REMOVE ALL SCREEN TIME.

Many articles had talked about it, scientific studies had proven it, real anecdotes reported, but parents all over are still making this mistake in parenting.

I assess children on a daily basis and have seen close to thousands of children, out of which, more than half had short attention span, were disruptive in class, and were not learning well.

Whenever these symptoms are observed or are told to me, I will pop the question, “How much time does he/she spend in front of a screen in a day?”

And I’ve had a 99% hit so far that they had spent more than 1 hour a day in front of a screen.

The length of time these children spend in front of a screen (including iPads, handphones, televisions, DVD players etc.) are usually, on an average, more than 30min per bout of time. The gadgets are usually used to distract them from danger when Mummy is doing the chores or during meal times, to keep them sitting quietly so the parents can enjoy a meal in a restaurant without a melt-down to handle.

REMOVE ALL SCREEN TIME.

It’s difficult, I understand… I’ve had a difficult-eater myself. I too, fell into the temptation of letting him watch videos on the iPad than have him refusing all food… But it’s a vicious cycle. It’s just like a drug addiction, the more you show, the more they need it to behave/comply. Withdrawal symptoms are even evident if you deny them the screens! They will get into an uncontrollable fit and become renegades by digging into out-of-bound zones just to look for the “hidden drugs”.

These “drugs” (screens) come in all forms. They vary from television to handphone and iPads. Some even had DVD players installed in the car. No matter the form, they are all evil  to a child when enjoyed for more than 30min per bout.

The worst case scenario is those who were so highly “intoxicated” that TVs no longer attract them. They get bored and move on to other things in split seconds, unable to settle down on any activities for long. These are signs of over-exposure.

It is SCARY. Scary how parents see it as their children’s personality, how they resign to the fate that their child is hyper-active or that they are born like that.

It’s never too late to change that, no child is too damaged beyond repair. All you need to do is REMOVE ALL SCREEN TIME… NOW.

This is most likely the all-time favourite question that parents ask on a daily basis, “What did you learn today?”

I’ve heard it repeatedly from others and even myself every time I reach home, “Tell me about your day W, what did you learn?”

And almost 100% of the time, or at least for most children under the age of 12, parents find themselves shaking their heads when they hear, “Nothing…”, “I don’t know”, “I learnt… (blank)”, “Ooh I played this (and that)… blah blah… (and they continue with a list of things that had happened to them, none of which was what you are hoping to hear).”

So is it true that your child has learnt nothing at all? Ask the teacher the same question and see what answers you’ll get and you will know if your child has indeed learnt nothing…

So why is it that they simply couldn’t tell you what they have learnt?

The answer is simple, they don’t know how to summarise.

Think about this, “summarising” is a skill that you have picked up only in your secondary school days. It’s not an easy section to score and you struggled with what was required and what was not.

Children simply don’t have that skill and thus the easiest way out is, “Nothing/I don’t know.”

Ask instead:

1. Specific questions. Find out, from the teacher, the learning objectives of the program/course/week and ask specific questions like,
   • “What did your teacher write on the board today that you can remember?”
   • “How many pages of the workbook did you do today?”
   • “Which page of the textbook did you guys cover today?”
   • “Which letter sound can you remember from class today?”
2. “One thing that you can remember that the teacher had said in class.” Give a heads-up before sending them off into class that you are going to ask them this question so they would keep the question in mind to pick out the most memorable pointer to share with you.

These should give you a better idea as to what was learnt in class.

Lastly, of course, ask the teacher. Whatever that they have learnt, are mostly new to them. It’s impossible for them to remember 100% of everything that was taught. Be patient, they will become better than you one day, for now, bear with these junior learners and give them the space  and time required to master what’s expected of them.