Guard Kids Against Smartphone Overuse: 8 Effective Strategies

You like seeing baby selfies on smartphones but don’t quite like 3-year-olds chasing monsters in gadgets at a time when they should be having  fun with bats and balls. Since gadgetry will only spread further into our lives gradually, keeping smartphone addiction unchecked will result in an irritable, lazy and perhaps, depressed child.

8 tested tips to reduce smartphone addiction in your kid

Ever wondered why your child prefers indoors to outdoors? With increasing population and conversion of public spaces into housing complexes, there are less spaces available for sports and recreational activities. Ensure that your children spend at least 2 hours playing in parks and having fun. 

• Engage children in sports 

Schools do stress on physical education but the school’s efforts don’t go far enough without your support. You should encourage children to take up outdoor sports that need heavy exercises such as cricket, football etc. These outdoor sports not only divert their attention from smartphones  but also make your children healthier.

• Story-tell for longer durations

Make time out of your busy schedules and bring back the tradition of parents telling their stories to their children. Remember that children are always in dire need of attention. If they don’t get that from you, they’ll resort to gadgets which will only harm their upbringing. When  listening to your stories, children will keep the phones away. 

• Have one-on-one discussions

You should realize that family time is very important for your kids. Have your children tell you how well they spent their days at school. Ask them about their experiences and try to know their hidden feelings about something or someone, if any.

• Introduce them to musical instruments

Music has countless benefits: entertainment, brain development and passion. Arrange music lessons for your children and encourage them to pursue learning music. This will give them a reason to ditch the phones.

Kids are clever. If you scold them for ditching smartphones, they’ll find a way to fidget with your phones when you least expect them to. Change your phone passwords frequently so that by deprivation, your bored child hopefully finds a better way to spend time.

• Refrain from smartphone addiction 

If you are a smartphone addict, you’ll have trouble explaining to children why you can’t keep the phone away even late at night. Sort your routines  to improve your own health first. Your indulgence in physical activities will inspire your children to follow suit.

• Use technology to educate cleverly

Recent technological devices such as Google’s Chromecast and Amazon’s Firestick allow a user to watch the audio-visual running on their devices to comparatively bigger screens such as television. If your children insist on learning lessons via educational videos online, make it a point to stream them to bigger screens so that they  forget about the device and focus on education.

Adopt these ways to manage smartphone addiction in your children and see the difference for yourself. So, where would you like to start?

READ ALSO: 5 Harmful Effects of Mobile Phones on Children