SINGAPORE – The Ministry of Health (MOH) had on Jan 21 tightened its screen use guidance to help families in parenting children up to the age of 12 as more evidence emerges on how excessive use can affect them.
In particular, it has been shown that excessive screen time can impact children’s cognitive development and executive functioning. They may then find it more challenging to sustain their attention on a task, for instance.
The guidance comes under a new population health initiative called Grow Well SG, which is aimed at supporting families to build healthier habits in children.
Assistant Professor Evelyn Law, a senior consultant at the Khoo Teck Puat – National University Children’s Medical Institute, said she often gets asked by parents of a child who might be suffering the symptoms of excessive screen use whether the child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
While excessive screen use can cause children to become easily distracted, it is not the same as having ADHD, she said.
Prof Law discusses the differences and more in an upcoming ST Health Check podcast episode hosted by this journalist.
Prof Law is part of the research team on the Growing Up in Singapore Towards Healthy Outcomes birth cohort study (Gusto). She is also a member of the expert group that led the development of the screen use guidance for children.
The episode will be released on Feb 5 on various platforms, including The Straits Times website, Apple podcasts and Spotify. Here are excerpts from the interview with Prof Law:
Can frequent use of digital devices make a child more easily distracted?
There is local evidence on this. The more screen time the child has, the more their executive function – which refers to all the skills that one needs in order to achieve a goal – is affected. They can get easily distracted and may start something but cannot complete the task, such as homework.
What’s the difference between having ADHD and executive function deficits?
All children with ADHD have executive function deficits, and they may need medication and behavioural therapy.
However, not every child with executive function deficits has ADHD, and the former most likely does not need medication. Instead, to do away with the child’s ADHD-like symptoms, parents and caregivers will be advised to gradually limit his or her screen time use.
Adverse childhood experiences, such as toxic parenting, abuse or trauma, can also contribute to executive function deficits.
I want to play educational videos for my one-year-old child. Why does the guidance say that a child below the age of 18 months should not have any screen time, unless it is for video chatting?
A young child cannot process the images that he or she sees on a 2D screen. It is extraneous and quite overwhelming for the brain, and the brain is unable to develop in its normal way.
The guidance states that recreational screen time should be limited to an hour a day for children from eight months to six years old, and two hours a day for children aged seven to 12. What’s the difference between recreational and schoolwork screen use?
In the Gusto study, we found that excessive recreational screen use could be associated with worse mental health outcomes, unlike in educational use. For educational use, the content is age-appropriate and the pace is slower.
With recreational use, a child may be watching a lot of things, for instance, on social media that may not describe reality. Or he may be watching a video, where the scenes change very quickly, or playing a game. Gaming is really entertainment. It’s fast-paced, and it gives you a lot of rewards. Some children really crave that, and they can become addicted to it.
