Schools add mindfulness to curb kids’ screen time

Jaipur: As parents report behavioural changes and temper tantrums in children linked to excessive gadget use, experts in Jaipur say cutting screen time must start at home, with parents leading by example.Many schools in the city have begun regular counselling sessions for parents to build awareness about limiting screen exposure. Educators are also sharing short videos with parents on increasing quality time with children, restricting device use, and reinforcing these messages through school sessions.Experts said that before counselling a child, they assess the family background and how parents can act as leaders — by reducing their own mobile use during meals, reading books, or taking up hobbies with their children.Lata Rawat, mentor of Cambridge Court Group of Schools, said, "I ask parents whether they can imagine their child engaged in activities involving alcohol or smoking, to which the answer is always a direct No. The same is with devices, the effects of use of these gadgets starts showing within a few weeks of regular usage with changes in the child's temper or mood. This is where counselling of parents comes into picture, with teaching them a basic necessity of learning to say no to their child."Rawat added that parents should not give in to peer pressure because other children have access to gadgets, and should say no "with assertiveness, but not aggression".Experts advised parents to talk to children to understand why they want devices and offer alternatives such as hobby classes, outdoor sports, indoor games and other activities.Dr Vandana Bhati, a city-based psychologist and children's counsellor, said, "Screen time is a type of addiction even for adults which makes it imperative to keep children away from it. For youngsters it is a kind of blockage for their thought process, as cognitive processing stops. Along with this excessive screen time also disturbs the biological processing of chemicals among children which then affects their physical health."Bhati suggested drawing children back to real-life interactions by talking about the child's day, the parent's day, or "something interesting they saw" while the child was on a device."At present, children are getting conditioned to have meals while watching a screen due to which they do not realise what they are eating. This conditioning can be changed with the right interventions, like associating food with nature like birds chirping or showing a child a moon to keep them engaged yet distracted from a screen. For primary school students, parents can give activities like imagining any scenario that the child likes and developing it into a story while discussing it with parents," she added.Counsellors said they are using a "connect before correct" approach to help children understand the harms of excessive screen time. Schools are also holding weekly mindfulness sessions to teach children to live in the present moment.Kaushalya Pareek, a counsellor at a city school, cited a post-pandemic case in which a child began skipping school after developing a habit of online gaming during closures."We realised that when schools were closed, the child developed a habit of online gaming, which the child was not able to engage in as schools reopened. To address, we first connected with the child before correction, and explained how the child would get affected after missing school, with age appropriate comparisons," Pareek said.Teachers told the child regular attendance would help keep pace with friends and encouraged participation in studies, sports and school activities to shift time away from digital devices.Experts also said institutions should build infrastructure for outdoor activities to offer alternatives to online games.Puneet Sharma, media advisor for Smart India Hackathon, said, "While hackathons continue for several hours, but we have noticed that even in between such intense initiatives, students choose outdoor activities like badminton, basketball, jogging; provided such facilities are available in the institution- whether a school or college."