How to wean a teenager off the computer - important tips for parents to prevent computer addiction in children. How to deal with children's tablet addiction? How to wean your child from playing on the phone

When I come to visit my friend, the first thing I hear is the request of her four-year-old son: “Auntie, let me play on the phone.” I hold out my smartphone, otherwise the kindergartener won’t keep up. Having received the gadget, he does not part with it until I leave. He has the same interest in his parents’ phones, computer, and tablet. The child has no time for toys...

I told the specialists about this situation. The first thing they noted was that it is too early to introduce a child at this age to all kinds of gadgets. According to Natalya Verbitskaya, a hygienist at the Department of Hygiene for Children and Adolescents of the Grodno Zonal Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology, in kindergartens, play activities on the computer and portable devices are allowed for children from the age of five. Moreover, the duration of a continuous session should not exceed 10 minutes, for children eight to ten years old - 15 minutes, for children eleven to thirteen years old - 20 minutes. Only after turning fourteen can a child spend about half an hour in front of a monitor. Reduce each of the above time standards by 5 minutes, if this applies to a tablet, e-reader and other portable devices.

Specialists carefully monitor compliance with sanitary standards and rules in computer classes in kindergartens and schools. Laboratory monitoring of noise levels, ultraviolet and infrared radiation, electromagnetic and electrostatic fields, the source of which is the computer, is carried out. For six months, due to excessive electromagnetic field strength, the operation of several computers in five schools in the regional center was prohibited.

At home, only parents can take care of the child’s safety. It is advisable for the computer to stand in a corner, since the maximum radiation comes from its back and sides. Natalya Verbitskaya says that computer furniture is needed that can ensure the correct seating of the child. His height should correspond to the size of the table and chair (legs bent at right angles and touching the floor). You cannot play or work on a computer in complete darkness. The result of non-compliance with the standards is deterioration of the child’s vision, curvature of the spine, and fatigue.

In the situation described above with the son of a friend, there is no talk of deterioration in physical health yet. It is rather similar to dependence on the computer and various gadgets. Oksana Yurevich, head of the children's psychiatric dispensary department of the regional clinical center "Psychiatry-Narcology", says that she has not encountered such addiction in her practice. Although doctors associate some mental disorders in children with long periods of time spent at the computer.

A major sociological center presented the results of its study: the majority of children aged two to five years old can play video games, but do not know how to ride a bicycle. 19 percent can run an app or game on a smartphone, but only 9 percent know how to tie their shoelaces. Minors spend several times more time watching TV than reading books with their parents. Fifty-three percent of children aged two to four play computer games instead of teddy bears, and by the age of five to eight the percentage is already 90.

So what should parents do: protect children from electronic “toys” for as long as possible, or vice versa? Experts say that in our time, when so much is connected with technology, keeping children away from computers is, to say the least, stupid.

It is necessary to organize children's acquaintance with gadgets competently.

You can’t let a phone or tablet become a reward for a child, or, conversely, deprive him of it as punishment.

Try to keep gadgets on the same level as other toys: construction sets, mosaics, cars, dolls and teddy bears.

“Squeeze” as much use out of the same tablet as possible: download educational games onto it, including those for developing fine motor skills, and educational applications.

Experts do not recommend allowing children to play with a tablet before bed, while eating, or while talking with their parents.

If you see signs of addiction, invite your child to take a walk around the city, go to the forest, or visit.

The main thing is that at these moments be with him yourself, and do not send him to your friends in the yard.

Zhanna BAYGOT
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Whether mothers want it or not, your child will grow up in the information world, surrounded by “advanced” peers. And they will become a part of his life. And here, on the part of parents, it is important to have time to take measures so that the need to use digital technologies does not develop into addiction.

British and Polish scientists call for monitoring the time a child spends communicating with new technologies, since they negatively affect the development of social and physical skills in children, starting from a very young age. , if there is an addiction, read on.

Moms should take this into account as treatment-requiring compulsive behavior caused by children's use of electronic devices and the Internet from birth is becoming more common.
In addition, cases of developing dependence on gadgets often began to appear.

When it comes to smartphone and social media abuse, there is a whole range of reasons.

Reasons for smartphone addiction in children

The desire to be constantly available. Fear of being cut off from the information flow.
The desire to be needed, significant, noticeable. All social networks, in fact, are built on the banal desire to assert oneself. And the smartphone fuels this feeling. It is important for a child not only to show off his achievements on Instagram, be it buying a new dress or cooking a new dish, but also to be curious about what others have and who boast about what.
Craving for the new, unfamiliar.

The habit of immersing yourself in a bright kaleidoscope of pictures on the Internet and passively absorbing information on news feeds arises very quickly, but getting rid of it is much more difficult. And here it is important to detect the first ones in time in order to take measures before the child develops social phobia, or hostility to the surrounding reality. And the superficial presentation of information takes away the ability for deep creative thinking.

How to overcome children's addiction to smartphones and social networks

Make sure there is more live communication in your child’s life. For this purpose, you can offer to go to an exhibition together, take a walk, or invite your child’s friends for a tea party.
The child should not spend more than two hours a day.
Do not allow your child to sit with a smartphone in their hands at family events or during meals.
Plan your child’s schedule so that there is as little time as possible for the Internet. Send him to the sports section, to a music school, to language courses. The more your chick becomes interested in something, the less he will want to waste time with the phone in his hand.
Try to unobtrusively find out the reason why the virtual world is more interesting to him than the real one; perhaps the child has problems communicating with peers, or he lacks new emotions. In this case, you should devote more time to your family, plan a joint vacation and make small holidays for yourself, the main thing is as much live communication as possible.
When going on vacation, don't look for accommodation with Wi-Fi. Better grab a couple for your baby.
Ask your child to call you back instead of texting.
Show genuine interest in your child's hobbies. Often, social networks give a child the opportunity to feel that he has many like-minded people and therefore he hides there from others who may not be so favorable towards his hobby.
Try to find out what your child is interested in so that you can speak the same language with him.
Parents should also acquire their own hobby, and it should be something other than relaxing in front of the TV, which, in principle, can also be equated to an escape from reality. You should show by your own example how you can spend time productively without using modern gadgets.
Parents should use the phone only for its intended purpose: no games in front of the child or endless correspondence about work.
Do not give your baby a gadget before bed, because this can cause problems with concentration, lead to insomnia, and, as a result, chronic fatigue, irritability, etc.
Have a holiday together without phones. Once a week, when you go on an outing with your family, leave all your phones at home.

Moms need to take into account that total bans on games and digital content are useless and unproductive, so you should not choose a similar method to overcome children’s addiction to gadgets.

It is worth noting that this is a kind of criterion for the effectiveness of all parental efforts and if the child has enough attention and support from his parents, he will not have the need to use the phone to combat loneliness.

The modern world is impossible without gadgets. Already at two or three years old, children skillfully poke their fingers at their mother’s, and more often their father’s, phones and easily find their favorite cartoon or game on the tablet. And even a baby can use the remote control. Of course, there is nothing wrong with gadgets or television themselves, because both can be used for educational purposes and bring benefits, not just entertainment.

There is benefit in everything and there is a need for moderation

However, excessive use of smartphones or watching TV in the first years of life can lead to a child’s emotional connection with his parents being disrupted, difficulties with live communication, and, according to neurologists, even health problems may begin. This does not mean that you need to completely abandon the achievements of civilization and hide the computer on the mezzanine until your child enters school. However, the time your baby spends on such entertainment should still be quite strictly limited. How? There are lots of ways.

Get out of the house more often

The easiest and surest way to distract a child from a tablet or TV is to go for a walk. An amusement park, a theater, a skating rink, a Christmas market in the city center, a dolphinarium, a circus - in all these places he will hardly have the opportunity or desire to play another game on your phone or watch a cartoon. In the end, if you don’t want to travel far, find some company for your baby (and yourself) and go for a walk in the nearest park! Bring a sled or a bicycle, depending on the time of year. The main thing here is to show the baby that leisure can and should be varied. And he can be funny.

Entertainment should be varied at home. Preschool children are interested in sculpting from plasticine, drawing, and assembling construction sets. And in many cases, it is more useful for them than playing on a tablet. It is important for parents to provide the baby with all the necessary materials for creativity: pencils, felt-tip pens, modeling dough, kinetic sand, multi-colored cubes.

A properly selected construction set will not only keep your child occupied, but will also help him develop useful skills: fine motor skills, spatial thinking, and many others. The main thing is not to forget to pay attention when choosing a toy to the age for which it is intended.

Lead by example

All parents know that in their behavior the child is guided primarily by the parents - this also applies to the use of gadgets. And here the advice is obvious: do not set a bad example. During a shared dinner, do not scroll through the news feed on your smartphone and do not turn on the TV “for background.” Instead, it is better to turn on quiet music that would not interfere with your communication, conversation and tell everyone how your day went, what was interesting. And when you are sitting at work on the computer or watching a very interesting movie and your child asks you something, try to look away from the screen and delve into his question; you should not answer “automatically.” After all, that's what the pause button is for.

Family charter

Define clear rules for using gadgets and watching TV. The sooner you do this, the better. Preschoolers should set a small amount of time for gadget leisure and monitor what they watch and play. In addition, set rules for yourself: try to give your child a tablet as little as possible so that he calms down or gets distracted. It’s difficult, of course, but otherwise later you will regret many times that you lost control, and to some extent the child too. Kids very quickly dive into that world and live in it with pleasure.

Find another hobby

While the baby is doing what is really interesting to him, he does not remember the smartphone, TV or computer. Therefore, try to find some exciting and preferably useful activity for him. Send him to a drawing or chess club (not only is it a couple of hours in class, but there is also homework!). Try swimming or playing sports - any activity will do. The main thing is that the baby likes it, and does not turn into an obligation. Your goal is for the baby to have difficulty remembering where and when he put the gadget.

So my meetings with my grandson on Skype are over. This was when I was very far away, and I had to sit with him - either I got sick, or my daughter urgently needed to go somewhere. Yes, and I sat with him. The grandmother in the window is like herself. But now I'm here! And all three of my children happily jumped on such great opportunities. And I don’t mind helping them - each in their own way.

Your best friend is your tablet?

The grandson with whom I was on Skype lives closest to everyone. That’s why sometimes I pick you up from school. You have to sit with him for a long time - hours until ten in the evening. Well, I tried to prepare a whole program for him the first time. She jumped in front of him as best she could. But then I realized that my grandson was hopelessly uninteresting. For the sake of decency, he made eyes at me for about five minutes and turned right. To your tablet.

The next day I tried to interest him in something boyish. We watched a film about the Great Patriotic War. She told about the feat of Alexander Matrosov. Impressed. But not for long. Then again I only saw the back of my grandson or occasionally exclamations of discontent - which means I lost.

One day his gadget was dead, and we put it on charge (on the floor). So what? My boy fell to his knees, arched his back like a cat, and continued his studies. No eating, no walking, no socializing! I looked in to see what he was doing there. These are approximately the names of the games as in the photo...

There are many of them! The topics are different. The photos were so amazing that I looked at them several times and couldn’t get enough of them. Did your grandson like this living, real, so close and so distant world at the same time? Wrong word! After all, I didn’t just show him all this beauty captured by the most talented photographer, but also told him what was there and who it was. Next time I'll take him to the same gallery. I'll show you how interesting photo collages can be.

Real world

I am sure that such a pastime is much more useful for a child. He gets to know the world and communicates with us adults, and fusses less with the computer. The main thing is that he lives in a real and not an imagined (which he already dreams about) life. There is another aspect - what if the little boy, looking at this, decides to become a photographer or biologist?

I wrote in the title that I kept my grandson away from the computer. No, not really. At home he is still fighting. And when he comes to me, we watch something together. Now he is on vacation, and we often go to different playgrounds. Here he finds new friends, jumps, and develops. He played with one toy for small children (a spinning top) with such pleasure that I thought - yes, we should offer him such things too.

By the way, once we were on the set for 3 hours, and he never once remembered his murderer friend. Yes, that’s what I call any gadget... If you leave a child alone with it at least once, and don’t pay attention to the baby for a long time, he will be captivated. For the attention of those who make good money from this...

How do you keep your children and grandchildren away from the ever-present gadget invaders?

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Addiction is when something begins to control your life and interferes with your daily activities, work and relationships. Thus, a classic alcoholic can be described as a person who, when waking up, drinks a glass of vodka instead of a cup of coffee. However, with the advent of the technological boom, signs of addiction can also be seen in attachment to a cell phone.

Is your phone the first thing you check when you wake up? Do you text while driving? Are you scrolling through Facebook at work instead of finishing an important task? Do you check your phone for new messages during a romantic dinner? If you answered yes to at least one of these questions, then you can probably talk about addiction. And this probably prevents you from living a full and rich life. Here are some tips to help you overcome addiction.

The first 30 minutes of your day

If you start your morning by checking your phone, then this is a serious problem. After all, the first half hour after waking up should be devoted to creating a good start to the day. This involves getting up, washing your face, doing a little stretching or meditation, and preparing breakfast. So start your morning with healthy and right things to energize yourself for the whole day.

Time periods without a phone

Most people keep their cell phone handy while working. Regardless of whether the sounds made by a gadget are related to work or not, they distract you in any case. If this happens all day, then your productivity is seriously reduced because you cannot concentrate on the task at hand. Therefore, it makes sense not to use the phone at least part of the working time. Set aside at least two hours for this when you are most productive. During this time, turn off your phone and fully concentrate on the task at hand.

Turn off your phone when you drive

It is necessary to enshrine this norm at the legislative level. After all, you turn off your phone on board a plane. The same should apply to the car. Our brain simply cannot be in two places at the same time. So, if you look at the smartphone screen, you cannot monitor what is happening on the road. Of course, you can say that you use the gadget as a GPS navigator. However, how did people live before? After all, you can always spend a few minutes before your trip to carefully study the upcoming route. In addition, it is much safer to stop on the side of the road and look at the map again than to do it while driving, distracted from monitoring the situation on the road. Therefore, when getting into the car, simply turn off your phone so that you are not tempted to look at it. After all, your life and the lives of other people are at stake.

Plunge into real life

The best communication can be with real people sitting in front of you. And no virtual friends or messages on the Internet can be more important than a real person. And if at the same time you tell him that you need to immediately read a very important message, then this is not only rude, but also a very stupid act. After all, even if your interlocutor says that everything is in order, then in fact it is not at all so. Such behavior on your part can destroy friendships and any relationship. After all, the person made time to meet with you, but you don’t appreciate it. Therefore, forget about Facebook, Twitter, VKontakte, etc. at least for the duration of live communication with a real person, especially if he is truly important to you. After all, you can always read new messages later, when you find yourself alone. Don't make people close to you feel like they aren't important to you.