toddler
Screen time affects how the brain’ s reward pathways function, leading to children needing much higher rates of stimulating inputs to maintain concentration.
Setting boundaries:
• Limit screen time to as close to zero as possible in the first two years of life.
• Device-free mealtimes: Shared meals predict healthier children and protect real-world connection and conversation.
• Device-free bedrooms and a screen curfew before sleep: This is the most important intervention to protect sleep and academic performance.
• Writing a‘ Family Media Plan’ together: This may work well for older children to help set the rules they’ ll follow.
• Co-viewing for young children: Watching and talking about content together turns passive viewing into shared, interactive learning. www. babysandbeyond. co. za
63