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Why Less Screen Time Makes for Better Family Time

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Why Less Screen Time Makes for Better Family Time

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A kid-friendly article explaining how reducing screen time can lead to more meaningful family interactions and better communication.

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How Much Screen Time Is OK for My Kids? - Learn more and get Common Sense Media’s research-backed tips.

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An easy-to-understand article about how screen time before bed affects children's sleep patterns and overall health.

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Effects of Screen Use on Children’s Sleep - National Sleep Foundation

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In this press release, National Sleep Foundation highlights the effects of screen use on children’s sleep and shares tips to reduce those.

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Explores the benefits of outdoor activities and physical play compared to time spent on devices.

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Play and Learn With Off-Screen Activities from PBS KIDS | Parenting…

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Our favorite PBS KIDS shows are not only fun for my children, but also have proven educational benefits. Here are four ideas to extend the learning and fun of…

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A child-friendly explanation of how too much screen time can affect brain development and concentration.

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Study of kids ages 3 to 5 suggests that digital media use ("screen time") impacts development of brain areas responsible for visual processing, empathy, attention, complex memory and early reading skills

A growing body of evidence has found that teen brains can be structurally changed by spending long spans of time playing games, watching videos and other activities on digital screens (i.e., "screen time"). Now, a study led by experts at Cincinnati Children's reports that high amounts of screen time can affect brain growth and development at much earlier ages.

The study, published Nov. 9, 2022, in Scientific Reports, was led by John Hutton, MD, MS, and colleagues at the Reading and Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children's. It involved acquiring MRI scans in 52 healthy children aged 3 to 5 and analyzing brain structure according to each child's digital media use.

The MRI structural measures were cortical thickness (CT), which measures the thickness of the surface of the brain's "gray matter"; and sulcal depth (SD), which measures the depth of "canyons" between brain folds. Both are established measures of brain development linked to differences in a range of abilities.

To estimate media use, the team used ScreenQ, a composite measure developed at Cincinnati Children's reflecting American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) media use guidelines. The measure includes access to screens (e.g., in bedrooms, meals), frequency of use (e.g., hours/day), content and parent-child use together. The analyses were controlled for child age, sex and maternal education level.

The team found that higher media use was associated with lower CT and lower SD for higher levels of digital media use in multiple brain areas. These included the cuneus, lingual gyrus, supramarginal gyrus and postcentral gyrus.

The scans found accelerated maturation in certain basic areas, such as visual processing, but under-development in other higher-order areas that support more complex skills. Specifically, lower CT and SD have been linked to language development, reading skills and social skills such as complex memory encoding, empathy, and understanding facial and emotional expressions.

Findings were even stronger when looking specifically at brain areas where differences were linked to media use in a large, prior study involving adolescents ("ABCD" cohort study), published in 2019.

"At a minimum, findings in the current study involving visual areas are consistent with those in the ABCD study," Hutton says. "This suggests that relationships between higher media use and brain structure begin to manifest in early childhood and may become more extensive over time."

Findings expand upon earlier work

Hutton and colleagues have devoted years to studying potential impacts of screen time for children, including the first MRI-based studies in the formative preschool age range.

In 2018, the team reported in Brain Imaging and Behavior that functional connectivity between brain networks supporting language, imagery and other functions were strongest and most balanced during an illustrated storybook format compared to animated versions of similar stories. A follow-up study in the journal Brain Connectivity found optimal patterns of connectivity during illustrated compared to animated format involving brain networks supporting attention.

In January 2020, in JAMA Pediatrics, the team reported associations between higher screen usage and lower brain white-matter integrity and early literacy skills in preschool-age children.

In December 2021, in Pediatrics, experts at Cincinnati Children's further reported that shared reading time during early childhood was linked to lower social-emotional concerns later in life.

Hutton notes that the new research in young children dovetails with a recent finding from the ongoing Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study that reports associations between higher digital media use and lower CT and SD in areas involved with visual processing, executive functions, memory and attention, and with higher levels of behavior problems reported by parents.

What does this mean for families?

"These findings of differences in brain structure related to higher digital media use are especially important because the brain is growing so rapidly before age 5 and is exquisitely sensitive to experiences," Hutton says. "While not definitive and there is much work yet to be done, it is prudent for parents to be cautious regarding screen time at young ages, and to strive to keep use a minimum while encouraging 'analog' activities such as reading, talking and creative play."

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends limiting digital media use to no more than 1 hour a day for ages 2 to 5 and has urged parents to focus limited screen time usage to educational programs and to use together as much as possible.

The long-term effects of exposure to excessive screen time during early childhood have not yet been thoroughly studied because much of the technology involved is new, Hutton says, . Some disruptions to healthy development might be corrected over time because the brain can re-wire itself to adapt to harm or under-stimulation, though this becomes harder with age.

"The consistency of these brain findings involving young children and those involving teens suggests that there may be a cumulative impact of digital media use, which tends to increase with age," Hutton says. "Thus, limiting screen time and encouraging healthy alternatives as early as possible is a sound strategy to help children grow up healthy, well-adjusted and successful in school and life.

Listen to Dr. Hutton describe the research findings on WVXU's Cincinnati Edition.

Hutton and colleagues plan to continue tracking the impacts of screen time as children grow, and to study the effectiveness of efforts to reduce potentially negative impacts of excessive use.

About this study

Cincinnati Children's co-authors for this study included Jonathan Dudley, PhD, Thomas DeWitt, MD, and Tzipi Horowitz-Kraus, PhD, scientific director of the Reading and Literacy Discovery Center.

Funding sources included a Procter Scholar Award from the Cincinnati Children's Research Foundation.

Learn More
These Reading Programs Support Kindergarten Readiness Screen Time Linked to Brain Structure Changes in Young Children Shared Reading Appears to Improve Social-Emotional Health Book+MRI Scans Help Predict Reading Risks for Preschoolers Learn more about the Reading and Literacy Discovery Center at Cincinnati Children's

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Screen Usage Linked to Differences in Brain Structure in Young Children - Research Horizons

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A growing body of evidence has found that teen brains can be structurally changed by spending long spans of time playing games, watching videos and other activities on digital screens (i.e., "screen time"). Now, a study led by experts at Cincinnati Children's reports that high amounts of screen time can affect brain growth and development at much earlier ages.

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Building Better Habits: Screen-Free Activities

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Building Better Habits: Screen-Free Activities

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Suggests fun alternatives to screen time and explains why they're beneficial for children's development.

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15+ Screen-Free Indoor Activities for Ages 6-13

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Help your child build valuable new skills with these crafts sets, games, and hands-on activity kits.

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Educational Apps: When Screen Time Can Be Good

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Educational Apps: When Screen Time Can Be Good

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Discusses how certain educational apps and programs can benefit learning when used appropriately.

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The last few years have made clear that education may be increasingly infused with technology but that much ed. tech is disappointing and distracting. Heck, I spent a whole chapter in -Rick The Great School Rethink on this very point and on what it'll take to do better. Well, that's what makes a new meta-analysis by Jimmy Kim and Josh Gilbert so intriguing. Kim, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, and Gilbert, a Ph.D. student at Harvard, dug deep into the research literature to figure out what we know about when and why apps actually help students learn. I think it's fascinating stuff and asked if they'd mind sharing some of the takeaways. They were good enough to oblige. Here's what they had to say.
Can educational apps really help children learn? It's a question that has become especially relevant since the COVID-19 pandemic, when millions of students were forced by school closures into online learning. With the abundance of educational apps available, parents and teachers are wondering whether they are truly effective in improving student learning outcomes such as math or reading test scores.

Researchers often conduct randomized controlled trials, RCTs, to test whether an educational app is effective in promoting student learning. In these studies, a group of students is randomly divided into two groups: one that practices their skills with the educational app and another that does not. Individual RCTs provide valuable insights, but they often involve small, homogeneous samples-which makes it challenging to draw broader conclusions about the overall effectiveness of educational apps.

This is where "meta-analysis" comes in. Meta-analysis is a statistical method that combines the results of multiple studies to provide a more comprehensive understanding of the overall research landscape. In meta-analysis, the data points are not the test scores of individual students, as in a single study, but rather the results of many studies. This lets us study the consistency of results and when or why they vary.

Our meta-analysis sampled 36 studies focusing on educational apps designed to improve math and reading skills in children aged 3 to 9. The findings bring good news: The overall effect of these apps is positive. But before parents and teachers rejoice and hand over tablets to their kids for the entire day, it's important to note that the average positive effect hides significant variation in app effectiveness. Our study revealed that the effects of the apps ranged from slightly negative to hugely positive. With such a wide range of outcomes, it's crucial to explore the characteristics of the studies and apps that may explain these differences.

We identified three key variables that accounted for the variation in app effectiveness. First, the effects were larger in studies that used tests specifically designed to measure the skills targeted by the app, rather than relying on externally developed standardized tests. Second, apps focusing on "constrained" skills, such as letter names or counting, showed larger effects compared with those targeting "unconstrained" skills like vocabulary or arithmetic. Third, the effects were more pronounced in preschool-aged children compared with those in kindergarten to 3rd grade. Interestingly, our findings also highlight what does not explain the differences in app effectiveness. The "dosage" of the app study-including the number of sessions, time spent per session, and duration of the study-did not predict variations in effectiveness. Additionally, there were no significant differences between apps aimed at improving literacy outcomes versus math outcomes.

So, what does this all mean for parents and teachers? Before they make any drastic decisions based on the latest study suggesting positive effects of an educational app, it's crucial to consider critical questions about how the study was conducted. These questions will help evaluate the study's findings and their relevance to individual situations.

First, it's important to determine whether the study measured success using a standardized test or a researcher-developed test. Standardized tests are widely recognized and provide a clear benchmark for comparison, while researcher-developed tests may be more tailored to the specific skills targeted by the app. In general, studies that use standardized tests are more likely to be generalizable to other contexts than those that use researcher-developed tests.

Second, it's essential to assess whether the study measured a constrained or unconstrained skill. Constrained skills refer to specific abilities like letter names or counting, which are more easily quantifiable and targeted by educational apps. Unconstrained skills, on the other hand, encompass broader abilities such as vocabulary or arithmetic, which may be more challenging to improve solely through app usage. Knowing which types of skills were evaluated will help determine the potential benefits of the app in question.

Finally, it's valuable to consider whether the study focused on preschool-aged children or those in kindergarten to 3rd grade. Children at different developmental stages may respond differently to educational apps, and age-specific factors can influence their learning outcomes. Understanding the age group involved in the study will assist in gauging the relevance of the findings to the specific age range of interest.

Parents, teachers, and researchers should remember that the measures used in a study matter significantly. By critically evaluating the methodology and considering these important factors, we can make more informed decisions regarding the use of educational apps for children. The essential question isn't simply whether apps work but rather, for whom and under what conditions they are effective.

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Do Educational Apps Actually Help Kids Learn? (Opinion)

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A new analysis shows that the overall effect is positive, but that's based on a variety of factors.

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Finding the Right Balance with Technology

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Finding the Right Balance with Technology

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Guidelines for families on creating healthy screen time habits while acknowledging the role of technology in modern life.

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Question: What are some screen time guidelines for social media applications?

Answer: It can be tempting to want a set number of hours on screens that is "safe" or healthy to guide your family's technology use. Unfortunately, there isn't enough evidence demonstrating a benefit from specific screen time limitation guidelines. For this reason, the American Academy of Pediatrics updated their media use recommendations in 2016. These evidence-based guidelines do not give a set screen time limit that applies to all children and teens. Because children and adolescents can have many different kinds of interactions with technology, rather than setting a guideline for specific time limits on digital media use, we recommend considering the quality of interactions with digital media and not just the quantity, or amount of time.

It is important to consider the specific activities that children and teens engage in on social media, and to support them in using social media in ways that strengthen their social, emotional, cognitive and identity development. When it comes to household rules around technology use, there is evidence that rules focusing on content, co-viewing and communication are associated with better well-being outcomes than rules focused on screen time.

Resources for Parents:

Common Sense Media published the following article titled "How Much Screen Time is OK for My Kids?" which emphasizes how quality of media use is more important than setting a screen time limit.

Common Sense Media also provides guidance on assessing the quality of a child's digital media use in "Are Some Types of Screen Time Better Than Others?".

Healthychildren.org provides guidance on how caregivers can support healthy media habits in the article "Beyond Screen Time: Help Your Kids Build Healthy Media Use Habits".

Healthychildren.org recommends creating a Family Media Plan to facilitate discussion around safe and practical media use that works for a family's specific needs.

Common Sense Education provides tips, discussion prompts, and activities for families to learn about digital citizenship together.

The American Psychological Association recently released a health advisory on adolescent social media use. The advisory explains that social media use is not inherently harmful or beneficial, and offers a list of ten recommendations for adolescent engagement with social media.

Resources for Educators

Common Sense Education provides a comprehensive Digital Citizenship Curriculum for each grade level k-12 which is free for educators. The curriculum covers topics including media balance & well-being, relationships, communication and cyberbullying.

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Review our recommendations on considering both the quality and quantity of interaction with social media applications.

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Digital Learning vs. Traditional Learning

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Digital Learning vs. Traditional Learning

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Explores how screen-based learning can complement traditional education methods when used correctly.

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What is Digital Learning and Why Should You Get a Certificate?

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In a post-pandemic world, the importance of digital learning has never been more pronounced. With the availability of e-learning technology, educators have a unique opportunity to revolutionize the way they teach and the way students learn.

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A balanced look at how screens have become part of daily life and ways to use them wisely.

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No doubt it's many of you. Handing over a device is sometimes simply the easiest option - but it might make you feel a little guilty.

Screen time has been reported to impact kids emotionally, cognitively and even physically, which can feel scary. But should screen time for kids always be seen as a bad thing? And what alternatives are there? We investigate...

Screen time for kids

Most kids today are surrounded by screens wherever they go. Whether it's watching TV at home, using computers at school or picking up smartphones and tablets, there are so many ways for kids to access screens.

Many parents, schools and health professionals are concerned about the amount of time kids spend on screens. That said, we need only reflect on the huge role screens played during the pandemic, delivering education to kids remotely across the British Isles - and the world - to see how screen time can play a positive role in engaging, educating and inspiring kids.

Later in the article, you'll read about some easy alternatives to screen time. But we'd like to highlight one we think is particularly great - a subscription to National Geographic Kids magazine! Every issue is packed with fun, informative articles and awe-inspiring photos to engage even the most reluctant readers, inspiring a lifelong love for reading.

Screen time benefits

- The internet can be a fountain of knowledge for kids to responsibly explore and absorb.

- Using digital devices improves visual intelligence and hand-eye coordination.

- Digital games and activities can build teamwork skills, puzzle-solving and creativity.

- Technology can nurture social connections, especially for kids who struggle to make friends or have communication challenges.

- Kids who have access to a computer at home tend to perform better academically than those who don't.

Screen time negatives

- The blue light emitted from screens can affect sleep patterns.

- Kids tend to spend time inactive and indoors while using screens.

- Screen-based activities increase central nervous system arousal, which can heighten anxiety.

- Some studies have shown younger generations to be more forgetful than older ones, as outsourcing things to remember to digital spaces has become habitual.

- There is a risk of exposure to inappropriate content, misinformation or meeting strangers online.

Should you limit screen time?

Truthfully, the full effects of screen time for kids are still being debated - but many experts, schools and health bodies, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), recommend limiting screen time for kids.

Others take a more balanced view, stating that a certain level of screen time can be beneficial for kids, and that parents' focus is better spent on what kids are engaging with on screens rather than how often. In fact, according to research conducted by Oxford University with over 20,000 parents, screen time limits may have nothing to do with a young child's ability to thrive.

The research proposed that worried parents should follow the 'Goldilocks Theory' - which suggests there is a point between low and high technology use that is 'just right' for kids - and work on creating a healthy balance.

Screen time alternatives

Reading

A much more relaxing way to consume entertainment and storytelling is through literature! Fact books, kids' fiction and of course magazines, like Nat Geo Kids, are a great way to keep kids entertained, but also help them to relax and wind down - especially before bed.

Board games

Board games and puzzles are not only fantastic family fun, but they're also great for kids' brains, too. They stimulate areas of the brain responsible for strategy, creativity, patience and memory!

Crafts

Kids love hands-on projects that give them a creative outlet. Crafting gives them a sense of achievement and freedom to experiment (and provides you with some questionable 'artwork' for your fridge!).

Try out our eco-friendly slime recipe! This easy craft will provide heaps of family fun, and it doesn't hurt the planet.

Outdoor play

Outdoor play is important for physical fitness, and it's been proven to benefit kids' mental wellbeing, too! Getting outdoors needn't be rigorously planned - from detouring through a local green space on the school run, to conducting a bug safari in your garden, every bit of time outdoors helps kids engage with the outside world. ( And it might help your family communicate better, too!)

Collecting

Collecting is a timeless hobby that helps kids to nurture their passions, increase their knowledge and engage their curiosity. It's also great for teaching kids to care for their possessions by keeping them neat, tidy and organised.

Building

Constructive play nurtures kids' creativity as well as developing motor skills and problem-solving skills. Best of all, building toys are incredibly durable and universal in appeal - providing you with years and years of fun!

Baking

Aside from the obvious benefit of having something tasty to tuck into afterwards, baking is a relaxing and educational activity for kids, allowing them to get creative, experiment with flavours, learn about healthy eating, and even learn new words and measures from recipes. If you've never baked before, why not resolve to give it a try as a family?

Podcasts

Okay so slight cheat here, because technically, listening to a podcast does often involve a short amount of screen time while you get the podcast started (unless you listen through a smart speaker) - but once playing, podcasts are an audio-only experience that can be great for kids!

From educational to storytelling, they're a screen-free way to consume entertainment media while increasing learning and language skills. Plus, you can listen practically anywhere, making them a great tablet alternative for car journeys, especially if your kids suffer from travel sickness!

Look out for more fantastic screen-free ways to get your kids playing and learning, in the free National Geographic Kids' newsletter. Sign up now to receive emails full of fun activities, good news stories and more!

How do you manage screen time for kids?
Let us know by leaving a comment, below!

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Screen time for kids: advice & alternatives | Parents | Nat Geo Kids

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Many parents worry about the amount of time their kids spend using screens. But should you limit screen time? And what are the alternatives?

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Examines how controlled screen time can actually help develop certain social skills while warning against excessive use.

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At Providence Children’s Development Institute, our specialists assess your child’s developmental progress in gross motor skills, fine motor skills or speech/language skills.