09294000000
While you may like to happily boast of your 5-year old handling the smartphone better than you actually can; his addiction to the gadgets might seem worrisome at times. With children’s growing fascination towards these tech-toys, psychologists have rung the alarm bells to warn of the negative effects of it all.
Studies reveal that kids these days are spending way too much time fixed to the tv screen, computer, video games and phones losing their sense of time and the world outside. This has reduced their outdoor pursuits significantly. This is not a good situation, as revealed by the social scientists and psychologists. They believe and extensive case studies show that too much gadget time in kids impairs their social skills, induce inappropriate behavior and also hinder their language development.
Further, there are other physical and mental damages as well, like weak eye- sight, obesity, insomnia among many others. It thus becomes imperative for parents to keep a watch on their little ones and keep them off gadgets for long hours.
Given below are a few tips help you reduce your child’s screen time as well as make them forget their oh-so-beloved-i-pods and video games for quite some time:
Push your kids to a near-by park or a playground. If they don’t have a peer group as yet, try going out with them yourself. Be their pal and play with them.
Organize some craft activities on weekends. Introduce to your kids fun and engaging art and craft/DIY sessions for them. You are likely to get a lot of exciting stuff in the market to get them started.
Bring home a pet; puppy or maybe a parrot. Now this is not a compulsory action, but if you are comfortable with the idea, it’s probably the best one.
Introduce Tech-free zones at home. Mark some territories in the house where your child cannot take his gadgets to. For instance the dinning area, or the terrace.
Better still, mark out Tech-free time zones. Like during meals no one can touch their phones (u too included), or video games. Or like, after 9 p.m. The kids need to handover all these gadgets to you.
Don’t ever install a TV or a PC in your child’s bedroom. Let the television viewing be in the living area, and computer be in study room or maybe your bedroom, where they can work under your supervision.
Don’t indulge your kids by gifting them all the latest stuff. We are not asking you to keep them off a play station or the latest X-box, but then not like the moment something new comes in the market, your kid has it bought instantly.
Your kid is in no need of his own personal smartphone until he reaches his late teens. Don’t give in to the demands.
And when nothing else works, tempt him with other stuff in exchange of letting go of their tech toys. For example, sit and shop for kids clothes online with them, or take them out for ice-cream to disengage them from the addictive gadgets.
