LIMITING SCREEN TIME FOR CHILDREN

 

 

Most millennial parents are pressed for time owing to stress and pressure at the workplace. This has a direct impact on their engagement levels with children. It results in the latter turning to alternate modes of engagement such as mobile phones, television, tabs and computers. In fact, many parents hand over gadgets to their children to keep them occupied. Technology also allows for a convenient alternative to physical activities such as playing outdoor games for both children and parents.

 

A report by the World Health Organization further shows that “an average child and teenager between the age of 8 to 18 years consumes at least seven hours of screen time per day in contradiction to the recommended guidelines of one to two hours or less per day”. A majority of brain development happens in the early years when the brain triples and grows in size rapidly. Therefore, the demographic whose brain health is negatively affected the most due to exposure to screen time is children.

 

Do you ever find yourself fighting for your kids' attention? Of course, the thing that keeps them from paying attention to you is... their smartphone. We know how negative the effects can be. You're missing out on precious quality family time. Smartphones are interrupting one-on-one interactions. Real friends with whom we played football are nowhere to be seen, all replaced by virtual ones. Not to mention how compromising it is for the kids' health to be exposed to screens for prolonged periods. You and I both know that neither politely asking nor assertively demanding to put that phone away is going to help. This is a serious problem of our age.

 

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and hybrid and distance learning models, many children are incorporating more screen time into their school day. That's why it's more important than ever to reduce the use of electronics the rest of the day.

 

While screens are a part of today's culture, there are health benefits related to reducing screen time, including improved physical health, decreased obesity and more time to play and explore. This is especially true for children spending considerable time learning on computers and tablets in their online classes. The average time spent on screens is seven to 10 hours. If on top of this they spend their leisure glued to video games then you can imagine the magnitude of the problem!

 

Harmful effects of excessive Screen time

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations for an acceptable amount of screen time are:

• No screen time for children under 2
• One hour per day for children 2 to 12
• Two hours per day for teens and adults

Limiting screen time also helps parents keep a closer eye on what their children are experiencing on social media and the internet. It's important to use break times to get in some physical activity.

While more research is needed to fully understand the effects screen time levels have on kids, parents are not off the hook. Screen time affects adults the same as children. Too much screen time puts everyone at risk of obesity, and it's linked with sleep disturbances and can affect relationships. For kids, especially teens, there are studies concerning the negative effects of screen time and its relationship to anxiety, depression and attention span. Excessive screen time has an adverse effect on the psychological and physical health of a child.

Screen-based activities often delay bedtime resulting in insufficient and low-quality sleep. The screen content too, particularly the violence in cartoons, can interfere with the ability to fall asleep due to the physical and psychological effects. It hampers the child’s concentration and imagination. In fact, the light from the screen has a direct impact on the alertness and circadian rhythm of the child. Circadian rhythm can influence sleep-wake cycles, hormone release, eating habits, digestion as well as body temperature.

According to The American Journal of Pediatrics, “screen time has an adverse effect on the communication skills and language development of the child”. Children under the age of two, who watch screens more than the permissible limit may talk later and have an issue deciphering meaning. The background noise from television is associated with decreased attention, lower quality interactions with parents, and behavioural and cognitive problem. Then again every hour spent on smartphone, tablet, computer or television and binging on unhealthy snacks increases the risk of obesity by two-folds. While it may not be a causative factor, excessive screen time socially isolates the child and pushes him/her towards Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and autism.

 

These 8 tips can help you trim your children's screen time when not in school:

 

1. Be a role model

If you are all the time glued to your phone or the television then you cannot expect your kids to take you seriously when you admonish them about their excessive screen time. You have to be an ideal parent / grand-parent and do what you preach. Your own screen time should be fixed and the screen should not be your default mode of entertainment or your company in solitude. When the child sees you reading a book, playing a musical instrument, baking a cake he/she comes to know about the hidden pleasures of life!

 

2. Be accountable.

Set Screen-Time Limits: Set expectations with your kids, and set goals to be intentional about reducing screen time. Once you set the limits, declare them and stick to them. With your older children, you can negotiate and agree on a timeframe that is accepted by both parties to avoid conflict. For the younger ones, try to split the time throughout the day, as they find it more difficult to resist urges, and a strict hand will only lead to conflict and more resistance from their side. Meet them in the middle: if they tend to reach for their phone to rest after lunch, allow them to use a portion of their designated screen-time after lunch. Keep them posted every 10 minutes on how much time is left for the day.

 

3. Be realistic.

If your kids are spending a lot of leisure time on screens, including watching TV, start by setting smaller, more attainable goals. Instead of drastically cutting down their screen time to 1 hour a day start by cutting their current screen time to half. There is no point in triggering a revolt because then the very purpose of reform will be defeated.

 

4. Be engaged.

Involve Them in Your Daily Activities: Don't leave the kids to entertain themselves. Children, especially the younger ones, love to imitate grown-ups, so see how you can involve them in your activities if you haven't got anything planned just for them. For example, they can help with meal preparation, gardening, or even hanging the laundry to dry. And you can help with building a fortress in the living room! Challenge yourself not to be concerned if they accidentally spill juice or make a little mess - this is a learning curve for both of you. After school or work, spend time each day talking face to face with kids and give them your full attention. Quality time with parents can easily wean them off their gadgets.

 

5. Put hand-held devices away.

Out of Sight, Out of Mind: During screen-free hours, put devices away or at a charging station in a common area so they're not attracting your kids' attention. When the phone is near, but the child knows that he/she is not allowed to touch it, their willpower is on the line. Don't put your children to this test, as it requires many mental resources. It will be much easier for everyone to put them away and forget they exist. You could also make a small morning ritual in which all of you put the phones away together in a basket and have breakfast together without screens.

Phones won't nag the kids so much once they are away from the disturbing notification sounds that trigger anxiety. And you won't have to constantly play cop too! This means you could also throw a sheet over the TV if you'd like. Do not let the TV run as a background noise all the time.

 

6. Create a Challenge

If you feel your children can handle it and it won't create too many conflicts, create a healthy challenge or competition for the time you'll spend together. This is a good way to keep them occupied and help them develop skills while strengthening your family bonds. Here are examples for inspiration: Learn how to skate on roller-blades See who can score the most jumps on the jump rope Fold an origami project the fastest\ most accurately Can we build a tree-house together in 48 hours? Who can draw the largest side-walk drawing with chalk? Learn how to bake a cake or make biscuits. There can be no end to such interesting challenges!

 

7. Create phone-free zones in the home.

Making family meal areas a phone-free zone is an easy way to start. Not carrying the phone to bed is the second rule that can be easily implemented with a bit of persuasion. Toilets should be phone free zones – you can take in books or newspapers but not phones.

 

8. Opt for the Great Outdoors.

The great outdoors is as stimulating as their phone and is much healthier. One of the reasons why kids are so attached to their small-screen devices is that they are very stimulating. There are endless varying sounds and constant movements on the screen, keeping them trapped in a loop, waiting for the next stimulus. Spending time outside rather than inside (if possible) is all the more stimulating, with added health benefits. Thus cycling around the block, having a picnic in the park, campout and bonfire, going for a swim can all be healthier alternatives. Putting down the phone and taking a walk or playing outdoors increases your endorphins and provides that feeling of happiness in your brain, boosting your mood and improving your physical health.

 

China has responded to this problem as a nation

China’s National Press and Publication Administration restricted the amount of time that children could play video games to three hours a week. That’s one hour each on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The facial recognition technology will force kids to log off if they are playing outside the approved hours. That’s a powerful tool - perhaps the only one that would actually be able to enforce these measures anywhere in the world - but one that I imagine many parents in India would be deeply uncomfortable with.

China’s government had decided that a generation of kids was growing up distracted, addicted and surly. Teachers would complain that students were falling asleep in class after playing games all night. Parents said their kids were irritable and throwing tantrums after having their games taken away from them. They were showing withdrawal symptoms.

Video games, once confined to desktop computers and consoles, are now readily accessible everywhere from the bus trip home to the living room couch. Parents in the affluent families of our country are not unfamiliar with this problem. But before you call for the government to intervene, it’s worth considering what type of society can actually enforce these measures. Unlike China, where government has control over all game creators and where foreign games are not allowed our video games market is autonomous.

China’s crackdown on video games is part of a wider move to restrict movies, songs and artists that aren’t doing their bit for China’s rising nationalism. Restricting games is only one measure taken down a very slippery slope. We will certainly not like to go down that way.

 

 

While the means is unacceptable to us the objective seems to be noble. Parents have to take responsibility and not relegate it to any governmental body. When the school day wraps up, have a plan to put away devices somewhere out of sight and engage kids in other ways. Remember when you were a child how your parents and grand-parents spent quality time with you, reading stories and fables, singing songs and reciting poetries. Remember how they tried to keep you busy in gully cricket and roof-top badminton. So now when it is your turn to look after your own children why are you shying away from your responsibility and depriving your children of a healthy childhood? And, worse still, why should the government substitute you and start doing the parenting?

 

LANGUAGE OF EDUCATION – LET US ADDRESS THE CONUNDRUM

The Union government’s New Education Policy, released on July 29, 2021 succeeded in resurrecting one of the country’s most common policy conundrums: in which language should Indian children be taught? The NEP’s recommendation that, “wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Grade 5, but preferably till Grade 8 and beyond, will be the home language/mother-tongue/local language/regional language” is an attempt to reignite the pride in our local languages and I fully understand it, but should the local languages be made to thrive at the expense of English language? Why do we have to kill English in order to instill life in regional languages? And, is it wise to do so?

The political class is in the habit of projecting English medium education as a colonial hangover. It shows that because we were subjugated for two centuries by the English our minds have not come to terms with our political independence and that is why we are still fascinated by the English language. If that is so then may I ask why China and Japan are insisting of not only teaching English in their schools but also opening international English medium schools? These countries were never British colonies, so why they have suddenly turned Anglophile? 

 

Benefits of English language education

The fact is that the knowledge of English opens the horizon of the child to a whole new world of rapidly expanding universe of knowledge. English thrives because of its utilitarian value which is of global spectrum. It offers better learning materials for various other subjects like Science, Biology, Medicine, Engineering and Architecture and so parents, who are naturally concerned about the future prospects of their children chase English medium schools.  They consider English to be the best medium of transmission of knowledge and information. It is accepted worldwide and it also tends to develop a confident personality in a child. After all English is the most widely spoken language throughout the world. So if the kids get their primary education in English medium school, their fluency on the English language is surely going to increase, which will help the kids in the future. Their career prospects are better with fluency in English, particularly in multi-national organizations and where technologies invented, reinvented and modernized in foreign shores are in use and their training and updating invariably requires the knowledge of English. English remains the language of international communication, commerce, internet, entertainment and trade and the earlier it is learned the more comfortable the children are in thinking, reading, writing and speaking using the language.

 

Source: The Times of India

Benefits of native language education

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has argued since 1953 that every effort should be made to provide children education in their mother tongue. Mother tongue-based bilingual schooling is seldom disputed on the basis of its pedagogical reasoning. UNESCO’s recommendation that “At least six years of mother tongue education should be provided in ethnically diverse communities to ensure those speaking a different language from the medium of instruction do not fall behind” is accepted the world over and undoubtedly mother tongue is the best place to start a child’s education. This is because teaching a child in a language he/she doesn’t know or speak at home leads to “lecture and rote response” whereas starting a child’s education in the mother tongue “allows teachers and students to interact naturally and negotiate meanings together, creating participatory learning environments that are conducive to cognitive as well as linguistic development.

The affective domain, involving confidence, self-esteem and identity, is strengthened by use of the familiar language i.e. mother tongue in primary school thus increasing motivation and initiative as well as creativity. It allows children to be themselves and develop their personalities as well as their intellects, unlike in English medium classrooms where they are forced to sit silently or repeat mechanically, leading to frustration and ultimately repetition, failure and dropout.

What is most interesting is that when children are initially taught in their native language in primary schools they tend to pick up the second language even better than when primary education is initiated in a non-native language.  An eight-year study on Latin American-origin students in the United States found that students who were taught in primary school using Spanish actually did better at English than Latin American-origin students who were taught in English from the beginning. The more highly developed the first language skills, the better the results in the second language, because language and cognition in the second build on the first.

 

So how to strike a balance?

Science says that a child learns better in his/her mother tongue and aspirational parents in India are running after English medium schools and often paying a fortune to educate their children in them; so how can we formulate an educational policy that will be acceptable to all? At the very outset let us not frame this question of medium of education in a false binary. It should not be English or Regional language / Mother tongue. Both are important, and as we have seen, both are indispensable. Let us start the primary education in the child’s native language and once he/she gains confidence introduce English as the second language. Let us honestly admit that our native languages suffer from inadequacy of learning material as well as shortage of skilled instructors. Our literature of Bengali, Tamil, Taegu, Malayalam, Punjabi, Marathi, Konkani and Urdu are very rich and can certainly support Primary and Secondary school education, but do we have books of Science, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Zoology, Botany, Medicine, Dentistry and Engineering in these languages that will match their English counterparts? So knowledge of English is indispensible.

All we have to decide is when to start English in schools. I am of the opinion that earlier the better. Children won’t mind if they are repeatedly corrected for their grammatical errors while speaking or writing but when they grow up they may resent, feel embarrassed and rebel. English is a global language and we can fight it at our own peril.

 

Language has nothing to do with religion

Let me make one thing abundantly clear - English is not a language of Christians, Hindi and Sanskrit are not languages of Hindus and Urdu is not a language of Muslims. Languages have nothing to do with religion; they belong to regions where they are spoken. Opposing teaching of language on the basis of religion is both short-sighted and stupid. We cannot harm the language by not teaching it, we end up harming ourselves and our civilization. I am a Bengali, brought up in Lucknow and was taught Urdu till Class VIII. Urdu is the language spoken in Lucknow and I am expected to know it. Urdu is my language, just as Bengali, Hindi and English. Is it not a pity that 30 years later when my sons did their schooling Urdu was nowhere in the curriculum? How can you call yourself a Lucknavi and not know Urdu? 

When the people in the stratosphere of policy making sit once again to reassess our education policy they must De-hyphenate language and religion and introduce Urdu as an optional third language in schools with perhaps other useful foreign languages like Mandarin, Spanish, French and German. The knowledge of an extra language can only help our children to compete better in the global market. And, the knowledge of English is purely aspirational and not a colonial hangover.

 

CHINA POLICY - NEGOTIATE FROM POSITION OF STRENGTH

The Chinese Foreign Minister is coming to India to discuss the border dispute in Laddakh and Arunachal. Both India and China have strong views about the international border but India is not the only country with which China has a disputed border. You will be astonished to know that China has this dispute, both in land and in sea, with 23 countries! Bhutan, Japan, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, South Korea, North Korea, Singapore, Brunei, Nepal, Laos, Mongolia, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Malaysia and Russia all have border issues with China. This list is incomplete because we are ignoring Tibet and Taiwan which China claims as its own, occupies the former and continuously threatens the existence of the latter.

 

Perhaps China’s most decisive land dispute is the one with Tibet. In 1950, China enforced a long held claim on the Himalayan country and incorporated it with its own territory. Tibet’s spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and his followers were forced to flee to India, where they have set up a government in exile. As the rich countries are keen to keep China in good humour in order to take the benefits of its vast market place and as the poor countries are falling prey to their debt trap which they choose to call Belt and Road Initiative, Sri Lanka and Pakistan being two perfect examples, China feels that it can have its way with all its neighbours by strong arm tactics.

 

Their largest neighbour Russia has in fact solved its border dispute with China by endeding up yielding the regions of  Argun, Amur, and Ussuri rivers, Damansky Island, Bear Island ( also known as Bolshoi Ussurisky or Heixiazi Dao) and countless other lands. This happened after three border agreements signed in 1991, 1994 and 2005 by Beijing and Moscow but what did Russia get in return is not clear. 

 

China’s bargaining Power

How do you deal with a neighbour like this diplomatically? What makes the situation worse is their bargaining power. They account for 28.7% of global manufacturing output and is India's largest trading partner with bilateral trade well over $100 billion! 37% of electronic components, 45% of consumer durables and 70% of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) come to India from China. If you consider the APIs alone then several antibiotics, antihypertensive and anti-virals and even life saving drugs like Heparin have their origins in China. 

 

As many as 80% of the world's automobile parts are linked to Chinese manufacturing. When this industry goes electric China with its Lithium reserves finds itself in poll position. Chinese battery-maker CATL controls about 30% of the world's EV battery market. Indian automakers are already facing a shortage of semiconductors! China unhesitatingly uses these tools as bargaining points to settle border disputes.

 

The only answer to this blackmail is to be self sufficient - Atmanirbhar. While other countries cannot afford this path because of their aging population, small consumer base and lack of talented work force, India is a predominantly young country and is much better placed to handle this challenge because of the demographic dividend. But this will not happen overnight. We need urgent reforms in both education and manufacturing sectors. Our New Education Policy with its emphasis in Skill development and urgent labour reforms to get out of the communist mindset and reignite the engines of our manufacturing industries are vital.

 

Building a consensus against the expansionist attitudes of China in a bitterly divided world is not easy. Many poor countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, who find themselves in the Chinese debt trap, may be easily arm twisted by China to toe their line. As the second largest economy, particularly when the largest one is confused, unreliable, anything but united domestically with shrinking profile internationally and dealing only in rhetoric is not keen to confront China, the latter enjoys an open goal to score at will. If India has to counter it we need to be strong, both economically and militarily.

CLOSING AIRSPACE IS LIKE SCORING A SELF GOAL

The freedoms of the air are a set of commercial aviation rights granting a country's airlines the privilege to enter and land in another country's airspace. They were formulated as a result of disagreements over the extent of aviation liberalisation in the Convention on International Civil Aviation of 1944, known as the Chicago Convention. The freedoms of the air are the fundamental building blocks of the international commercial aviation route network. The use of the terms "freedom" and "right" confers entitlement to operate international air services only within the scope of the multilateral and bilateral treaties that allow them.

 

When a nation or a block of countries shuts its airspace to the aircraft of a certain country, the latter’s planes are not able to fly over that particular geography or land at any airports within it. In this case, the control towers in the banning nations make sure no airline from the offending crosses its airspace, leave alone land in one of its airports. Any slip-up is taken seriously and investigated.

 

Blocking airspace for even civilian airplanes is one of the commonest weapons employed by warring countries. Pakistan blocks its airspace for Indian planes at the drop of a hat and all west bound flights have to take a southern route over the Arabian Sea and Gulf States to reach Europe or America. In mid-2017, during a tiff with Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the UAE closed their airspaces to Qatar Airways. The Saudi coalition - which had accused Qatar of state-sponsored terrorism, justified the ban. That forced Qatar Airways flights to and from Europe and to North Africa to make a long detour over Iraq, Jordan, Israel and the Mediterranean rather than the direct route over Saudi Arabia. The coalition finally relented and reopened their airspace in January 2021 but not before afflicting heavy losses in terms of extra cost of aviation fuel on the state owned carrier of Qatar.

 

Following the Ukraine crisis the world is witnessing another season of madness of blocking airspace for civilian planes from enemy countries. The Americans and their NATO allies started it by blocking their airspace for Aeroflot. Not to be outdone Russia swiftly reciprocated by blocking its airspace for all civilian airplanes of NATO countries. This has implications for European airlines operating Asian routes since so many great circle routes between Europe and Asia – the shortest distance between two points on the globe – pass through Russian airspace. Spread over a land area of 16.4 million square kilometers, covering almost 11 per cent of the world's landmass and 11 time zones, Russia dwarfs every other country. That sheer bulk makes Russia an important player in world aviation, and right now it's giving some airlines a major headache.

 

Whether it is British Airways or Lufthansa, Air France or Finnair, Air Canada or United, KLM or Qantas all are in a soup of their own creation.  Flights like Frankfurt to Seoul, Tokyo to Paris, London to Singapore and Bangkok to Copenhagen, Munich to Singapore, Darwin to London, and Sydney to London all have to cross the Russian airspace if they have to take the shortest route. 

 

 

 

To drive home the point I am trying to make let me take the example of Finnair, Finland’s national carrier. If you see the map Finnair is uniquely positioned to take advantage of great circle air routes that offer fast flight times between Helsinki and a number of East Asian capitals. However all those routes overfly Russia. At the beginning of March Finnair announced it was suspending its lucrative routes to Seoul, Osaka, Tokyo, Shanghai and Guangzhou. Finnair continues to operate to Bangkok, Phuket and Singapore. Now if I take the example of the Helsinki – Tokyo flight this flight, which took around 8 ½ hours across Russian airspace, now takes about 4½ hours longer. Imagine how much extra fossil fuel is being burnt to pollute the environment and how much more it is costing both the airlines and its flyers! Before Russia closed its airspace to European carriers, Finnair was operating an average of more than 10 flights through Russian airspace every day. So one must stop and ask oneself some tough questions – who is exactly being punished by this stupidity? I am sure it is not Putin.

 

Airlines of countries not inimical to Russia like Air China, China Southern, China Eastern, Korean Air, Eva Air, Asiana, Air India and Cathay Pacific are operating in Russian airspace. As they continue to fly shorter routes they can keep their ticket price lower than their European competitors and are, with every passing day, making them non-viable.  Closing airspace cannot be a viable option in the long run. It is bad for business, bad for air travellers and bad for environment.