{"id":1313732,"date":"2019-08-19T21:00:51","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T03:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/?p=986273"},"modified":"2019-08-19T21:00:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T03:00:51","slug":"longevity-project-mental-health-professionals-speak-to-adverse-effects-of-too-much-screen-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/longevity-project-mental-health-professionals-speak-to-adverse-effects-of-too-much-screen-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Longevity project: Mental health professionals speak to adverse effects of too much screen time"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Mental health care professionals cannot stress enough the importance of limiting the amount of time children spend staring at electronic device screens.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt has a profound impact,\u201d Mountain Family Health Centers marriage and family therapist and addiction counselor Oyen Hoffman said. \u201cThere is a whole part of their brain that will not develop if they have too much screen time.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Hoffman, the creative part of a child\u2019s brain suffers dramatically from too much time spent on tablets, watching TV and playing video games. Specifically, in young children between the ages of 3 and 12, too much screen time can equate to a child\u2019s inability to self soothe, problem solve and deal with boredom.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir creativity is completely diminished because they don\u2019t need that part of their brain if all they are doing is looking at a screen,\u201d said Hoffman. \u201cThat part of their brain isn\u2019t developed and they end up being really left behind.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a result, many mental health care providers recommend no more than two hours of screen time a day. Additionally, many of those same providers advocate for equal screen time to equal outdoor play.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is vital in human development,\u201d Hoffman said of limiting screen time, not just among young children but also across virtually every age demographic. \u201cAbsolutely vital.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hoffman\u2019s colleague at Mountain Family Health Centers, Dr. Gary Schreiner, who has a PhD in marriage and family therapy, also emphasized the negative toll screen time can take on child\u2019s imagination.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything is given to them right there,\u201d Schreiner said. \u201cThe graphics, the colors, the motions \u2013 all of that \u2013 it is given to the person and it takes away from their imagination, their creativity \u2014 things they have to develop on their own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Too much screen time can also make it exceptionally difficult for a child when they enter a classroom setting for the first time, Schreiner explained.<\/p>\n

Rudimentary tasks such as reading a book may prove challenging for a child used to playing on a tablet for hours on end.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no stimulation for them. They have all of these video games and then they go to a classroom and it\u2019s boring,\u201d Schreiner said. \u201cIt really does hurt the academics, especially with the younger kids, and I think it wires their brains a little bit differently.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schreiner explained how companies that produce these devices do an excellent job of marketing them to children.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not convinced that is the best thing for kids,\u201d Schreiner said. \u201cInstead of creating their own imagination and things that help with brain development, it is just given to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

mabennett@postindependent.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mental health care professionals cannot stress enough the importance of limiting the amount of time children spend staring at electronic device screens. \u201cIt has a profound impact,\u201d Mountain Family Health Centers marriage and family therapist and addiction counselor Oyen Hoffman said. \u201cThere is a whole part of their brain that will not develop if they […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1313732","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 06:32:47","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1313732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1313732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1313732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1313732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1313732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}