Why Screens are Problematic for Special Needs Kids
by Spencer Doman, M.Ed.
The below article is an excerpt from Douglas and Spencer Doman’s new book “The Doman Method®: From Special Needs to Wellness”. The book is currently available on amazon.
Sometimes parents will remark to me, “Look at my 3-year-old navigating my phone and tablet,” and I watch as a toddler moves effortlessly from app to app, watching videos, movies, and playing music and games. As impressive as this might seem, that same child is often spending 4-5 hours daily in front of a screen. Research is showing that spending hours on a screen daily has negative consequences for child health and development. For many children with brain injury, these devices have an addictive kind of quality. Children sometimes throw temper tantrums when parents try to take them away, and children will sometimes spend hours and hours playing on the devices. Watching children over the past decade playing with these devices has certainly convinced us that they are more of a negative influence than a positive one. Here are the reasons we can confidently state this:
Early research from the National Institute of Health (NIH) shows that kids that spend 2 hours of time on screens daily score lower on language and cognitive tests.1
They spend more time on phone and tablet devices, and less time interacting with others -- social interactions they desperately need.
They engage with these devices more and have fewer opportunities to read, play educational games, and do productive activities.
Many children appear to become more dependent and “addicted” to these devices and tune out and disconnect from their environments more and more as they do.
These devices sometimes lead the children to engage in more repetitive and abnormal behaviors.
At the very least, you should greatly limit the use of these devices. For some families, they can limit it to 30 minutes daily for the child, and it can be used as a reward at the end of the day for cooperating with their other home program activities. However, some parents say that their children throw temper tantrums when the smartphone or device is taken away, and it sometimes makes the rest of the day miserable for both child and parent. For these families, it is often best to completely eliminate the use of these devices for the time being, until the child matures, and their condition improves to the point that they can have a healthy relationship with these devices.
Sometimes families comment that their child has an “addictive” kind of attitude toward something else in the house — the television, a certain toy or device that produces sound, or something else. We have seen children who play repeatedly with the same electronic toy or play the same song over and over again. As a general practice, we have found that it is best to eliminate these things from the child’s environment. In our experience, the child might be upset at first, but generally, adjusts quickly to the new environment, and parents notice overall gains in behavior, interaction with others, and maturity.
Parents can learn more about critical aspects of child development for special needs children, the Doman Method® and how to help their children reach their full potential by reading the new release “The Doman Method®: From Special Needs to Wellness”.
Source: https://healthmatters.nyp.org/what-does-too-much-screen-time-do-to-childrensbrains/#:~:text=Early%20data%20from%20a%20landmark,experienced%20thinning%20of%20the%20brain's
