Do you think that checking your cell phone in front of your children has no consequences? Think again ! Scrolling casually on your phone screen would actually have a much greater impact on the development of your dear little ones. Explanations.
According to a study published last year, we spend on average 32 hours per week on our screens, almost the equivalent of a work week! This time spent in front of a tablet, TV or mobile phone therefore represents less time spent with your child(ren).
A screen that comes between parents and children
According to psychiatrist Serge Tisseron, interviewed by our colleagues from Ouest-France, screens interfere in the parent-child relationship. The adult does not interact in the same way with their child when they are caught up in what they are watching on their smartphone, which acts like a wall between the two.
According to the psychiatrist, this affects the way he responds to his child: the adult then makes short sentences, his face is not expressive, he makes few gestures to accompany his words… In reality, he is present physically, but absolutely not “mentally” with your child. “The latter, faced with less rich interactions, will have difficulty learning to identify emotions and will have less feeling of sharing an emotional state with the parent” explains Serge Tisseron.
Difficult to channel children’s relationship to screens, then
It’s well known: a child’s first role model is their parent. It is therefore difficult to want to limit the screen consumption of your offspring, when you do not limit your own. In addition to seeing us glued to a screen, the child realizes that he is not fulfilled by the exchanges he has with his father or mother. This creates a form of sadness which is also accompanied, in the most serious cases, by difficulties in expressing oneself, due to learning delays.
How can we improve the situation?
As you can imagine, there are not thirty-six solutions: you have to put down your cell phone, in the presence of your children. You must try to limit the screens as much as possible when they are with you, in order to encourage them too to abandon the screens, to encourage play. A good way to regularly give them some family time.
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