This article written by Christine Schoenwald was originally published on YourTango.
Is it time for a digital detox for your kid?
The average child spends 7 hours a day looking at a screen, such as a video game, computer, cell phone, or television. That's a huge amount of time, especially when the recommended amount is 2 hours a day.
In an article in Psychology Today, Dr. Victoria L. Dunckley — author of the book Reset Your Child's Brain — talks about how too much screen time can make a child or teen become both wired and tired. The child becomes agitated, and at the same time exhausted because of their screen time addiction, and they suffer academically, socially, and physically.
Too much screen time can affect your child in these 5 ways:
Sometimes the symptoms of spending too much time in front of the screen can be misinterpreted as depression, bipolar disorder, or ADHD, but treatments for those mental health diagnoses (such as medication, therapy and other treatments) won't work very well.
In order to help break the addiction to electronic devices and screen time, Dr. Dunckley advices an electronic fast for several weeks so the nervous system of the child can reset. If several weeks seems impossible, London-based adolescent psychiatrist Dr. Richard Graham suggests 72 hours.
These kinds of electronic interventions can get the sleep cycle back on track, improve the child's mood, give them better focus and organization, and will undoubtedly lead to increased physical activity. Without their tablet, gaming system, or phone, the child will go back to enjoying the things they used to enjoy, like imaginary and creative playing, nature, and will become more outgoing and happier.
Once the brain is reset, the parent can slowly re-introduce electronic screen time back into the child's life, testing to see how much usage the child can handle without backsliding into the unhealthy behavior.
Parents can say what adults have been saying to their kids for generations: "Now, go outside and play."
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