Keeping Children Occupied Without Screen Time

22 Jun Keeping Children Occupied Without Screen Time

Technology has given us the ability to let our children access information like never before. While smartphones and tablets are great for educational purposes, allowing children to spend too much time looking at screens can be detrimental to their health. At Pediatric Associates of Plainview, our team knows how difficult it can be to keep them occupied without screen time, especially under stay at home orders. That is why we’d like to offer some advice to help keep your child engaged without being dependent on devices. 

Issues With Screen Time 

Understanding the issues that too much exposure to screen time can bring is the first step in creating healthy boundaries for your child. If you do not, the following problems could take place:

• Engaging in sedentary screen time too often increases the chance of your child becoming overweight.
• The light that is emitted from the screen can interfere with a natural sleep cycle, causing insomnia.
• Elementary school children who spend too much time looking at screens are more likely to develop behavioral or academic issues.

Tips For Limiting Screen Time

Weaning your child off of their screen time habits will prove to be very beneficial when trying to keep them occupied. When you’re worried your child has been spending too much time with their devices, we recommend the following tips:

• Create “technology-free zones” throughout your house where the use of devices isn’t permitted.
• Set a good example by limiting the amount of time you spend in front of screens. 
• Let screen time be a privilege that can be taken away.
• Set parental controls on your child’s devices so they can only be used at predetermined times.   

Keeping Them Occupied

After limiting their screen time, it’s time to work on keeping them engaged. While it may be a difficult task at first, creating a healthy routine may have them spending even less screen time than you intended. Below are some great examples to help achieve this goal:

• Give them important tasks to do throughout the house.
• Encourage your children to play outdoors.
• Challenge them to complete a puzzle or craft.
• Have them read or listen to an audiobook.
• Show your child you are always willing to have meaningful conversations with them.   

Contact Us

Children often have an abundance of energy just waiting to be released. While screen time is an important and beneficial education and relaxation tool, too much of this can stifle your child’s development. To mitigate the chances of this happening, you should always make an effort to keep them occupied without smartphones or other devices. For more advice on how this can be achieved, don’t hesitate to contact us today!