Summer Screen Time Strategies for Engaging with Younger Children
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It’s August, the final rush before school, the last lazy, hot, dog days of summer. If your family is anything like ours, you might be watching more TV than normal due to the heat and the smoke. Here I’ll provide some suggestions for making this last month of summer count while still enjoying these warm and relaxed days of hiding inside and watching TV.
My daughter happens to be obsessed with Cocomelon, which in all honesty, I despise. However, I can see that she learns from watching the show, so I allow it. She is not even two and she can sing most of the songs from Cocomelon as well as associate elements and ideas from the show into her own life. For small children, here are the ways that I make screen time less brainless and more engaging. The most important thing is that we have to put our own screens away in order to focus on our children and the TV shows that they are watching.
Narrate for your child, explain what is happening in the show. “He’s sad'; his mom is trying to help him.” This helps the child begin to understand the story, practice language both by listening and by speaking, and engage with you.
Talk about emotions and problem solving. For older children, attempt to reflect the problems and feelings back to their own life. It’s beneficial to start these conversations even if your child can’t necessarily answer yet. “She’s feeling nervous to ride her bike. Why do you think she feels like that? Have you ever felt nervous? What can she do to feel brave?”
Ask your child questions about what is happening in the show, this will snap their brain out of the screen time zone out and help them to think critically about the show by paying attention to and then explaining it. They will be ecstatic to explain their show to you, I’m sure!
For Cocomelon, and other young children’s shows, they make it easy for kids to learn and for you to teach! Lessons are built into the show. For example, some Cocomelon favorites for us are The Opposites Game and The Animal Dance. We talk about opposites all throughout our day (dark/bright, heavy/light, in/out, quiet/loud) and we like to identify then experiment with how different animals dance or move.
For other TV shows or movies, pay attention to the theme, or the moral of the story. I find that Doc McStuffins always has a great moral. If the moral is learning to be brave, remember this, and talk about it often within your child’s play or routines like when going to school, going to the doctor, or trying something new.
Make screen time special every once in a while. Host a movie party with popcorn, have your child set up the area, bring stuffed animals and blankets, and pick the movie. Have a picnic or tea party on the floor during screen time. You might even be able to Google your child’s favorite show and episodes about the activity you want to do. I Googled “Cocomelon picnic” and found a song titled “Picnic Day”.
Be conscious of when to ask if your child is ready to be done with screen time. They might not tell you they want to turn it off, but if you offer something else they might happily disengage. Be sure to actually pause the show, get on the child’s level or gain their attention and offer up another activity like stepping outside, helping you switch laundry, make a snack, etc.
Use physical touch often, I would say at least once or twice per episode or every 20 minutes. This lets your child know that you’re present and there for them, it snaps them out of that screen time zone out, even just momentarily, and sometimes-a physical touch and check in will lead to a play and snuggle break! Even better!
