6 Ways to Reduce Your Children’s Tech Time

By Larissa Mills

Here are the newest statistics boiled down.

On average, families are spending less than 80 hours per month, which is 960 hours a year together. Dr. Michelle Ponti, from the CPS Task Force, says, “Phones are not toys nor do they replace parents. Children should only be on devices for an hour a day.”

What is Tech Neglect?

Spending time with your children has to be uninterrupted time. You can’t be glancing at your emails or scrolling through Instagram while dressing Barbie. If you do, children feel neglected. They need to play, exercise and talk to develop their brains. This means those 35-40 hours of device time need to disappear and be replaced with play, or children won’t form the security and attachment they need to move on to the next stage of development.

6 Tips to Reduce Tech Time

Set Aside Tech-Free Time
Spend 10 minutes each week and organize your family’s time. Plan to eat meals together. Children need to learn how to do chores. Studies show a higher level of success if children do chores on a routine basis.
Control Device Usage
It’s simple. If you can’t monitor their phone, don’t let them use it. Installing a control app will save you time.
Listen to Educator’s Guidelines
Experienced junior and kindergarten teachers say, “Children are falling short of most standards: socially, emotionally, physically, athletically, or academically. Speech and sentence structure is delayed.” Dr. John Hutton, who MRIs children’s brains, is finding children who have more than one hour of screen time, especially just watching videos, show the linguistic part of the brain is not stimulated.
Model Healthy Tech Usage
The psychological consequences of mental health and feelings of isolation derived from how we use technology have revealed more dire consequences than we thought.
Read With Your Children
Reading to children builds a tight bond and relaxes them before sleep.
Spend More Time Outdoors
Going outside helps their immune systems by inhaling necessary microbes. Children need to exert energy and develop proprioception, which helps their athleticism later on. Coaches have observed children are not as coordinated or strong. Teachers, coaches and medical professionals are saying we’rere in a family mental health crisis. Turn off devices and bond with your children.