{"id":15756,"date":"2019-08-09T15:44:13","date_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/?p=15756"},"modified":"2019-08-09T15:44:39","modified_gmt":"2019-08-09T15:44:39","slug":"add-this-to-your-back-to-school-list-5-tips-to-manage-screen-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/2019\/08\/09\/add-this-to-your-back-to-school-list-5-tips-to-manage-screen-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Add this to your back-to-school list: 5 tips to manage screen time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2013By Rosanna Castro for FIU News<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As summer ends, parents may be worried about the time their children are spending using digital devices. FIU Psychologist\u00a0Justin Parent<\/a>\u00a0offers the following tips to help parents manage this transition ahead of the school year:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Reduce use of digital devices by small increments every few days.<\/strong>\u00a0Gradually replace some screen time with reading or other educational activities. Parents may need to say things like, \u201cWhen<\/em>\u00a0you read for 15 minutes,\u00a0then<\/em>\u00a0you can get more screen time.\u201d<\/li>\n
  2. Use an app to limit screen time.<\/strong>\u00a0Using\u00a0Apple\u2019s Screen Time<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Android\u2019s Digital Wellbeing<\/a>\u00a0app can help set specific time limits appropriate for your child \u2014 no more than two hours a day, no screen time after 8 p.m. or only 30 minutes a day of social media.<\/li>\n
  3. Set parental controls.<\/strong>\u00a0The content of children\u2019s screen time is equally important, or even more important, as the time spent on devices. Tools including YouTube Parental Controls, Apple’s Screen Time or Android’s Digital Wellbeing can help limit access to inappropriate content.<\/li>\n
  4. Join in.<\/strong>\u00a0Parents can more effectively monitor content by watching their children play or even playing alongside them! They can learn about what their children are doing and who they play with. Joining in is also a perfect time to highlight positive aspects of the content, such as the creativity children demonstrate while playing a building game like Minecraft.<\/li>\n
  5. Keep screen time from interfering with sleep.\u00a0<\/strong>One of the biggest reasons screen time negatively impacts children\u2019s well-being is it can\u00a0compromise sleep duration and quality<\/a>. Limit exciting or emotionally charged screen time in the hour before bed. Remove phones, tablets and game systems from bedrooms at night.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u201cBy providing these recommendations, we hope to open the dialogue on healthy tech use and empower parents to make choices that feel right for their families,\u201d Parent said.<\/p>\n

    Parent is director of the\u00a0Child and Family Well-being Clinic and Lab<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0FIU Center for Children and Families<\/a>. Beginning this fall, the center will offer monthly\u00a0Tech Parenting Workshops<\/a>\u00a0for parents of children ages 5 to 12. The workshops will help parents manage their child\u2019s use of smartphones, tablets, video games and other devices, and explain how to set parental controls. For information, visit\u00a0cfw.fiu.edu<\/a>\u00a0or call 305-348-2509.<\/p>\n

    The Center for Children and Families is a preeminent research program at FIU<\/a>. To learn more about how you can support critical research taking place at the university, visit NextHorizon.FIU.edu<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    \u2013By Rosanna Castro for FIU News As summer ends, parents may be worried about the time their children are spending using digital devices. FIU Psychologist\u00a0Justin Parent\u00a0offers the following tips to help parents manage this transition ahead of the school year: Reduce use of digital devices by small increments every few days.\u00a0Gradually replace some screen time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":15757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[44,463,440,464,379,172],"class_list":["post-15756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-family","tag-fiu-next-horizon","tag-fiunexthorizon","tag-preeminent-program","tag-preeminent-programs","tag-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15756"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15758,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15756\/revisions\/15758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fiualumni.com\/stay-connected\/alumni-news\/newsroom\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}