyperactivity. A few more problems amongst many others are irritability, poor behaviour and reduced attention span.
So, Screen Time: Much more than we thought, isn't it? A humongous challenge for us at hand, the first generation parents dealing with it... It is us who need to control how much and when to use these Gadgets. The Gadgets should not be given the power/right to decide that on our behalf. That's where the problem creeps in. Technology is an amazing creation of man that should be used mindfully!
In the next article, I will be sharing about Detox and Healthy Screen Time Habits.
Till we meet again and even after that, Celebrate Life!
Sukhmeen Kochar
Chief Learning Officer
Little Millennium
Uday Baug/Sopan Baug
Row House No.2
Garden Enclave Villas
Uday Baug, Ghorpodi, Pune, Mah - 411001
