CHILDREN AGED 0-2 YEARS SHOULD NOT HAVE ANY EXPOSURE TO SCREEN.

Children aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to screen 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per dayy. Many parents use screens to keep young children entertained or distracted while they juggle other needs. It works. Screens captivate children’s attention in a way almost nothing else does, allowing parents a bit of a breather. But what is the impact of screens on young brains and how much screen time should they be exposed to? Often, parents put babies in front of the TV when they need some uninterrupted time to get something done. Usually, they don’t realize that babies can be taught to entertain themselves for short periods of time. Around 4 months of age, it’s a good idea to let your child begin learning how to entertain themselves with toys, books, and other activities. Doing so will encourage their development! The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages media use by children younger than 2 and recommends limiting older children's screen time to no more than one or two hours a day. 📌A study by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 2018 indicates that older children who spent more than two hours a day on screen-time activities scored lower on language and thinking tests, and some children with more than seven hours a day of screen time experienced thinning of the brain’s cortex, the area of the brain related to critical thinking and reasoning. Patricia Kuhl is one of the world’s leading brain scientists and runs experiments with more than 4,000 babies each year and he records ; “What we’ve discovered is that little babies, under a year old, do not learn from a machine,” . “Even if you show them captivating videos, the difference in learning is extraordinary. You get genius learning from a live human being, and you get zero learning from a machine.” Now this is what happens... It may appear that the child is learning from the screen but it's all an illusion and will eventually affect this child in the future in many ways.. 📌Short Attention Span : Screens hijack attention spans For children to be successful, they need to learn how to concentrate and focus. That ability starts to develop during their earliest years when their brains are more sensitive to the environments around them. For a brain to develop and grow, it needs essential stimuli from the outside world. More importantly, they need time to process those stimuli. While reading storybooks out loud gives children time to process words, images and voices, the constant absorption of on-screen images and messages affects their attention span and focus. 📌Lack of critical thinking and problem solving skills When you rely on using screens to distract a child from a problem rather than having them figure it out and learn to resolve it themselves, you kill their ability to think and solve a problem on their own. Most times parents use screen to pacify their children..like Using a favorite song to distract a young child who has just fallen and scraped their knee ; this might look okay but but having the parent comfort and cuddle with the child and talk to them is better. This can also make the brain less empathic because there is no human connection in the process of feelings. Using screen time to distract young children who are having trouble sharing a toy will not help them learn how to share and take turns in the future, although it may be a quick fix in the short term. 📌Lack of empathy Research has shown that screen time inhibits young children’s ability to read faces and learn social skills, two key factors needed to develop empathy. Face-to-face interactions are the only way young children learn to understand non-verbal cues and interpret them. “Until babies develop language,” says Charles Nelson, a Harvard neuroscientist who studies the impact of neglect on children’s brains, “all communication is non-verbal, so they depend heavily on looking at a face and deriving meaning from that face. Is this person happy with me, or are they upset at me?” That two-way interaction between children and adult caregivers is critically important for brain development. Exposure to screens reduces babies’ ability to read human emotion and control their frustration. It also detracts from activities that help boost their brain power, like play and interacting with other children. 📌Irregular Sleep : The more time spent watching on a screen, the more likely children are to have trouble falling asleep or have an irregular sleep schedule. Sleep loss can lead to fatigue and increased snacking. As humans, our circadian rhythms and our production of melatonin — the sleep hormone — kicks in when the sun sets. But the blue light from screens inhibits melatonin, which can delay sleep. And watching TV or playing video games also keeps our brains and bodies more alert and activated and less ready for sleep. (Tablets and smartphones will suppress the melatonin more than TVs because the screen, and that blue light, is closer to the face.) According to one study, infants 6 to 12 months old who were exposed to screens in the evening showed significantly shorter nighttime sleep than those who had no evening screen exposure. 📌Behavioural issues Children over 18 months who spend more than two hours a day watching TV, playing video games or using a computer or smartphone are more likely to have emotional, social and attention problems. Also, exposure to video games is linked with an increased possibility of attention problems in children. 📌possible Autism (recent studies have proof on early screen time / excessive screen causing autism....) 📌Voilence Too much exposure to violence through media can desensitize children to violence. As a result, children might learn to accept violent behavior as a normal way to solve problems. 📌Less time for play ; Excessive screen time leaves less time for active, creative play. And play is what brings about creativity. Also higher rates of suicide has being linked to insufficient play. Children are spending more time in sedentary activity by using screens and less time in creative, active play that their bodies NEED to thrive and develop. 📌Delayed Speech : Research shows that talking with children in a reciprocal dialogue is extremely important for language development and social interaction. It’s that back-and-forth “conversation,” sharing facial expressions and reacting to the other person — in real life, rather than “passive” listening or one-way interaction with a screen — that improves language and communication skills in young children. 📌Lack of real learning ; Studies have shown that children under 2 learn less from a video than when learning from another person, and it appears that although children will watch the TV screen by 6 months, understanding the content does not generally occur until after age 2. It’s not that they won’t be captivated by what’s on the screen, but they’re not learning from it. 📌Poor Language development... This expands rapidly between 1½ to 3 years of age, and studies have shown that children learn language best when engaging and interacting with adults who are talking and playing with them. There is also some evidence that children who watch a lot of television during the early elementary school years perform less well on reading tests and may show deficits in attention. 📌Obesity The more TV and video your child watches, the greater his or her risk is of becoming overweight. Having a TV or other electronics in a child's bedroom increases this risk as well. Children can also develop an appetite for junk food promoted in ads, as well as overeat while watching on electronics. Excerpts from my book “Raising The Independent thinking child” . In that book I also shared what parents can begin to do apart from just uisng screens as Nannies.. Preorder to be announced soon 😁 Dont miss it. Meanwhile we will not only to be reading this book in the INNER CIRCLE PROGRAM, but I will also be teaching parents how. Have you joined the next cohort already? Be Intentional ©️ Wendy Ologe Africas Number One Parent Coach #wendyologe #africasnumberoneparentcoach #theintentionalparent #theintentionalparentacademy #intentionalparenting #parentingtips #parenting #motherhood #childhood #fatherhood