Scaling Back Screen Time During School Year

CLEVELAND - With school back in session, kids aren’t just using laptops, computers and tablets at home anymore, they also have screen time at school.

So, how can a parent know if it’s becoming too much?

“It seems like schools are trying to reduce screen time in school and reduce the amount of homework that is given on screens. I feel like we're all on the same page as educators, parents, physicians, and realizing that we kind of swung too far in one direction. That pendulum went too far towards screen time. And now we're in a technological era where we can't take it away and swing back completely the other way. But we want to settle somewhere in the middle,” said Gina Robinson, MD, a pediatrician at Cleveland Clinic Children’s.

Dr. Robinson said she doesn’t count anything involving homework or schoolwork as screen time since that has to be done.

However, anything else that’s considered recreational should be limited to less than two hours a day.

And it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. You could opt to do half hour segments instead.

For example, maybe a child gets to spend half an hour playing on their tablet when they first get home and then does something else offline, like going for a bike ride, doing a puzzle or reading a book.

Dr. Robinson said research continues to show the harms of too much screentime, which is why it’s best to scale back.

“It can definitely impact behavior. It can impact attention span. It can lead to feelings of isolation. It can increase anxiety and depression. So, it definitely has some strong impacts that we want to avoid. Luckily, they're not irreversible,” she said.

Dr. Robinson also recommends scaling back screentime at bedtime since that can make it harder for a child to fall asleep.