[Personal]

I believe screen time is not necessary in a childcare environment. I believe that hand on activities like crafts, coloring and playing are more beneficial for kids on this age group.

[Maribel]

I believe that kids can get “sucked in” to whatever is on a screen. While their attention is focused on the screen, their bodies are still, they are quiet, and they are not actively learning or thinking, and instead passively staring at moving pictures on a screen. I don’t feel that screen time should be forbidden, and on occasion can be a nice way to unwind and have fun, however it should be in moderation and not everyday. It is mostly important that whatever children are exposed to watching be age appropriate, and other activities should be encouraged that doesn’t involve screens.

[Tim]

Limited, purposeful screen time can be appropriate in a classroom of childcare; however, teachers and caregivers should monitor use, keep it short, and maximize in-person interaction and instruction as primary.

[Hadiya]

I agree that screen time should be postponed until a later age. I would rather replace screen time with music listening. Music is a powerful learning tool as it can get teach listening skills, empathy, self soothing, I believe it can increase focus and improve language skills as well.
We are social beings, the ability to connect socially is extremely important to our development and even our survival. Screen time blurs the lines of reality and I personally believe screen time can reduce the magic and learning potential of imagination! Children are still grasping the concept of object permanence as well, so I feel it’s best to withhold screen time for a while.

[Scion]

This is just an opinion of mine, but I believe screen time is completely unnecessary and potentially harmful activity to have young children take part of. I say harmful because there have been so many studies showing how badly the younger generations’ (myself included, as I am in my early 20s now) memories and attention spans have been effected due to the overindulgence in screen time. Having been part of the generations that took part in large or unsupervised/unstructured screen time, I can say by experience too much screen time CAN make someone less attentive and lazier. I don’t want that for our future generations at all. There is just as much learning and enrichment to be done in the outside, real world, and that is so much more healthy and supplemental to a child. In an ideal world, maybe if a child would have up to 15 minutes of screen time a few times a day, it wouldn’t be so bad. But in that case, we need to be looking into and knowing exactly what it is our children are watching and whether or not its beneficial to them.

[Maria]

It is advisable for young children not to include cartoons at all and not to show tablets or phones. Children from 2 to 5 years old can already be allowed to watch cartoons, but preferably for 30 minutes or an hour, but no more, because we see that children are getting used to tablets and phones because children spend a lot of time at the tablet, they have poor memory, speech and imagination.

[El Sollman]

I don’t believe there is any reason really to use screens at a childcare facility, I think that we all know they will have plenty of screen time at home.

[Meghan]

I think it should be very limited to let the parent decide how much screentime they get

[Amber]

I think screen time can be good if used well. An example I’m thinking of is GoNoodle? It provides interactive brain breaks for children that are colorful, lively, and teach children little dances they can use to move their bodies when they need a break from sitting and learning. That’s probably the best use of screen time in the classroom.

[Alexis]

I think childcare should always provide a place for children’s creativity to develop and grow and since it’s proven screen time doesn’t have that effect I believe it shouldn’t be in childcare. I think children should learn to regulate their own emotions and be able to entertain themselves when there isn’t a reliable screen at their access and to make that happen there needs to be less exposure to said screen time.

[Haley]

I think that children have enough screen time in their homes. There are lots of other ways to refocus children and allow them to relax through song and movement. Screens are not necessary in a school setting.

[Jailee Bishop]

I believe screen time, especially in classroom environments, should be very limited. Specifically with younger children. While it is true that there are valuable teaching resources that can be found for children online, such as videos and games, it is also essential to a child’s development that they are given the opportunity for tactile learning and interaction outside of screen time.

[Ella]

Screen time in child care I think should be turned into music and dance, or something more creative and brain engaging.

[Alyssa]

Although helpful at times, I feel screen time is harmful to a young child’s development. I feel young developing children rely heavily on peer interaction and communicating cues to loved ones or care givers. I do not see how screen time stimulates a child’s mental, emotional, physical or social needs.

[Maya]

My sister went to childcare and would watch a lot of television. it started to show which was not good because she was the smartest child out of all of my siblings at that age including me. It was a big problem. There were some things that we wished would not happen and the childcare person let her do anyways which was watch almost 5 to 8 hours of TV when she was two years old the second my mom found out she took her out of that child care. But we think it is very important that even at an older age TV is not the best for the children they should be outside they should be running that should be talking and interacting with others you know daydreaming all of that. I think that screen time is not necessary. Because they have toys they have imaginations they have friends they have all of that.