The Case For Unlimited Tablet Time For Toddlers

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While I am not a fan of kids vegging out in front of the television I believe that these limitations are more based on knee-jerk reactions (kids nowadays and their screens!) More on what's meaningful for kids' development than anything.



Research on screen time focuses mainly on children who watch TV in comparison to those who don't. Deep Space As Emily Oster explains at Fivethirtyeight the effects of TV viewing are often negligible when you look at demographic differences such as income education, race, and gender.



Television isn't necessarily bad for children, and tablet activities such as video games shouldn't be considered as a part of watching TV. When I wrote about tablet time, Lifehacker, I reviewed the research. These are the major differences:



Television is passive: stuff happens, and you get to watch. The events that happen aren't specific to you, as well: your grandma's could be on TV, but it's not your grandma.



One of the pediatricians who wrote the AAP's guidelines wrote in JAMA Pediatrics (careful to note that he was speaking for himself and not the AAP) that play on an iPad is much more like playing with blocks, or reading books with a child as opposed to watching TV on the side.



The evidence-based guidelines stress the importance of finding suitable content, instead of placing time limits. However their evidence on the importance of "appropriate content" is not always clear.



Maybe it just sounds better to say that kids should be playing educational video games with Dad instead of throwing birds at asteroids repeatedly again. I'm not sure about that. My toddler is good at reading and writing numbers and letters. He learned them through life however he can understand orbital mechanics from Angry Birds Space better than I did in high school Physics class.



(When I mentioned Angry Birds in my Lifehacker piece, I received comments insisting that I was wrong and that my toddler could not be doing anything more than aimless swiping. The good thing is that if you believe that a one-year-old can play Angry Birds, you haven’t spent much time with one-year-olds recently.



My children each have an iPad (a Nook HD+, bought on a very good sale and was rooted to run the cyanogenmod version of Android) They decide their own age-appropriate uses for it. The five-year-old uses it to build elaborate things in Minecraft (a sort of lego-block world) and also to study whatever is in his head ("OK Google, show me pictures of narwhal skeletons.") The two-year-old is fascinated by the physical aspects of Angry Birds and Monument Valley. Both children play problem-solving games such as Cut the Rope and Bad Piggies often for hours. In fairness they also watch lots of Youtube.



Imagine for the moment that you want your child to spend all day on a tablet. What are the problems you can anticipate? They'd become bored. Deep Space They'd come up with new and interesting ways to play with it, and not be able to accept what you suggested. They'd keep it at the bottom of the toybox for days if some newer, more interesting toy appeared in their lives. Guess what? This is exactly what happens when you give your users unlimited screen time and the attraction fades away.



I don't think a ban on forbidden fruit is the best option. Minecraft If my children had an hour of screen time per day, I can assure you they would only use it to watch cartoons. Sometimes, they send me messages to their dads or grandparents. Sometimes they sit down with me to play an adventure game. Or , the older child will teach their younger brother how to install and use a new gadget.



Google, touchscreens, and online communication are all part of our daily life today. My kids are able to skip ads on videos and how to navigate a website even if they aren't able to read the words on it. They know what information you can find on a phone, and will pipe up to recommend I send a text message to Daddy or ask Google or input something into the GPS. The idea of keeping kids away from screens is just as absurd as if parents of the past kept their children away from radios, or the phone or even pencils and paper.



For the Lifehacker piece, I asked Clare Smith, a language research scientist who has written about screen time whether she would agree with my opinion on this. Here's her response:



We live in a time where this technology opens up opportunities for extended social engagement working, learning, and leisure. In fact, it is becoming the standard, and our children are expected to be proficient in this technology. It is just another media form that can be used in any way that you like. The process of selecting devices and apps is just the same as choosing books or toys, and each choice should be made on its own merits. My children are taking to gaming and social networking, and we are trying our best to help them understand the potential dangers and benefits. As a parent, who is conscientious teaches their child about safety on the road and stranger danger and healthy eating habits and disciplined learning, it could also extend to modern technology and the internet.



Screen time isn't something you should protect kids from; it's an everyday thing. Let's stop pretending it's a tragedy to hand an infant an iPad.