I feel like all parents have had the same experience. At the beginning, there is a boy who won’t sit still. Parents get upset. They think that a good and sweet child should be calmer. Sit orderly without shouting or running around too much. Because when a child runs and screams a lot, parents get worried and upset.
So parents look for a solution. They look in their pockets, purses or in their hands: an extra-intelligent device. The gadget your son asked for yesterday, but his parents didn’t give it to him. Because then they were still convinced that gadgets should not be given to children!
But parents now forget it. Because seeing a child making noise and running gives you a headache. The child needs to be calm. And if it is difficult to think otherwise, then parents easily give their child a device: “Here, dear! Just play with the device. Stop screaming and running all the time!”
You can guess the next scene; the child will spend a lot of time. Hours and hours playing with gadgets. When days go by with gadgets, parents suddenly become anxious. Your son is now addicted.
No matter how long the parents talk, they are ignored. Then the parents feel confused and regretful.
Does this mean parents shouldn’t keep devices out of children’s reach? Of course they can. But since the child is already addicted, parents must provide additional therapy.
The following three therapies may be solutions to overcome device addiction in children:
First, bypass therapy. Initially, parents give gadgets to children to keep them quiet and calm. As a result, the child plays with gadgets all day because he feels that there are no mandatory activities to do that day.
Therefore, the initial step to reduce gadget addiction is to divert leisure time towards beneficial activities. Parents should create mandatory and enjoyable activities for children during device play times.
This distraction activity can be tutoring, art lessons, field trips, watching movies, or diverting the obligation to play outside the home. In this way, the time children spend playing with devices will be reduced and, little by little, if diversion therapy can introduce more fun activities, children will leave the devices behind.
Second, literacy therapy. The basic idea is that there is nothing wrong with children using gadgets. But it becomes a problem if they only access games.
Children who use devices only to play are usually due to a low level of literacy or reading culture. If children have a good reading hobby, devices are used to access various fairy tales, stories or other important information. Children use devices to read.
Therefore, parents should undergo literacy therapy. Children must be conditioned to have a reading culture before using devices. So that children do not use devices only to play, but rather use them to read interesting information and stories.
Third, firmness therapy. This therapy is done when the child already has an acute addiction to devices. Firmness is achieved, for example, by strictly prohibiting the child from playing with gadgets. If there is this firmness, then parents should also set an example, not using gadgets for non-essential things in front of the child.
At the beginning of therapy, the child will protest and try various ways to avoid having her device confiscated. But parents must be firm in enforcing the rules.
In such situations, when the child is disappointed, parents turn to fun and literacy therapy. The child is encouraged to do fun things, whether playing or telling stories. This should be done intensively until the child completely forgets about the devices and begins to enjoy the activities and literacy that the parents do with them.
Hopefully, through these three therapies, children will be freed from playing with devices all day and will be able to use devices for better literacy development.
