What Is An Alternative To Screen Time?

Finding activities to fill your children's day is definitely the new normal. Fortunately, parents have access to a variety of activities online, and teachers everywhere are sharing links to sites that provide art, music, science, and outdoor activities, to name a few. And, there are always good old-fashioned television programing, video games, and movies to pass the time.

But, rightly so, many parents are concerned about the amount of screen time their children are consuming and are looking for some alternatives.

Their concerns brought to mind a lecture that I attended many years ago (actually it was before most households had computers) given by Educational Psychologist, Dr. Jane Healey. Dr. Healey sited a research study that was done on the brains of people who had grown up listening to the radio compared to the brains of people who had grown up watching television. She explained that there were marked differences in the two groups of grey matter. The explanation being that humans who listened to the radio used different parts of their brains to imagine the pictures that went with the stories they heard. In contrast, television viewers were given the pictures and did not need to use their brains to create them, so certain parts of their brains went unused.

When my granddaughter, Alma, told me about the daily story that she listened to on the podcast "Circle Round", I was again reminded of the long ago lecture. Her enthusiasm for these recorded tales prompted her to make pictures of the characters and places she heard about in the story, stimulating her brain even more.

This article in the New York Times "A Big List Of Podcasts For Little Kids." provides an extensive list which will provide some variety to your child's day while developing their listening skills and stimulating new parts of their brain. Whether you tune in with your child or they listen independently, turning off the screen and “listening” can enrich and entertain in new ways!