Screen Time is Impacting Young Children’s Development and We Need to Act Now!

Across all areas of work at the Institute for the Early Years, we hear time and time again stories about how children are using screens more and more. Practitioners working with young children tell us that children’s behaviour, language & communication skills, physical health and wellbeing are getting worse. As an organisation that works directly with parents and parent-facing professionals, particularly those in the early years workforce, we recognise the importance of using these connections to raise awareness about the importance of having Less Screen Time and encouraging More Play Time.

Using our 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five parent-facing initiative, we will be posting on social media and producing resources to spread the message. Our decision was taken for two key reasons. Firstly, 50 Things to Do has a large and growing audience of parents and carers across the British Isles. 50 Things to Do’s daily connections with parents are valued as non-judgemental, helpful and above all fun. Secondly, 50 Things to Do already provides suggestions of 50+ low or no-cost, playful activities which are a great alternative to screen time. 

We are currently focusing on six key areas of development, all of which are being negatively impacted by screen use in our youngest children. These are: 

• Language & communication skills
• Regulation (The ability to recognise their emotions and manage their behaviours) 
• Levels of daily physical activity
• Sleep patterns
• Eating habits
• Eye health 

In addition we are addressing parents' use of screens in front of their children. 

But isn’t 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five an app? I hear some of you say. 

It is, but it is designed as a tool for parents to be inspired to do things with their children, away from screens. 

We ensure that none of our links lead to child-facing content. For example, where we have links to learn nursery rhymes, they take you to adults modelling positive interactions whilst singing, as opposed to a cartoon designed for children. This is to remove the temptation to then pass the screen to the child to watch. 

We have recently reduced the text in each of our activities, to enable parents to get inspiration, see how to do them and understand why, in a much quicker way. 

We have also made our events much easier to filter between ongoing sessions and one-off activities, enabling families to find local stuff (low and no cost, as always) more easily. 

We have redesigned our 50 Things to Do Before You’re Five poster, which is available in many areas. It’s now much more interactive and easy to pop in your bag or under the pushchair whilst you’re out and about. On our website and newest printed resources, we suggest that parents look at the app when their child is sleeping.  

Campaign Resources for Early Years and Healthcare settings 
Alongside our own social media campaign, we are creating a growing  portfolio of resources for other professionals working with families to use in their work. These are all available for free on our website. 

In consultation with early years setting leaders, health professionals and parents, and aligned with our key themes, we have developed:

• A suite of posters to put up in settings 
• Handouts for practitioners to share with parents, including tips for reducing screen time. 
• Social media assets 

Over the next few months we will be exploring the themes in a bit more detail including writing blogs and recording podcasts. 

Keep an eye on our website and social media outlets to access our resources, blogs and podcasts.
 If you want to work with us, write a guest blog, join us for a podcast or design posters/resources for your line of work do get in touch! 

To find out more about our campaign, click here
 

Rebecca Oberg, Director: Institute for the Early Years