Have you ever encountered this situation in your life:
Children jump up and down at home, and there is no moment of tranquility in the tossed home, but as long as adults put mobile phone videos, children will immediately come quietly;
On rainy days, the child is noisy to go out, as long as he is given a mobile phone, the things that go out to play are left behind;
The child is noisy and bored at home, and he should not read the picture book, but it is very energetic to open the mobile phone to read the electronic picture book.
But when the child plays quietly with the mobile phone and does not move the ground for an hour or two, the parents begin to relax and worry about the child's addiction to the mobile phone.
Usually, when you want to return to the mobile phone at this time, you will be tortured by the child's soul: "Why can't the child play the mobile phone all the time?"
Most adults' answer is basically "children playing with mobile phones for too long will be myopia is not good for the eyes".
Such an answer will not affect the child's enthusiasm for mobile phones, but make them more looking forward to and enthusiastic.
Therefore, to let children look at mobile phones correctly, we must first figure out the reasons why children are addicted to mobile phones, so as to be able to give children effective guidance.
01. Addicting to mobile phones is not poor self-control, dopamine triggering is the key
We all know that dopamine is our body's reward mechanism, which provides us with energy and motivation.
For example, if you were originally lazy, you got up early this morning and ran in the morning, and your body triggered the reward system of dopamine, generating pleasure to provide you with energy and prompting you to be willing to continue to persevere.
A new study at the University of California, Berkeley, found that all kinds of mobile phone information information, like money and food, will promote the body's dopamine reward system, that is, it will make us feel good and achieve pleasure.
Because for the human body, reading information is itself a kind of "reward", which is the same as people always like junk food.
This is also understandable why people always like to swipe their mobile phones, because the above is full of all kinds of information, which will promote our dopamine reward system and make us produce pleasant emotions.
The wealth of information on mobile phones is like an endless dopamine trigger that constantly triggers our body to secrete more dopamine.
But the stimulus state of high dopamine will make it more difficult for us to do some low dopamine release things; just like getting used to a continuous, high-intensity state of excitement, it is difficult to sink down and do something relatively quiet and focused.
For example, after getting used to high-calorie food with big fish and big meat, you will suddenly let you eat vegetarian, and you will suddenly lose your appetite.
This is also the biggest problem of playing mobile phones all the time, playing for a long time other things can not be interested.
It's like sometimes we finish a job and feel too tired to brush back on our phone to rest. As a result, the longer the phone is watched, the more unable to extricate itself, and finally the originally planned run will not run.
So addicted to mobile phones is not a child's poor self-control, in the face of the high-intensity dopamine experience of mobile phones, who play for a long time can not not be addicted.
02. Mobile phones are information windows that can inspire preschoolers' cognition
Restrict children from playing mobile phones, afraid of children's addiction, mainly because most parents feel that TV programs on mobile phones can only give children fun and cannot inspire learning.
Sesame Street, one of the most Emmy Award-winning children's shows, conducted an assessment of the impact of the show before its first season aired.
The survey results found that among children aged 3 to 5 years, the most watched children had much higher total test scores, alphabet test scores, and the ability to write their own names than children with fewer views.
The American Pediatric Association believes that the benefits of children before the age of 2 for electronic screens are still limited, but 2-year-old children can already learn through interactive touch screen industry programs, which should be specially designed programs.
Children aged 3 to 5 years old can improve cognitive and literacy skills by watching well-designed television programs; but it will affect children's language mastery, because watching TV for a long time will affect children's social communication skills with others, so watch TV moderately.
Therefore, popular science TV programs are not useless for preschool (2 to 5 years old) children's cognition, but interesting popular science TV programs can help children understand boring knowledge content, inspire children's cognition, and enhance children's interest in learning.
The mobile phone is actually an integrated device of information, we can use it to consume time, we can also use it to open the door of knowledge that we can't open every day.
Help children grasp the content of mobile phones, and mobile phones can become an important window for children to understand the world.
03. How to prevent preschoolers from being overly obsessed with mobile phones
Parental involvement is key
For the use of mobile phones for children aged 2 to 5 years, the American Pediatric Association recommends that it should not exceed 1 hour, so as to ensure that children can establish good electronic screen habits.
At the same time, the quality of parenting can also change the connection between electronic screens and children's development, 2 to 5-year-old children use electronic screens, parents should accompany them to use, which is the best way to help them learn.
Therefore, when the child uses the mobile phone, the parent's accompaniment is the most critical factor to prevent the child from becoming fascinated by the mobile phone.
This will not only monitor the time of your child's screen use, but also help your child understand what they see and connect it to real life. Eventually, mobile phones are used as another extension of parent-child interaction.
Avoid the "overrun effect" and fall into a parent-child communication impasse
There is an "over-limit effect" in psychology that talks about too much stimulation, which can easily stimulate psychological impatience and rebellious psychology.
This often happens when children play with mobile phones, such as children playing with mobile phones, and we keep saying it from the sidelines
"You've been playing for too long, and your eyes are broken."
"If you don't put down your phone, you won't play next time."
"Learning is not so addictive to you, playing with a mobile phone is like losing your soul, put the phone down and go to dinner"
To avoid this, we can set the screen usage time, or WiFi usage time, and communicate with the child in advance.
The next time your child doesn't comply with the requirements, follow the rules.
This prevents our excessive speech from causing the adults' own emotions to spiral out of control, and on the other hand, it avoids complicating simple things.
Kids get outdoors and enjoy another "dopamine" experience
A 2008 study found that sunny outdoors activate the release of dopamine in humans, while helping to reduce the incidence of myopia in children, regardless of physical activity.
At the same time, Swedish researchers have found that children who play outdoors every day have stronger attention and motor coordination than children who do not play outdoors regularly.
So if you feel that your child uses too much mobile phone, then you should arrange a wealth of outdoor time for your child.
Let your child enjoy another high-dopamine experience from outdoor activities, so that he will be more resistant to the temptation of mobile phones.
When arranging outdoor activities for children, we should follow these principles:
Interesting
For children, fun comes from simple, straightforward, novel activities.
In ordinary life, we can use different materials and links to combine outdoor activities.
Like a child's remote control car, we can use the branches, leaves, and small stones outside the user to add different tracks and difficulties to the car.
For example, let the car rush through the leaf pile, let the car break through the fence of the tree branches and so on.
The simple and direct links of falling leaves and branches can make it easy for children to get started, and they can also let him explore the fun of playing with remote control cars in different materials in nature.
A sense of accomplishment
Although the bright sunlight outside can activate our dopamine, it is very important to let children stay outdoors for a long time to play, and the sense of accomplishment of the activity is very important.
For example, inviting a child to use a scooter and himself to run in a park, in the process we can let the child feel his speed by appropriately lagging behind, stimulate his sense of achievement, and touch the child to be willing to run.
Of course, you can also time the child's sliding distance, such as how many seconds it takes to slide to the park gate this time, and how many seconds will be the next time, this intuitive data will also make it easier for children to have a sense of achievement and motivation. It will also make children unconsciously willing to stay outdoors.
In short, we live in the era of science and technology, and there will be more and more tempting digital products in the future, just like from the previous TV to the computer after that, to our mobile phones now, the possible metacosm of the future (a collection of virtual time and space, so that human beings can feel the world of complete digitalization).
These digital product changes are "the way we exist around us, and what remains unchanged is the test of our self-management ability."
We can't stop the integration of digital products, all we can do is help children get along with them properly.
So when a child asks you" "Why can't children play with their phones all the time", it is better to tell him "there are more beautiful things waiting for us outside of mobile phones, let's hang out together now".
Source: Lilac Mom Education