Mom Notices Children’s Increased Reading Habits 7 Months After Putting Them On ‘Screen Detox’
Jan 19, 2023 by apost team
Parents these days are faced with the issue of children who spend the majority of their free time looking at device screens, and they wonder how much time per day is appropriate for their kids.
One mother decided that cutting out screen time for her five children was the right move, and seven months later, the results were evident.
A pediatric study found some important data about screen time in children ages 3 to 5. It was found that children in this age range who spent more than one hour a day with screen devices had less white matter development in their brains than children who spent less than one hour per day with the devices. This part of the brain is used for language and cognitive activities.
The leader of the study, Dr. John Hutton, revealed that this was the first study that showed reduced brain structure in relation to screen time for preschool-aged children, Science Daily reported.
Hutton is a pediatrician and researcher at Cincinnati Children's Hospital. This is an important time for childhood development because these are the years when the brain is developing the most rapidly. Children's brains in early childhood are in a very adaptive phase where they absorb a lot of information and form life-long connections.
One mother took these findings to heart and found that reducing screen time for her kids reaped some rewards. Molly DeFrank is a mother, writer, and blogger who has done a lot of online reading about screen time and its effects on children. She concluded that too much screen time was detrimental, and she decided to institute some rules in her household to curb these activities.
DeFrank explained in a Facebook post that she decided to limit the children's screen time because their behavior was being negatively affected by device usage. She made a rule to allow them only one hour of screen time per day, which is the amount that has been recommended by medical experts.
She explained in her blog post that too much screen time appeared to cause irritability, lessened creativity, and increased discord among family members. The children were upset about the new rule, but seemed to adapt quickly. DeFrank felt like she had her kids back when she reduced their screen activities.
She limited the amount of time that her children were allowed to use their phones and computers and also the time they could watch television. One of the first changes that she noticed was that the kids began to gather together and read.
“A few Saturdays into our screen detox, my kids woke up one by one and saw my husband and I reading in bed,” DeFrank said. “They grabbed their own books and joined us.”
She never told them to read, but they decided to do it on their own as a natural alternative to staring at screens.
"I can't recommend a family screen overhaul enough," she said in her Facebook post.
Her children started bringing books with them when they went out, and her daughter even increased her reading ability rapidly in school as a result in a matter of seven months. DeFrank admitted that screen devices have some positive uses in society, but she felt that her household needed to impose limits.
The mom explained that they kept up with the screen detox because “the kids loved it.” She hopes that other parents will take similar steps for their children.
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Did this mom’s story inspire you to establish your own set of screen time rules? Let us know, and be sure to pass this along to your family, friends and any parents you know!