Top Tips for Building Healthy Screen Habits for Young Children

There's no doubt, screens are part of modern life, but it is becoming so much more difficult to separate screen time from family time.

When it comes to young children, real life interactions and playfulness matter most. Right from birth, babies learn and develop through eye contact, smiles, and hearing your voice. So, whenever possible, it is important to have more face to face play time and less screen time.

We don't want to scare you, but screen time is negatively impacting on children's health and development! It particularly impacts on how they cope with different emotions, their sleep, their weight and their eye health. Playing without screens, especially outside, can help fix all these issues!!

It might feel daunting, but small changes will help to build a strong foundation for your child's development, as well as providing more opportunities for family time. For example, keeping meals screen free and avoiding devices when winding down for sleep are good ways to start reducing screen time at home. For more top tips on reducing screen time at home, see here.

If you work with families and want to open up conversations about Screen Time, visit our Less Screen Time More Play Time page for more resources.