An alternative to the screen. How can we draw children away from their smartphones?
Before school, after school, before bed and during dinner. Our children are spending more and more time looking at smartphone screens. That is, of course, not a good thing, but something can be done about it. Here are a few tips that may help parents whose children are captivated by their phones.
Do your children also spend a huge amount of time looking at smartphone screens? Frightening, isn’t it? Fortunately, Monika Deja, a doctor of psychology and specialist in early developmental support, has a few tips for you. Read on!
Sensory overload and overstimulation
Can a toy overstimulate a child or cause sensory overload? Yes. The market is flooded with dancing, musical, flashing toys that do little good for a young child’s brain. ‘The things children easily take in, and that appeal to their nervous systems, are usually the simplest toys, which stimulate one sense,’ says Monika Deja.
‘It is our job to establish good, healthy habits. Children will play with whatever we give them. Unfortunately, we are increasingly choosing smartphones for this purpose instead of toys,’ the psychologist observes. ‘The statistics here are frightening. The WHO says that 40% of children and young people up to the age of 21 are addicted to their phones.’
A phone and everything it offers seem appealing. We scroll through short videos and photos, have a laugh, or find a positive comment or reaction to something we have posted. All of this triggers releases of dopamine, which acts on our brain’s reward centre. In other words, it gives us pleasure. ‘When we experience that pleasure, we become addicted to it. And just as with other addictions, such as addiction to psychoactive substances, over time our bodies want more. So a few minutes in front of a screen turn into an hour or two,’ the psychologist explains.
Children who are first given a ‘screen’ as a toy do not see the appeal of non-digital toys. Yet those are what we should start with. A child who spends time on a phone starts to lose control of their emotions and becomes irritable, sometimes even aggressive. That is the point at which we should stop handing them a smartphone altogether. Sometimes a few days of ‘detox’ are enough for our children to begin functioning completely differently.
Disorders and problems caused by ‘screens’
Non-digital toys were part of many parents’ childhoods. Today’s adults knew exactly what to do with a boomerang, a skipping rope or a set of tiddlywinks. But young people today may have no idea — at least until they look up instructions for the toy on their phone.
‘On a screen, everything happens by itself. With a non-digital toy, you have to make a little effort. You have to take action. That is why, at first, these toys do not appeal to our children,’ the psychologist explains. ‘We cannot remove screens from a child’s life completely, because that would actually put them at a disadvantage. But we must teach children how to use a phone wisely.’
Non-digital toys do more than exercise the brain. ‘In recent years, we have observed that children move less because of smartphones. The number of children with obesity has also increased significantly as a result of a sedentary lifestyle,’ says Monika Deja. ‘Then there are sleep problems. The blue light emitted by screens disrupts our sleep patterns, particularly when we are exposed to it before bed.’
‘A screen is not a relationship, either. The child does not speak, but only watches or plays. Their speech becomes more limited,’ the psychologist notes. ‘Speech difficulties are not the only issue, because we are also seeing impaired social interaction,’ she adds, pointing out that children lose control of their emotions and cannot concentrate on anything or tolerate boredom. They constantly need new stimuli and know how to relax.
So what can we do to help our children return to ‘normal’ functioning and learn to use a smartphone wisely?