Bledidoc Advice

Brain development is extremely important during childhood. It is essential for toddlers to explore their environment and learn new experiences like sound, taste and visual interaction with other kids of the same age.(1)

Some facts about screens:

1. Young children who spend loads of time looking at tablets, smartphones or TV screens are negatively affecting the white matter development of their brain. Bedrooms should be media free.(4)
2. Young children spending more than 3 hours per day looking at a screen or watching TV are more likely to be sedentary at that age. In a study published in the Lancet, more than 2/3 of toddlers are spending 2.5 hours in front of TV and smaller devices. There is a clear correlation between screen time and children’s health, adequate sleep, behavioral disorders and future risk of obesity and heart disease. (3)
3. Letting a toddler spend lots of time using screens may delay the development of skills such as language and sociability, according to a large Canadian study.

Some tips:

1. Screen time should be prohibited and limited to at least 1 hour before bedtime.(1)
2. Parents need to organize a day plan for young children with a fixed mealtime and free playtime with outdoor activities and prohibit TV and video games during mealtime. (2)
3. The best way to reduce screen time in toddlers is to encourage parents to reduce their own screen time in order to be part of children’s lives.
4. Research games and apps before getting them for your child. There are thousands of apps and games that claim to be educational, but not all of them are. Search online to see which ones are educational and are recommended by doctors.
5. Schedule plenty of non-screen time into your child's day. Unstructured playtime is important for building creativity, so young children should have playtime away from screens every day. Family meals and bedtimes are also important times to put the screens away and interact with your child.

How to make your toddler's screen time more productive?

1. Be with young kids during screen time and interact with them. That can mean playing an educational game with your child or engaging in conversation about something you see together in an age-appropriate TV show or video. (1)

What do the researchers think?

When young children are observing screens, they may be missing important opportunities to practice and master other important skills.

In theory, it could get in the way of social interactions and may limit how much time young children spend engaging in physical activities such as running, climbing and practicing other physical skills - although they may still eventually catch up.

The World Health Organization recommends limiting screen time for toddlers to one hour every day or less (2) and as per the American Academy of Pediatrics to even less than 60 minutes per day.(1)

Dr. Antoine FARAH

Pediatrician Clinical Associate AUBM

Head of Department of Pediatrics St Georges Hospital Ajaltoun

^{1-American academy of Pediatrics, https://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/138/5/e20162591}

^{Media and Young Minds. COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA}

^{Pediatrics November 2016, 138 (5) e20162591; DOI: https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2016-2591}

^{2- World Health Organization, https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/325147/WHO-NMH-PND-2019.4-eng.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y}

^{3- https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(19)30062-8/fulltext}

^{4- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191104112918.htm}

^{John S. Hutton, Jonathan Dudley, Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, Tom DeWitt, Scott K. Holland. Associations Between Screen-Based Media Use and Brain White Matter Integrity in Preschool-Aged Children. JAMA Pediatrics, 2019; e193869 DOI: 10.1001/jamapediatrics.2019.3869}