Active Screen Time for Children

In today`s times, with children locked up at home, parents working from home, excessive screen time has become a rising concern. Read on to learn some tips which can help overall development in these challenging times.

One can`t deny the fact that with the advent of COVID-19, we have learned to live with a `new` normal, a normal that was unimaginable earlier. Gadgets and technology which we tried to avoid earlier have become our savior. Of course, still many parents grapple with the idea of excessive exposure to screen for young kids.

• How much screen-time is permitted?
• Are they really learning something out of it?
• How do I ensure that kids will come out of this stronger?

Use of technology in child`s life including education, can be delayed but, not denied. For parents tussling with work-from-home themselves, it`s only so much they can do to avoid screen-time for preschoolers. But then, could this necessary evil be molded enough to give it a positive connotation?

One thing we have to accept first is that screen-time is here to stay, and we must learn to make the most of it while it lasts. Even after the pandemic subsides for good, the aftermath is going to linger on. For us, it`s only prudent to change the quality of screen-time and make it worth our while. Why not mould online classes into active-engagement classes where a child gets actively involved in the various engaging activities such as, story-telling sessions, theatre, music, art & craft, live work-out sessions, etc.! From watching the screen passively at cartoon characters such as, Peppa Pig and Chhota Bheem, etc., why not involve them more actively into learning things while also glued to their screens?

While parents still remain skeptical about the relevance and benefits of online classes, it also comes down to how much one can churn out of this seeming evil. Here are some benefits to online classes which can be helpful in the long run:

• Inter-disciplinary Activities: This is particularly true in the case of science experiments and projects where augmented learning can take place by organizing virtual, real-time classes and trips just as in virtual 3-D video games.

• Customized / personalized Learning: Young kids have their own tantrums and preferences for learning methods. A parent can oversee the child learning according to its own preferred learning pattern and style. Though screen-time can`t be reduced, it can at least be divided through the day into several blocks of learning, so that the child can learn at its own pace. Moreover, educators can record sessions and share it with students` which children can access anytime, anywhere or parents can help access anytime, anywhere.

• Multi-level Engagement: Engaging a child and letting then participate and interact with the material is the best way to stimulate learning. With different activities and projects children can improve their critical and creative thinking, problem-solving abilities.

So, all said and done, every revolution comes with its grey shades. Denied first, rebelled against too, yet accepted towards the end. These days of pandemic are no exception. Time has never lasted forever, neither good nor bad. What is critical is can we learn and grow from these times?