Wellness Tips

The vast majority of children and adolescents play video games. Although many children play them in moderation, without adverse consequences, others become obsessed with gaming. Parents may become worried when a child is neglecting homework to play games, or is staying up all night gaming and is too tired to get up for school the next day. Some parents notice that their child rarely socializes in person with others and spends all free time on video games. Some children start to cover up how much they are playing.

Setting and enforcing limits on games

Having clear and consistent guidelines related to video games prevents excessive playing.

1. Remember that gaming should occur only after your child completes his other responsibilities for the day.

2. Put clear limits on your child’s gaming. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests time allotted should be under 30 to 60 minutes per day on school days and 2 hours or less on non- school days. The group recommends even lower limits of under 1 hour of total screen time per day for children under 6 years old, and they encourage parents to determine the appropriate amount of time for video games and other electronic media use for children over the age of 6. They provide an online planner to assist parents in deciding on screen time. Regardless of what limits you think are appropriate, some days each week should involve no gaming. It is crucial to ensure that your child develops, maintains, and enjoys other, non-screen time activities.

3. In designing your rules, consider a reasonable time frame for reassessment. You can follow your plan for 1 or 2 months and then reevaluate it. Instituting a temporary change will result in greater buy-in than a permanent change. You may decide that the initial plan is too restrictive. You could then loosen it after a couple of months if your child is adhering to it and no problems are evident. Remember that it is easier to loosen restrictions than to tighten them.

4. Determine a realistic consequence for breaking the rules.

5. Make sure you know and approve of which games your child is playing.

6. Once you have established your rules, you must consistently monitor and apply them. You cannot allow your child to bend the rules when you are tired or distracted. You cannot apply the rules differently if your child feels ill or does not have any homework one day. Regardless of other issues that arise, you need to follow through with the consequences immediately if your child breaks the rules. You must feel comfortable with the plan you propose, and you must be committed, willing and able to follow through with it. If both parents are involved, both must be on board with the monitoring of gaming time and rules surrounding it.

7. Identify other recreational activities. Replacing gaming with other activities is critical to changing excessive gaming behavior. Your child is gaming in large part because she finds it fun and it is something she is good at. Gaming can be done virtually any time, with little planning or effort. Because many devices are used for other activities, a game is just one click — and one second — away. When your child has little else to do, games are always there to fill the time. To help your child fill free time, actively promote participation in other recreational activities. Consider activities that you and other family members can do with your child. The replacement of activities should be on the days of the week and during the times of the day when your child most often plays video games.

8. Offer positive reinforcement for non-gaming activities.

If you have any concerns about your child's socio-emotional wellbeing in school, please feel free to get in touch with our School Counsellors.