“This past week,” my daughter wrote, “we decided to completely cut out our son’s screen time. He wasn’t watching every minute of every day, but it had slowly started to creep in more and more from just being when we drove in the car to more often.” After one week off screens, Jo-Ann shared with her friends on social media what changes she noticed in her son’s behavior.

Firstly, she noticed him using his imagination while playing with his toys and how often he played more independently.

Next, his meltdowns grew less frequent and shorter. She wrote, “I would often take a long time to settle him, it felt like any circumstance would lead to BIG meltdowns. He is a toddler, so we recognize he has big emotions, but his ability to regulate his emotions with guidance has greatly increased.”

Thirdly, our grandson now desires to be outside—almost all the time. Prior to completely cutting his screen time, Jo-Ann noticed how he was quickly growing bored of outside activities; he was so drawn to the iPad, just wanting to be inside.
Finally, she posted, “His sleep has improved dramatically! He doesn’t wake up every couple of hours, and he falls asleep calmly with little to no kickback or crying.”

As a busy mom, Jo-Ann believed that “parenting would be much easier with screens to keep him occupied. I thought it would give me time to clean and tidy and cook, but from my own experience, parenting actually became much harder because my son was over-stimulated and stressed. I can honestly say now, my son is much happier and peaceful.”

In her book Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four-week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen Time, Dr. Victoria Dunckley has documented how, after removing children from all electronic media for four weeks, 80% of ADHD, bipolar illness, autism, sleep disorders, mood swings, difficulties focussing, and behavioural problems completely disappear.

Dr. Dunkley’s extensive clinical experience as a child psychiatrist has uncovered how the immediate effect of electronic media on the brain is that it over-stimulates, overstresses, and over-loads the brain, causing the frontal lobe to shut down, and the child becomes dysregulated. In the short term, this affects mood, cognition, and behavior. In the long term, the concern becomes developmental, meaning it affects a child’s potential for developing relationships, the quality of those relationships, how far they go in school, and how successful they are in their career.

Dr. Jean Twenge authored the highly readable and entertaining iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy—and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. Dr. Twenge exposes how “Screen time is affecting the mental health of teens even more than it is younger children.”

Recently, René and I have been sharing in churches throughout Canada messages for young people, and families with young children, focusing on strategies for using technology and how to identify whether you are more likely to be negatively impacted by social media, offering solutions to help children, youth, and people of all ages who wish to control their technology. Many have had their eyes opened to practical approaches to controlling rather than being controlled by these powerful devices.

If you would like to invite us to come to your church to conduct a program like this, please, contact us at: information@iiw.ca. Alternatively, you can write to us at: It Is Written Canada, Box 2010, Oshawa, Ontario, L1H 7V4, or call us at: (905) 404-6510.

– Mike Lemon