

The study in the Journal of the American Medical Association referenced earlier was a small sample but it shows growing use of media and that use is by children at the youngest ages. Nauman says if you have a child who has trouble sleeping or is easily distracted or too caught up with friends and social media, you might want to prohibit them from having a phone in the bedroom. They can keep their phone on a dresser plugged in as an alarm and get out of bed in the morning and get it.” “You have a 16 year-old child that’s doing well in school, that’s doing their best, that’s you know thriving socially and academically and doing what they need to do at home and you trust them and you’re monitoring what they’re doing online, then that’s fine. So does that mean teenagers shouldn’t be using a smart phone as an alarm? Dr. They can really awaken the mind of a child and instead of a book, that kind of helps lull them to sleep or cuddling sometimes or talking to parents or siblings that can kind of help wind down a child, it (the screen) can help wind up a child.” Nauman says the blue light affects the ability to fall asleep. Nauman encourages teens to be active 15 minutes for every hour of screen time and she stresses l imiting overall screen time to two hours a day, excluding homework.Įvidence suggests that media use can negatively affect sleep. It’s important to balance screen time with other healthy behaviors.
#Doctor who sleep no more watch online tv
Nauman, say it’s important for parents of school age children to watch TV with them and monitor any computer or screen use. But, pediatricians warn not all smart phone apps are developed with input from developmental specialists and can do more harm than good when they take a child away from playtime with caregivers and other children.

Nauman agrees with American Academy of Pediatrics that no more than an hour of screen time is a good guideline. Nauman says studies show, they can learn that way only when parents watch with them and re-teach the content.īy age 3-5, Dr. “We want to teach our children they can focus on one thing at a time and sometimes if there’s a lot of stimulation, it can take away from the book they’re trying to read or the picture they’re trying to draw so it might be nice to just shut that tv off,” she suggested.īy the time a baby turns two they can learn words from a person on a live video chat and some interactive touch screens but Dr. For older children, it can be a distraction. Nauman also recommends NOT having a TV on, even in the background, particularly with babies or toddlers because it can interfere with their ability to play and interact. "Their minds should be nourished with books, singing, playing, you know, getting them to move, making a playroom for them … really just engaging with them on a more personal, social level,” she advised.ĭr. Nauman says the brain’s neural networks are developing most rapidly in the first five years and under age two, language and emergent literacy skills are better learned through personal contact. Ameera Nauman has a pretty hard and fast rule - no screens for her youngest patients who are under the age of two. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that children ages eight to 10 spend an average of six hours per day in front of a screen, kids ages 11 to 14 spend an average of nine hours per day in front of a screen, and youth ages 15 to 18 spend an average of seven-and-a-half hours per day in front of a screen. However, a small study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) showed significant impact on brain development when children between ages three to five years were exposed, unsupervised, to more than the amount of recommended screen time. In fact, we often feel something is missing if we don’t have it.Ĭhildren are now modeling that behavior and so it begs the question, how much is too much when it comes to screen time for kids? The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) says more study is needed to determine the cognitive and behavioral risks of too much screen time, particularly with babies, toddlers and pre-school age children. As adults, most of us are tethered to our phones.
