‘Should We Unplug Our Kids?' - Statements on Screen Time for Children

eventsblue 100x100By Staff

April 6th, 2018

BURLINGTON, ON

 

How much time should your children spend before a screen?

And how do you get them away from that screen when they have been in front of one for far too long?

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The problem –

The Community & Parent Partners for Kids (C.A.P.P. for KIDS) is presenting the event that begns at 7:00 pm and runs to 8:30 p.m. at the New Street Education Centre (3250 New St., Burlington). There will be community displays from 6:45-7 p.m.

Parents are invited to attend the free evening presentation on Tuesday, April 10, 2018 aimed at addressing the appropriate amount of screen time for young people in a society increasingly dominated by technology.

Called ‘Should We Unplug Our Kids? Reflections on the revised Canadian Paediatric Society Position Statement on Screen Time for Children’, the presentation will highlight the current trends, research and recommendations related to screen time.

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How much screen time is appropriate – and how does a parent come up with rules that work?

Child experts Maria Ramos and Linda Bell will lead the presentation. Both are experienced Pediatric Speech-Language Pathologists with advanced skills in facilitating the development of language and emergent literacy in preschool children. Their role includes coaching parents and service providers as well as offering community presentations on a variety of related topics.

C.A.P.P. for KIDS is a partnership between Halton Region, Halton District School Board, Halton Catholic District School Board, Reach Out Centre for Kids (ROCK), Our Kids Network, Halton Regional Police Service, Ontario Early Years, Burlington Public Library, City of Burlington, and the Halton Multicultural Council.

For more information about this event, email mailto:capp4kids@gmail.com.

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1 comment to ‘Should We Unplug Our Kids?’ – Statements on Screen Time for Children

  • Tom Muir

    Of course you should unplug the kids. Seems so obvious, especially the addiction and sometimes spoiled withdrawal rage at the thought of limits, that is so apparent sometimes.

    What science and study we have indicates the devices, among many other things, reinforce the same dopamine reward pathway acted on by cocaine. At the least, this is a partial physiological explanation for some of the symptoms seen.

    The characterization of chronic, extended-time users, as cell phone zombies, walking mindlessly everywhere and anywhere, eyes glued to their screens, is another clue.

    Evidence suggests chronic and long-time use down-regulates, or under- emphasizes, use of the left brain hemisphere, the center of logical, analytical, and mathematical thinking, in favor of the imaginal, visual, artsy, right hemisphere side.

    This is a possible explanation for the observed, and otherwise unexplained, falling grades in mathematics on Ontario schools, and elsewhere.

    It seems clear that such a powerful and possessing technology, permissively available to children, with immature and developing brains, is going to have unintended consequences, probably with many unknown and even un-imagined consequences.