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It’s 2023, smart devices are everywhere.
In your home, at work and even at your kids’ school: computer labs, wifi and tablets at each desk.
Imagine how your children are impacted.
According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry(AACAP), kids ages 2 to 5 are on phones or tablets for just under 2 hours per day*. And it’s suspected that school-age children spend an average of 6 hours on devices per day**.
Luckily, our editors did a deep dive into all things screen time. Here are 5 of the many benefits of less screen time:
- Improved Sleep. The blue light from digital devices disrupts our circadian rhythm and makes it much harder to fall asleep. With the constant mental activity that comes with extended screen time, your child tricks their brain into thinking it’s time to stay awake, even when it’s bedtime. Limiting screen time helps regulate their sleep schedule.
- Increased Focus. The internet offers instant gratification and rewards users for brief, low-effort tasks, which can reduce your child’s attention span. They will likely feel less focused and unable to control their emotions. By reducing screen time, it allows their brain to focus on tasks without distraction. In the long run, this will improve their ability to focus and help them organize thoughts and tasks.
- Better Posture. Spending vast amounts of time slouching in front of screens can lead to poor posture. Over time, poor posture can lead to back pain, spinal problems, and cause damage to nerves, ligaments and tendons. Take your kids away from their screens and off to a park or playground and you’ll improve their physical — and mental — health.
- Better Vision. Exposure to blue light from screens can cause eye strain, headaches, dry eyes and even blurry vision. While there are blue screen glasses that block it, they’re no comparisons to the benefits of reducing screen time. Cutting down on screens will cause them to blink more naturally and keep their eyes from overuse and drying out.
- Lower Risk For Anxiety. No matter if they’re scrolling social media, playing video games, or exploring on the computer, screens place strain on our central nervous system, cause surges of adrenaline and increase the stress hormone, cortisol. Decreasing your child’s screen time can balance out these chemicals. As a result, your little one is likely to experience less anxiety and depression and even develop improved empathy toward others.
Not sure where to start? Our editors have been searching for other opportunities to engage your young ones. Let us introduce you to the Toniebox.
The Toniebox comes with tonies. They’re hand-painted collectibles of your kids’ favourite characters bursting with their own original tales. The Toniebox has 7 hours of battery life and is designed to entertain children up to 8 years of age.
The Toniebox’s content very cleverly grows as your child grows. For older kids, their National Geographic Kids series is speech-based, factual, and contains detailed content about popular subjects from dinosaurs to penguins. And for children who are fascinated with languages, there are tonies in German or French.
The Toniebox costs about £79.95, and an individual Tonie £14.99. Or you can get creative and build your own bundle, which gives you up to 20% off! And let’s not forget about the Creative-tonies, which have 90 minutes of recording time.
Looking to reduce screen time and watch your little ones’ faces brighten with joy? Gift them a Toniebox!