A Development Paediatrician, Dr Yvonne Brew, has called for a national conversation on screen addiction to create awareness and educate the general public on its devastating impact on children.
She said the situation was steadily becoming a silent epidemic, which needed to be addressed to curb it from becoming a crisis.
She said what started as parents providing electronic gadgets such as mobile phones and tablets for their children as a way of occupying them so the parents could have some peace and convenience, was turning out to be a monster in children's development.
“We are losing our children, not to war, not to hunger, but to screens, and we are doing it with our own hands.
This is no longer a parenting issue, this is an emergency,” she stated.
As part of the efforts, Dr Brew is currently organising training sessions for medical doctors and nurses to expose them to the reality of screen addiction among children.
Screen addiction
Children’s early exposure to electronic and digital screens distorts their development in speech and other behavioural actions.
Experts have warned that too much exposure to screens for children under five years has dire consequences, such as loss of speech, restlessness, eye contact avoidance, speaking with a foreign accent and behavioural issues.
Cases rising
Dr Mrs Brew, a paediatrician with the Greater Accra Regional Hospital in Ridge, was speaking in an interview with the Daily Graphic on screen addiction among children in the country.
She said to diagnose what the issues were, doctors realised that all of such children were spending a lot of time with the phone or tablet.
“Apart from speaking with a foreign accent, another striking thing is that such children cannot sit down in one place, also they are always very anxious”.
"Further probe showed such children have been spending between six and 10 hours on the screen,” Dr Brew revealed.
The development paediatrician said the data available at her department indicated that there were over 200 children currently undergoing rehabilitation.
Revealing that the impact was more severe in children below three years, but the good news was that it was easier to treat it at that level, and therefore, Dr Mrs Brew advised parents to report to hospital with their children early if they found any unusual behaviour, as mentioned.
Need for policy
The development paediatrician appealed to the government for a policy on the screen use of children in pre-schools and of preschool age.
“We want a policy that would help parents to know that they should not let their children watch cartoons either on television, phones or tablets, but rather children should learn to play outside.
“We would want all children below three years not to have access to screen time at all, and that pre-schools should not use the screen to teach the children,” she stated.
Additionally, she appealed to pre-schools and Sunday Schools to stop using televisions and other screens as learning materials.
She quoted the World Health Organisation (WHO), saying that children below two years should not have access to the screen at all, and those who are three to five years should have access to the screen for a maximum duration of one hour a day.
Sharing experience
One of the parents whose child is a screen addict, Amanda Nimako, explained that her son was exposed to the screen from age zero to two before she was told that his condition was a result of excessive exposure to the screen.
“At two, he had issues with speech, poor eye contact, talking like a cartoon character and was only comfortable when a phone was handed to him.
“I used to leave him in the cot by the television, and as he turned one, I bought him a phone, and that kept him company and allowed me to work.
I did not know I was harming him,” she told the Daily Graphic.
Writer’s email: severious.dery@graphic.com.gh
