Helping Your Children Develop a Healthy Relationship With Technology

The great debate of our era: is technology more helpful than it is harmful? Until 2020 hits. And then we were bulldozed into a world of screens and forced to focus on the positives and turn a blind eye to the damaging statistics of excessive screen time. All that effort to encourage children to play outside, engage in anything BUT a screen, gone – out the window completely. The children had finally won, or so they thought.

Unbeknown to us at the time, we would rely on technology for everything for over a year (well those of us that were lucky enough not facing digital poverty). Work, school, shopping, socialising, playtime and exercise were all forced on screen. The one and only thing we could keep were our walks. Those glorious (any excuse to get me out of the house) walks. So we all had to develop some form of tech fluency and quickly, for this new way of life.

For some of us it took longer, and others it didn’t really feel like such a big deal to start with. But by January 2021 as lockdown life continued and Zoom fatigue set in, I don’t know any adult who enjoyed this online life. We already knew that technology wasn’t going anywhere. But we weren’t quite prepared for the pandemic to accelerate the use of technology so quickly. During this time most of us slipped into some bad screen habits which is completely understandable. Coming out the other side I am sure lots of parents are left wondering whether we will be able to get our children’s attention back without some sort of screen rage attack? Or are we at the point of no return?

The effects of too much screen time

We are all aware that too much screen time can be harmful for our children. But did you know that it is literally rewiring children’s brain development. This can negatively impact key developmental skills (in terms of social and neural development). This is particularly true regarding young children, as by five years old their brain development is 90% formed.

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