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People everywhere are talking about the obesity problem in the United States, its impact on young children, and the lifelong effects obesity can have on health.
Learn how family child care providers can limit screen time to promote healthy habits and prevent childhood obesity in young children.
Key Takeaways
- Limiting screen time is crucial for preventing childhood obesity and promoting healthy development.
- Screen time should be avoided for children under two and strictly limited for older preschoolers.
- Alternative activities during challenging times reduce reliance on screens and encourage social interaction.
- Provider-parent communication enhances support for screen time reduction efforts.
- Small, planned steps can lead to lasting healthy habits in children.
Summary
- Childhood obesity is a significant health issue influenced by nutrition, physical activity, and screen time.
- Limiting or eliminating screen time in family child care homes helps prevent obesity and supports healthy development.
- Screen time includes TV, videos, video games, smartphones, computers, and internet use.
- Preschool children often exceed recommended screen time limits; experts advise no screen time for under twos and minimal screen time for older children.
- National standards recommend no screen time for children under two and no more than 30 minutes once per week for children two and older, focused on education or physical activity.
- Reducing screen time encourages activities like talking, playing, singing, and reading, which aid brain, social, and imaginative development.
- Practical strategies include removing or covering screens, turning off background TV, and planning alternative activities during challenging times.
- Providers shared ideas such as indoor active play, dance parties, and imaginary journeys to replace screen time during extreme weather.
- Communicating efforts to reduce screen time with parents often results in their support and involvement.
- Starting small and planning ahead can help providers successfully reduce screen time and foster lifelong healthy habits in children.
Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown
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Researchers tell us that eating nutritious food, engaging in frequent, age-appropriate physical activity,
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and limiting screen time are important for maintaining a healthy weight.
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As a teacher and caregiver in a family child care home, you play an important role in helping children develop positive habits that prevent childhood obesity.
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Eliminating or restricting screen time can help prevent childhood obesity.
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Screen time includes watching TV, video tapes or DVDs, playing video, smart phone or computer games, and surfing the Internet.
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Caring for young children is hard work. It's tempting to use screen time to keep children occupied during challenging times,
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such as activity transitions, diaper changes, and meal preparation. Here are a few easy alternatives to help limit or eliminate the use of screen time with the children you serve.
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Many of these ideas came from interviews with family child care providers, while others were shared by early childhood experts.
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Did you know that preschool children are often exposed to more than three hours of screen time every day? This is far too much.
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According to the experts, preschool age children should not have more than a total of one to two hours of screen time a day.
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And children under the age of two should not have any screen time at all.
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Since children typically get too much screen time at home already, it's even more important that they are not exposed to very much screen time while they are in your care.
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A national standard for screen time use in early care and education programs, including your family child care home, is no screen time for children under the age of two.
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And for children two years and older, screen time should be limited to no more than 30 minutes once per week.
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In addition, it is recommended that any screen time used should only be for education or physical activity.
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Helping children maintain a healthy weight is not the only benefit to limiting screen time.
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Screen time can take away from activities like talking, playing, singing, and reading. These activities help encourage brain development, development of social skills, and imagination.
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A simple, successful way to limit screen time is to either remove the screen time equipment from the children's environment or keep it out of sight by covering with a cloth.
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This reduces the children's expectation for screen time and helps them focus on developing relationships and social skills while they learn.
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Some providers reported that just turning the TV off, even when it was only being used as background noise, has helped some children be more calm and focused while in care.
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Another way to avoid screen time is to have a planned set of special activities for children to do during challenging times,
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when it is tempting to rely on screen time, such as preparing meals.
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Watch Anne as she prepares lunch or snack.
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Instead of having the children watch TV, she has provided a limited number of activities that the children don't normally do. They are able to keep busy while she prepares lunch.
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In Maria's home, children interact with each other in educational activities while lunch is being prepared. Maria interacts with the children in a manner that still allows her to focus on preparing their meals.
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Another challenge in family child care home is diaper changing and toileting time.
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Planning activities in advance for each child is one successful strategy. The child or children engage in an activity while the provider performs a task, such as changing that diaper or pull-up.
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Notice that Lucy is talking and paying special attention to the baby being changed.
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But she is also talking to the other children as she changes the baby's diaper.
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We learned that some providers may use screen time instead of going outside in extreme weather conditions.
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This not only decreases the amount of physical activity for the children, but increases screen time viewing and exposure to advertising of unhealthy food or drink products.
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The providers we interviewed suggested some ideas for alternatives to using screen time during extreme weather. These included using active indoor materials such as sock balls or bouncy balls.
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Having dance parties and taking imaginary journeys to different places like the forest or ocean.
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It's important to let the parents know of your efforts to reduce or limit screen time.
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One provider told us that parents love it.
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She said, they think I have done them a favor.
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They are very supportive and even offer to help supply materials for activities. You are such an important influence in the lives of your children and their families.
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We trust you can creatively meet the challenge to reduce or even eliminate screen time in your family child care home.
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Starting small is okay as you work toward your goal to have less and less screen time in your day.
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Before you know it, you are on your way to helping the children in your care develop lifelong healthy habits and achieve a healthy weight.
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Now that you have seen some specific ideas for how to limit screen time, give them a try.
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Planning your day in advance, especially the extra activities, is a critical part of being successful.
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What other ideas do you have?
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Are you ready to try to reduce screen time for the children in your care?
Topics:childhood obesityscreen timefamily child carehealthy habitsearly childhood educationphysical activitynutritionchild developmentscreen time alternativesparent communication
