Wellbeing: Screen-time and our students

On the train from Newcastle to London last weekend, I watched with increasing disbelief as a young couple set up their two-year-old daughter with not one screen, but two, in her pushchair.

One iPad played Peppa Pig (on a loop), the other had an interactive game. The child’s attention flitted between the two, eyes darting, fingers nimbly negotiating both, throughout the entire three-hour journey. When we disembarked, she threw a spectacular tantrum and I couldn’t help but wonder why her parents didn’t associate this with her train entertainment centre. And it got me thinking.

When my eldest sons were young, I banned screens, apart from an hour or two of television, during the week. With my youngest, however, not only does he have to check in to a computer/iPad to find out what homework has been assigned, but a solid proportion of that work is also online – in particular, languages and maths.