Family Focus: Doctor says kids need less screen time during the summer
BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD) — It can be tempting for parents to allow children to have more screen time this summer. However, experts warn about digital safety and technology addiction while students are out of school.
“In order for children to develop healthy interpersonal skills, relationships, resilience, manage the ups and downs of life they need the connection with people,” said Connie McReynolds, a licensed psychologist and certified rehabilitation counselor.
Excessive screen time could lead to a loss of social skills, behavioral problems, less or irregular sleep, obesity or even violence.
“We had a little boy who was so addicted that he was engaging in some very, very unhealthy behaviors in the household,” said McReynolds, who has worked with families to address those issues.
McReynolds has seen many children become addicted to video games.
“The difficulty with this is that when the brain starts relying on the video game to produce dopamine, which is our feel-good neurotransmitter, the brain itself may already have a shortage. If it has a shortage and there’s too much coming in because of a gaming situation, it produces even less.”
McReynolds said there are a few red flags that a child may have a problem, including getting cranky about getting off games and temper tantrums.
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From birth to age two, McReynolds said those children should not have any screen time at all. For older children and teenagers, screen time should be limited.
“For every one hour of screen time, children need to be engaged in equal time of something that does not involve screen time,” said McReynolds.
Experts also suggest parents not use screen time to keep children busy. They said it runs the risk of duplicating the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. McReynolds said isolation causes anxiety and depression to increase among children.
McReynolds said adults and their children need tech-free face time with each other. She encourages families to create more family activities and spend quality time with each other.
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