Good morning. It’s Wednesday, June 26. This is Jenny Gold. I cover early childhood education for The Times. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.
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Parents basically ignore screen time limits for young kids
My husband and I have tried to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ recommendations on screen time for our two young children, much to their chagrin. Avoid screens as much as possible for the first two years. Limit screen time to one hour a day of high-quality content from ages 2 to 5.
But then I recently went on a work trip to New York, I came home and soon heard my toddler had a new favorite word: CoComelon. My husband had turned on the TV to distract the kids to cook dinner and do other chores. Our 22-month-old son ratted him out, and CoComelon’s tinkling nursery rhymes have been stuck in my head ever since.
Turns out, my family is far from alone with screen time challenges.
Should parents limit screen time for kids?
A national Common Sense Media survey from 2020 found that few families were coming anywhere close to following the screen time limits recommended by pediatricians — and that was before device use exploded when schools and child-care centers closed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers interviewed 1,500 parents of children who were infants to age 8 and found:
- Children under 2 were watching an average of 49 minutes of digital media a day;
- Children ages 2 to 4 watch an average of 2.5 hours a day;
- Children 5 to 8 watch slightly more than three hours a day.
But despite the dire predictions of experts about the risks of excessive screen time for young children — obesity, behavioral problems, sleep issues, speech and developmental delays…