Letting her five-year-old son Lucas use the iPad in the morning seemed like a great idea at first, says Medicine Hat, Alta., mom Ashley Heinl. To reward him for getting ready quickly?and to encourage more of that type of behaviour?she?d let him play a game or watch a show for a few minutes before heading out to school.
?It became really tough to get out the door because he was irritable when he had to turn off the tablet,? says Heinl. ?The listening absolutely went downhill.?
She tried giving Lucas countdown-style warnings to get off the screen but despite her efforts, ?He was just very focused on the iPad,? she says. Not willing to compete with a screen for her son?s attention, Heinl cut him off, cold turkey, nearly a month into her experiment. Heinl is not alone in linking screen time to problematic behaviour in kids. A study by researchers at the University of Alberta published in April found that five-year-olds who spent two or more hours a day on a screen were five times more likely to be reported by their parents as exhibiting symptoms of ADHD when compared to their peers who were on screens for 30 minutes or less. Piushkumar Mandhane, an associate professor of paediatrics at the University of Alberta who led the study, is quick to clarify that, ?Screen time doesn?t cause ADHD.? Instead, parents of screen time-heavy kids were more likely to label their children as hyperactive and inattentive, behaviours commonly associated with ADHD.
Sheri Madigan, an assistant profes...