From the Principal

Managing our own screen time

While we are all familiar with the potential impact of excessive phone and screen use by children, and the emerging link between over reliance on mobile phones and mental health concerns in teens, I came across a TED talk earlier this week that has caused me to reflect on the potential impact of adult phone and screen use on children, particularly during their first five years of life.

The TED talk How Every Child Can Thrive By Five is unusual, in that it is hosted by Gold Coast seven-year-old Molly Wright who is the youngest person to deliver a TED Talk. The premise of the talk is that as ‘Our brains develop faster in our early years than at any other time in our lives. It can create up to one million neural connections every second. But for maximum healthy brain development children need opportunities for:

• Connecting
• Talking
• Playing

As well as a healthy home and community.’

When much of a parent or carer’s time is spent focused on a screen, opportunities for connecting, talking, and playing are lost and, if this is repeated throughout a child’s early years, their neural development may be compromised.

This research is of particular relevance to those of us with young children in our families, but also prompted me to consider the impact beyond the first five years – how does our phone and screen use impact older children and teens? While their brains may be more fully developed, I would argue that the need for uninterrupted, full attention from the adults in their lives is still critical. They are also watching and absorbing our use of phones and are likely to model their own use on the patterns they observe. When they are older and have their own phones, finding time for ‘connecting, talking and playing’ becomes even harder to find.

So, how do we reduce the risk to the development of young children, and continue to connect and model appropriate use as they grow?

Recommendations include:

• Be mindful and intentional: Be aware of your own phone use patterns and motivations, and how they affect your children. Set clear and realistic goals and boundaries for your own phone use.
• Be present and attentive: Prioritise your children’s needs and interests over your phone use and avoid scrolling on your phone when you are with your children, especially during important or sensitive moments.
• Be positive and supportive: We should use our phones in ways that enhance wellbeing and benefit children rather than as an escape.
• Be consistent and respectful: Ideally, we should follow the same rules and expectations that we set for children, and model good phone etiquette and behaviour. Having all phones and screens (including our own!) charging on the kitchen bench overnight and away from bedrooms is one oft quoted example of this.

Disconnecting from the many demands that come to us through our phones is also important for our own wellbeing and sleep patterns.

I realise that this is much easier to write about than to action, but as members of a school community that values learning and wellbeing, I encourage you to consider whether your phone use could be having an unintended impact on your children.

– Lisa Moloney
Principal

*Photo credit: Vitolda Klein/Unsplash.