[Upbeat instrumental music]
Hello and welcome to Little Learners. In today's video I'm going to be talking about ways you can
reduce your child's screen time. Now there is a lot of shame around how much screen time your
child has and if you let them have screen time, if you don't, how much, and I just want to let you
know that that is not what this video is about at all. I'm not saying you should or shouldn't reduce
your child's screen time but if it's something that you want to do then this is some advice that
might help you. Before we get started don't forget to click that like button ['ding' sound effect] during the video if you
find it helpful and click the subscribe button so that you never miss a future video, turn on those
notifications and join the Little Learners family. So when I say 'screen time' what I mean is any time
spent in front of a screen, whether that is the TV, an iPad or tablet, a phone, a games console, anything
like that is screen time. Anytime in front of a screen. So I've got some tips that are kind of
short term, in the moment, what you can do when children really want to watch some TV or use a
screen and you don't want them to, and then I've got some advice on things you could do to change
the way your children use screens in the long term. Now when I'm talking about this I'm mostly talking
about very young children but of course some of these tips can work for older children as well.
So let's talk about the short term, when your child wants to for example watch TV and you're saying
that we're not watching tv right now, and they really want to watch it and it's becoming a bit of
a struggle. Some things you can do: first of all you can have some books that are themed around what
they actually want to watch. So for example my son is a big Peppa Pig fan so we have quite a lot of
Peppa Pig books, and he also likes Cory Carson so we have a lot of Cory Carson books. We also have
a lot of Thomas the Tank Engine books and that can really help because a lot of these books are
centred around an episode, or just around a child's favourite characters, and so they're
still getting that storyline or that kind of connection to a character that they really like
but it's not with a screen. And of course anything that encourages looking at books
is fantastic. Something similar to that is using themed toys around what your child likes. So for
example I said my son really likes Thomas the Tank Engine so he has a lot of engines and trains from
Thomas the Tank Engine and he has a train track, and he loves to make up his own stories about
what's happening with them, sometimes he also likes to play out episodes that he's seen, so there is
an episode where Gordon forgets his coaches and Cooper likes to act that one out a lot! We have
so many Thomas the Tank Engine things but it does really help when he really wants to watch Thomas
the Tank Engine and we say, 'Well why don't we play with Thomas instead?' The other really nice thing
with this, especially as children get a bit older, is that they can make up their own stories using
toys and make up their own episodes as well, and then when children are ready you can try role
play, so you can play with your child, you can both take on a character from whatever it is that they
want to watch and make up your own story, make up your own episode of whatever they want to do.
And if it's a game they want to play on whatever console they've got, is it something that you can
bring into real life? So for example if it is Minecraf,t maybe you can say 'Well why don't we
build something here at home? Why don't we actually build something? We can get some boxes or we can -
what ideas do you have of what we can build? Maybe we can try and build something that you've built
in the game at home together.' So it's really just ways of kind of connecting what the child
really likes to do with the TV show or the game or whatever it is that they want to watch or interact
with and kind of linking that to things we can do at home away from the screen. Of course another
thing you can do is spend more time outside. So if child really wants to watch TV or really wants to
play a game, really wants to be using the tablet, then maybe it's time to go outside and find
something else to be doing where you're away from screens so the temptation is gone. Maybe you're
at the park or you've gone to some woodland so they can climb trees or run around. The thing with
screen time is that children can get very used to it, can expect it and it becomes very ingrained in
them if they watch TV a lot or they use a tablet a lot that ends up being their go-to thing
for stimulation and we're just trying to stimulate them in different ways away from a screen,
to encourage them to explore other activities that they can be doing away from the screen.
Some things that you might want to think about in the long term: one thing that's really important
is reducing your own screen time, particularly in front of your children. So if you are expecting
your child to play with their toys instead of using the tablet, if you're sitting there on your
phone or scrolling through something on a tablet then they're going to see that and want that. We
as adults have to model the behavior that we want to see and so if we are trying to limit a child's
screen time then we need to be showing them that we are also engaging in activities other than
screen time. Of course sometimes there are times that you do need to be scrolling through your
phone and using it, maybe you're using it for work or something like that but as much as you possibly
can reduce that in front of your child. So another thing you might want to think about is setting
limits, expectations, routines so that might be time limits, so if your child is watching TV you might
say 'Okay we're going to watch TV for 15 minutes' or however long, one episode, 'We can watch until
this episode finishes then we're going to turn off the TV and we're going to do something else,'
and so you're giving the child an explanation of what your expectation is. They know what to
expect - that when this episode finishes we're going to turn the TV off. It doesn't necessarily
mean they're always happy about it but it is a much better way to communicate this expectation
and this limit to them than simply letting them watch TV and just turning it off with no warning.
You may also want to remind them when it's getting towards the end of the episode, just
say 'Just remember that at the end of this episode we're going to turn the TV off, okay? But you carry
on watching for now. Similarly if your child is playing a game on a tablet or a games console
or looking at something on a phone you might say 'Okay we're going to have five, ten more
minutes of this and then we're going to go and do this other thing', setting that expectation and
letting them know that there is a boundary there. You may also set other boundaries like we aren't
going to watch any TV until after lunchtime, after lunch time we can watch tv but before then we do
these other things, whatever works with your family. Another thing that kind of links in with that is
limiting screen time at meal times, so it's really common for children, particularly younger children
but older children too, to be watching TV while they're eating and sometimes this is used as a
way to try and distract a child so that they will eat what you want them to eat, because if they
just look at it and you're trying to give them vegetables they won't eat it but maybe they'll
eat it if they're watching TV, I totally get that, but it's really important that children are
engaging with food and kind of mindlessly eating and watching at the same time isn't helping with
that, it's a time that really they should be engaging with the food, exploring the food,
being messy with the food, tasting it, really thinking about it rather than what's on the screen
and this is a really easy time to kind of cut that screen time down and then cut it out completely,
if you want to do that because there is something else going on, they are eating and you can be
sitting with them eating as well or you can just be sitting with them chatting to them
and so that is something in the long term that you may also want to think about.
So I hope that's given you some useful ideas of how you can try to reduce your child's screen time
if that's something that you want to do, if you have any of your own tips that have worked for
you and your child then please do leave them in the comments below to help other parents,
carers, guardians, caregivers, to be successful in this journey of reducing screen time. Please
don't ever think that you are a bad parent or caregiver because you give your child screen time.
There is a lot of that going around, especially on social media and it can make you feel awful,
but please don't feel that way. There are things you can do to reduce it if you feel that you
need to and of course I am here if you want to ask any questions in the comments as well.
I do also just want to remind you that children may not be happy about this. It's
quite likely that they will not be happy about this if they've come to expect a lot of screen
time and you're starting to reduce it. Discuss it with your child the whole time and remember that
tantrums or outbursts of feeling angry and frustrated are totally normal and you can validate
that and say, 'I really understand that, you know, you're feeling frustrated, you want to watch TV,
you want to play this game, and I'm telling you that we're coming to the end of that or
you can't do that right now, and I understand you feel frustrated. I can't let you do it right now
but here is what we can do instead. Would you like to do this or this?' Giving children other choices
can often be quite helpful but just know that if they are cross about it, that is normal, that
is okay. So I hope this video has been helpful to you if it has been please give it a like ['ding' sound effect]
it really helps out the channel and if you're not already subscribed which I know many of you
watching aren't please click that subscribe button to join the Little Learners family.
Don't forget to leave any comments below, thank you so much for watching and I will see you next time.
[Upbeat instrumental music]