learning

To Screen Or Not To Screen - The Effects of Screen Time on Brain Development

We live in a world full of screens. You’re probably reading this on your smartphone or tablet, and the fact is that screens will not be going away any time soon. For some, the prevalence of the portable screen has become the bane of society; while for others, it has become the world at their fingertips. There are a number of opinions on the topic. However, we want to take you into a different area of understanding on this topic - screen time for your children.

GENERATION ALPHA

Ever since the first smartphones came out, there has been an increasing shift toward personal screen use. Those of us who grew up in the stone age before the IPhone and IPad remember when you had to turn on the TV for all the world to see. We remember the constant battle for control of the remote so we could watch our show instead of our sibling’s. Now, you can get whatever content you want whenever you want, and wherever you want. Between social media and streaming content, the average daily use of a screen for teens is up to 8.5 hours a day. For preteens, it is about 5.5 hours a day. That’s a sizable chunk of time. While it may seem excessive for teens, we want to take the focus to children from 12 years old and younger. This is Generation Alpha, the digital natives.

We all want our kids to succeed in learning, so the focus of this article is to educate parents of children in this age group on the benefits and dangers of screen time. With over a decade of data in our hands, it is apparent that devices and screens are a two-edged sword. A simple internet search will provide a number of articles and opinions on the effects of screen time. Before we get into the specifics, we need to realize that screens are not going anywhere. Banning them from a child will only lead to that child running head on into a detrimental activity when he becomes an adult, and that is the last thing that needs to happen. What we need to do is manage how our children interact with technology so that it provides the greatest benefit and the least risk.

“On average, children ages 8-12 in the United States spend 4-6 hours a day watching or using screens, and teens spend up to 9 hours.”
— AACAP.ORG

AN OPEN DOOR TO THE WORLD

Many adults remember when the internet went public. It was like the world was put at our fingertips. Then, mobile computing happened and now we had access to the world in our pockets. I personally enjoy seeing friends and family from across the world when I’m talking to them, and don’t get me started on the rabbit holes of information available at our fingertips. With all of the technology available, it has never been easier to deliver information and it’s a tool we use in our classrooms. As a student, I was limited by the ability of my teacher and the curriculum at hand. As a teacher, I can deliver an expert to my students within seconds, or we can model information that was not possible a generation ago. There is a wonderful world out there, and the right approach can unlock the door of knowledge for our students.

A POTENTIAL OBSTACLE

Our brains are in constant development during childhood, making millions of neural connections that build upon each other. Not only are we making connections, but our mind is constantly pruning off connections that no longer matter. This is the maturing process. It occurs through the constant mixture of learning, doing, assessing, and even boredom. Children have an insatiable curiosity about the world around them. Combined with little knowledge and experience, you have a recipe for investigation. It is these moments when meaningful connections are made and lifelong memories implant themselves deep into the core of our brain. We use these connections to inform ourselves about our world and gain deeper understanding as those connections are broadened.

However, studies have shown that putting children in front of screens for long periods of time has enduring side effects, notably: sleep problems, lower grades in school, less time with family and friends, not enough outdoor or physical activity, weight and mood problems, and less time learning other ways to relax and have fun. Physically, it has been shown to thin the area of the brain where our memories are stored, impairing a child’s ability to recall information quickly and accurately. Limit the time your child spends in front of a screen and make him or her spend time solving real world problems, being creative, or just playing with real objects and his or her imagination.

RECOMMENDATIONS

It might seem like it’s time to throw out the screens and go for the old pen and paper. While that may be tempting, it won’t last. Our lives are too intertwined in digital technology. Instead, parents should limit how much time their children have in front of any screen, as well as controlling the content that comes across that screen. Here are some helpful tips for healthy screen use.

AGE RECOMMENDATIONS

Under 2 - no screen time

Ages 2-5 - no more than one hour of screen time a day, and only educational programming

Ages 5-12 - limit activities and content. Focus on offline activities for most stimulus

OTHER RECOMMENDATIONS

Cut out screen time during family time.

Eliminate background screen time during homework times.

Remove screens at least 60 minutes before bedtime.

Enact parental controls to limit content and access.

Don’t use screens as a babysitter or pacifier.

Working on using screens as tools for our children will benefit them in the long run. Aside from moral dangers, we must be careful not to allow screens to pose an addictive danger that limits our children to a virtual world that is not all that it seems.

Spaced Learning - Keeping it Fresh, Again

One of the hallmarks of the A Beka curriculum is its spiral method of learning. In this method, students are introduced to topics that continually build upon one another and then “circle” around to earlier concepts in more depth. This method works with a concept called spaced learning. This concept uses science to maximize the amount of time between concepts and skills so that they become ingrained in the mind better.

When we practice spaced learning, we are using our mind’s ability to remember and forget to a greater potential. Most of us remember trying to cram as much information in our heads the night before a quiz, hoping it would stick. If we did remember it during the quiz, we quickly forgot it afterwards. Why? We only tried to access it right there. After that, it didn’t really have any value so our brain pulled the plug and we moved on.

With spaced learning, we use time as an ally. Our memory goes through the “forgetting curve”, an exponential reduction in the knowledge we have learned as we get farther away from learning something. Within an hour of learning a new concept or skill, we forget up to 50% of it. Within seven days, if we don’t revisit it, we will have forgotten most of what we have learned. When we use spaced learning, we have set intervals where we come back and revisit that knowledge. This is what happens in our classrooms every day. Teachers and students review and build on the prior day’s knowledge in a specific timeframe to ensure the knowledge sticks in the memory of each student. Not every student is the same, so sometimes the effect is greater or less, but the basic principle remains the same.

You might be saying to yourself, “That’s great, but what does it have to do outside of the classroom?” One reason students have homework is to shorten the interval in which that memory is used. By causing a student to rehearse what he or she learned in school that day, homework helps solidify that information in the brain. When done properly, it aids knowledge retention and helps students speed up the learning process the next day. One way parents can help is to ask what was learned in school from the day. When we talk about what we have learned and show it to another person, it helps build the synaptic connections that cement a memory in our mind. Asking your kids to tell you what they learned in class can create an interval where memory is secured.

“The expert in anything was once a beginner.”
— Helen Hayes

Think of spaced learning as a form of meditation on what was learned. Psalm 119:97 states, “O how love I thy law! it is my meditation all the day.” When we bring those memories back, they bring other benefits as well. Keeping these intervals going helps reduce study anxiety, promotes deeper understanding, reduces mental exhaustion, and helps make real-world connections. So, how can you help your student succeed in spaced learning? Find a new concept that he or she learns at the beginning of the week. You can do this by asking your student or the teacher. Then, spend 5 or 10 minutes working on that concept. It might be as simple as rehearsing some history facts or working on a multiplication family. Do that every day of the week, but add a little more to what you did each day. At the end of the week, your child will see a marked improvement in what he or she knows.

Learning Motivation and Goals

 Motivation is one of the most important ways of determining success. What is the point of striving for something if a person cannot achieve some reward for his risk? It is why people invest money, why athletes train years for one shot at the Olympics, and why people put themselves in harm’s way to save another person. When someone sees value in risk, then he is motivated to pursue the reward. The same could be said for a student who is learning. When kids ask, “Why are we learning this?”, it is because there is a reward for getting the knowledge. It may not be a physical reward, but gaining knowledge or mastering a new skill has its own reward.

However, motivation must have a goal. Every time we set out on a venture, we need a goal. It keeps us aligned to the reward. It focuses our efforts so we can achieve something. In school, that goal might be to get a good grade on an assignment or class; it might be to graduate; or, it might be to simply learn something new. We all can remember a goal we set for ourselves that helped us in school. With the proper goal mindset, our children can find success in what they are learning.

He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread… - Proverbs 12:11a

Mastery Goals

There are two main types of goals for every student - mastery and performance. When a student has a mastery goal, he or she is focused on learning new skills, improving overall, or acquiring knowledge. This is the goal that looks at the long term and asks how to become a better person through learning, including working through failures. We want our children to have these goals because they tend to cause students to invest more in learning. As a parent, it is important to show your child that he or she can achieve more and learn better by doing those things that may not find immediate satisfaction, but will help achieve lasting results in the long term. Some ideas that come to mind include practicing skills that might seem monotonous (think multiplication tables or the parts of speech) or irrelevant (reading books that don’t have to be read for class). By doing these, students challenge themselves to compete against themselves or expand their knowledge. I often get asked by students how I know so much across a breadth of subjects and I always tell them that I read…a lot; and I read about many different things. Why? Because I want to see how everything connects and how disparate bits of knowledge can help me learn more. So, challenge you child to keep learning, keep getting better at what he or she is doing, and keep “failing up”.

Performance Goals

Performance goals can be thought of as the ranking in a class or the grades on a test. We all remember studying for a test in school because we wanted to get a good grade. We each had our motivations, but the reason was to get the good grade. When the test was over, how much did you remember? Most of the goals students operate under fall in this category, and while they have a purpose, these goals are not the best. When these goals are not met, it can lead to a defeated mindset and compound with other failures. As a result, teachers and parents may find a frustrated child who thinks they are “stupid” because they failed. I want to remind every parent that failure is part of the learning process. While we all want our children to be the “A” student, we also need to remind them that those grades don’t always reflect the level of work put into learning. The more your child can master the material, the more consistently he or she will achieve higher grades in the long term, with the added benefit of actually knowing the material.

Without struggle there is no success. - Frederick Douglass

Help your child set goals in learning. Talk with your child’s teachers to create those plans. Show your child that he or she can learn, even in subjects that are lower on the likeable list. And, let them fail, let them struggle, let them persevere, let them know what success through adversity tastes like . When your child doesn’t understand a problem in his or her homework or gets something wrong on an assignment, that is the perfect opportunity to really teach because now you know exactly what he or she needs to learn. We want every child to love school and to excel in their studies, but the most important part of learning is to build a lifelong pursuit of the truth in each of their lives so that they can know God and impact this world for Him.


Making Learning Useful - Applying Knowledge at Home

I’m sure you’ve probably heard it as a parent. You ask your child what he or she learned at school and the answer is, “I don’t know”. It probably drives you crazy wondering what it is you’re sending your child to school for. Don’t worry, your child is learning. He may just be embarrassed to let you in on his little secret knowledge or he may think it doesn’t matter outside of class. The truth is, when students don’t carry their learning outside of the classroom, it presents another problem - retention.

Courtesy Brett Jordan

Courtesy: Brett Jordan, Unsplash.com

When students learn a new fact or skill in class, it is usually accompanied by processes to cement that knowledge in the mind of students. The problem lies in the short amount of time knowledge is applied before the class must move onto another topic or subject. That is one reason why we love the A Beka curriculum at SBA. It uses a spiral technique that builds on prior knowledge to cement information in students’ minds. However, as students mature, the material they learn becomes more specialized as it prepares them for graduation and college. If they do not use it outside the classroom, they will lose it; and the longer it sits idle, the less of it remains in the synapses of the brain.

Transfer of Knowledge

We’ve all experienced this phenomenon. We learn a person’s name and soon forget it. We can’t figure out why, but it happened. Or, we are confronted with a situation that we used to do with ease but struggle to recall how to get it done, because we’re “a little rusty”. What happened? We didn’t transfer the information to a point of usefulness and it “aged” out of our mind. One way our teachers try to work around this issue is applying information across multiple subjects by establishing connections that allow students to use the information in more than one period a day or one day a week. But, you can help this, too. We call it the transfer of information and the more you can use a bit of information, the better chance you have of recalling it later. So, when you find out what your child is learning at school, find ways to use that information at home. Make connections with everyday items and situations. Every moment presents a chance to make this happen, even brushing teeth can be part of the process as children learn good hygiene habits (health), time to brush (time and math), the rhythm and tempo behind the brushing song, and what happens when we brush our teeth (science).

Knowledge is of no value unless you put it into practice. - Anton Chekhov

Take a moment to make those connections when you get the chance. In the car, at the dinner table, even getting ready for bed, you’ll be amazed at how creative you can be in making it happen and how you can assist your child in retaining the information he learns in school and go beyond the regular homework routine.