Wondering if you are overreacting when it comes to your child and electronics? More and more, we encounter resistance from our kids in the form of tireless whining to use a device, watch TV, play video games, text, use social media.
Maybe you just think you’re not hip, or wonder whether you’re being a good parent by setting limits. Here are some questions to ask yourself to determine if screen usage is becoming a problem in your family.
- Does your child often seem revved up?
- Does your child have meltdowns over minor frustrations?
- Does your child experience full-blown rage?
- Has your child become increasingly oppositional, defiant or disorganized?
- Does your child become irritable when he or she is told it’s time to stop playing video games, turn off the computer or put down the device?
- Do you notice your child’s pupils are dilated after using electronics?
- Does your child have a hard time making eye contact after screen time in general?
- Would you describe your child as being attracted to screens “like a moth to a flame?”
- Does your child have trouble making or keeping friends because of immature behavior?
- Do you worry your child’s interests have narrowed recently, or that these interests mostly revolve around screens?
- Do you feel your child’s thirst for knowledge and natural curiosity have been dampened?
- Are your child’s grades falling, or is he or she not performing academically up to his or her potential?
- Does your child seem “wired and tired,” as if he or she is exhausted but can’t sleep, or sleeps but doesn’t feel rested?
- Does your child seem lazy or unmotivated, and have poor attention to detail?
- Would you describe your child as being stressed, despite few or no stressors you can clearly point to?
- Do you catch your child obsessively pulling out his or her device?
- Does your child constantly talk about screens and video games when not using them?
Adapted from Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four-Week Plan to Reverse the Effects of Electronic Screen Time by Victoria L. Dunckley, M.D.
When the changes become significant enough to impact frontal lobe functioning – or, in other words, how the child feels, thinks, behaves or socializes – on a day-to-day basis, this is what is called electronic screen syndrome (ESS).
Ria Greiff is the host of You, Inc., an NPR show. She is a master trainer for a nationwide firm and has been providing wellness seminars for the past 15 years. She is also the clinical director of her own benefits consulting firm. Ria is a regular contributor to Healthy New Albany Magazine. Feel free to contact her at ria@2rogues.com.
