Children’s screen-independent: “An hour a day is enough” – Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet

Hugo Lagercrantz, former chief physician at the neonatal unit at the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital, sees a frightening development in children’s diligent use of tablets and smart phones.

– In the pre-school age should be a limitation of 1-2 hours a day. Children may also become myopic, he says to P1 morning.

He points out that there is too little research on the area to draw firm conclusions, but believes that children under 2 years are not at all going to look at screens when, among other things, threaten to impair language development.

Ulrika Hult is a child psychologist in Malmö. Any advice about banning screens for small children she does not want to encourage:

– How low down the ages, I find it not as a problem. But it is true that the senses are developing very up to preschool age. Even the sight. The individual creates his self-image and their thinking. There is every reason for parents to be careful, says Ulrika Hult told SvD.

In contrast, she agrees that excessive screen usage can create problems:

– I notice that teachers may add more and more time to catch children’s attention. Most of screen behavior is shortsighted. It will happen in 20 seconds. It will not be so interesting to seek knowledge or listening to an adult, says Ulrika Hult.

She notes other consequences of the widespread screen viewing.

– If you look at a screen, there is movement in general not. There is evidence that the brain performs better after physical activity, says Ulrika Hult.

There is concern that a dependency:

– The risk is that you opt out of school and leisure, says Ulrika Hult .

Agneta Berntsson, Head of Unit at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital barnlogopedi, told SvD that she had not seen any deterioration in their children’s reading comprehension and language development:

– We can not reverse the trend. There are good “apps”. But I think any hour of the day when the screen may be enough for a child. There is a need for interaction. The linguistic development is stimulated best when it takes place between several people, says Agneta Berntsson to SvD.

Elza Dunkels, researchers at the Department of Applied Educational Science at Umeå University, have no understanding of the requirements for the limitation of screen use for children:

– There is a excessive worry that I recognize from other technology transitions. And that is not based in fact research. Sure, let’s talk about it, but without feelings and values, she says to P1 morning.