Just a few hours of screen time a day is enough to reduce kids’ grades later on
Just a few hours of screen time can have concerning long-term consequences for kids, with new research revealing how important it is for students to return to face-to-face learning.
Education
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Too much TV and computer time is dumbing down kids, with new research revealing just a few hours’ screen time a day reduces the grades of primary school students down the track.
Grade three students who watch more than two hours television or spend more than an hour a day “mindlessly scrolling” on computers suffer a decline in academic results two years later, a groundbreaking Murdoch Children’s Research Institute study (MCRI) has found.
Excessive TV time at eight or nine years-of-age reduced the reading ability of kids when they reached 10 to 11, while too much computer use led to a loss in numeracy skills, it discovered.
The decline was equivalent to a loss of four months in learning, and was similar for grade five students who spent too much time in front of the TV and casually scrolling through YouTube, TikTok and other content on their computer screens.
MCRI adolescent health expert Professor George Patton said the findings – revealed after analysis of more than 1200 students’ NAPLAN tests - had major implications for parents, teachers and health professionals, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This question about the effects of modern media on children’s learning has never been more important given the effects of the pandemic on children’s use of time,” he said.
“It underlines again the importance of children moving safely back into classrooms and face-to-face learning with their teachers.”
Fellow researcher Dr Lisa Mundy said electronic media use was the most popular leisure activity for most kids but could reduce their amount of physical activity, creative play, sleep and time spent on homework.
It could also reduce concentration skills.
Melbourne mum of two Alice Pryor said, like most locked-down families, she struggled to set rigid screen time rules for her children, aged six and 10.
There was “a plethora of screens” in their Hadfield home and while she tried to restrict access to them, it had become increasingly difficult during Stage Four COVID-19 restrictions, when the children were made to stay inside, the Parents’ Voice manager said.
Dr Mundy said while the effects of electronic media on the physical and mental health of children were widely known, the impacts on academic performance had not been as well studied, and the MCRI study was the first of its type.
The middle primary school years were vital to academic performance later in life, but were often overlooked in research, she said.
It was impossible for kids to avoid screens during home schooling, and being actively engaged with other people and purposeful learning through computers was not as detrimental as “mindless scrolling”, Dr Mundy stressed.
But when Covid restrictions lifted and children returned to their regular classrooms, families should consider making a ‘media plan’ which limited screen time, she said.
The MCRI study did not find a corresponding decline in the academic performance of kids who played video games, Dr Mundy said.
This was likely because grade three children played video games far less than older children, and when they did, they were often educational or skills-based in nature.
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