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Not all Screen Time is Bad Screen Time?

4th October, 2023

Behavioural and Cognitive Development Benefits of Active Screen Time Backed By Research  
 

It has long been thought screen time of any description has detrimental and negative effects on the mental, physical and social development and behaviour of children.
 

But research from a University of Michigan study on children aged 4 to 11 on their use of screen time has revealed its not how much time children spend on their devices but how they use their devices (passively or actively) that is the “strongest predictor of emotional or social problems connected with screen addiction.” 
Whilst passive screen time can be consequential on everything from development to sleeping patterns, active screen time engagement actually provides learning, educational, participation and scope to nurture their creative mind benefits.
 

It has been well documented including by an abstract from the Canadian Paediatric Society that children respond well to programming that is activity based, fun, made for them and encourages their participation.  And this is why learning new skills like coding games or websites, building apps and robots these school holidays makes for good active screen time.
Not only are they learning new skills, but digital literacy skills give them the edge on mental flexibility, encourages complex problem-solving, critical thinking to creativity that comes with learning coding.
 

“Screen time now offers so much more than what was traditionally thought of when we’d see children in-front of devices.  Screen time doesn’t need to be an inactive and passive experience – by providing children with the right tools for active screen time, we can make smart use of our children’s screen time by encouraging those that are beneficial where they learn a new skill like coding or building apps and reducing the time spent on passive activities such as scrolling through social media,” said Adam Jacobs, Managing Director of digital literacy streaming service, CODEFLIX and Junior Engineers, a national provider of digital technology education to Australian primary and secondary students.


CODEFLIX™ is Australia’s only on-demand instructional video streaming service for kids 5-17 years of age to develop their skills in coding, robotics and all things tech. 

With 24/7 access, CODEFLIX™ provides advertisement free hours of educational fun instructional videos to teach kids the latest skills in coding and robotics.
With all the content developed by qualified educators, CODEFLIX™ nurtures the ability, step by step, to build and code robots, create video games, hack Minecraft, develop mods in Roblox, build apps as well as websites and much more. 


www.juniorengineers.com.au/codeflix
 

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