Downloads and Resources
SCREEN TIME & YOUR CHILD:
A PAEDIATRIC OT PERSPECTIVE
This term, we're shining a light on one of the most common conversations we're having with families right now, screen time.
Screens are part of modern life and we need to learn to adapt with them. However, children's developing brains, bodies, and sensory systems need something that no screen can fully provide: real-world experience. They need to move, touch, explore, fail, try again, and engage with people and environments in three dimensions.
In occupational therapy, we look at how children engage in the meaningful activities of their daily lives including play, learning, self-care, and connection.
When we understand how screens affect development across all of these areas, the picture becomes clear. As parents and carers, we are the architects of our children's environment and that responsibility places something genuinely powerful in our hands.
We have free resources you can download. These will help further guide you on navigating screen time with your child. Please see below.
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR SCHOOLS
Here are a few simple ideas to support the students in setting and working towards their goals this year:
Movement Breaks
Build structured movement breaks between lessons in classroom time. Even 3–5 minutes of jumping, stretching, or animal walks resets the nervous system, improves focus and regulation, and supports the postural strength children need to sit and attend.
Outdoor Time as Essential Learning
Unstructured outdoor time is not a reward, it is a developmental necessity. Time outside builds core strength, sensory processing, risk tolerance, and social skills, all whilst gaining fresh air and nature enhanced learning. Advocate for at least two outdoor play sessions per school day and observe how classroom behaviour changes as a result.
Screen-Free Learning Alternatives
Wherever possible, replace screen-based tasks with hands-on equivalents. Manipulatives for maths, physical sorting activities, tactile writing tools, and partner-based games support a higher level of learning when aided by a sensory experience. Children learn more deeply and remember more when their hands and bodies are involved.
Reducing Passive Screen Use
Review when and how screens are used in the classroom. Aim to use screens purposefully and actively rather than as a management tool during transition or downtime. When screens are used, make them interactive and follow them with a movement or discussion activity to consolidate learning.
OT ACTIVITIES AT HOME
6 AT HOME ACTIVITIES TO HELP REPLACE SCREEN-TIME WITH WHOLE BODY PLAY
Animal walk challenges
Bear walk, crab walk, frog jump, inchworm. These build core strength, bilateral coordination, and body awareness in minutes. Make it a race, a game, or a silly challenge. Children don't need to know it's good for them.
Build something every day
Blocks, Lego, cardboard boxes, couch cushion forts. Construction play builds spatial reasoning, fine motor skill, planning, and problem-solving. The same skills screen learning tries to teach, but through lived experience.
Messy, sensory play
Playdough, finger paint, kinetic sand, water play, digging in the garden. These activities develop sensory processing, hand strength, and emotional regulation. If your child resists messy play, start small and stay close, it's often a sign their sensory system needs more of it, not less.
Get outside every day and enjoy mother nature!
Walk to the park, collect rocks, ride a bike, climb a tree, look for insects. Time in nature regulates the nervous system and reduces cortisol in ways that indoor activities simply cannot replicate, thus further supporting brain cognition and development.
Cook or bake together
Stirring, pouring, kneading, measuring; cooking is a genuine fine motor and sensory workout, and the reward at the end is something you made together….and hopefully something delicious to eat! Cooking is definitely a hit in our Learn Sense Grow Clinics, with even more opportunities for this hands-on experience in our Coromandel Valley site.
Movement break timer trick
If your child is using a screen, set a timer for 20 minutes. When it goes off, they do 5 minutes of movement before going back. Over time, reduce screen blocks and extend movement time. Make it predictable and non-negotiable. Children do much better with clear structure than with inconsistent rules.
6 AT HOME STRATEGIES TO HELP REDUCE SCREEN-TIME
No screens at mealtimes
This one change improves family communication and models mindful eating
Screens off 60 minutes before bed
Blue light suppresses melatonin and delays sleep onset. Poor sleep compounds every other developmental and behavioural challenge
Create a charging station outside the bedroom
If devices sleep in another room, everyone sleeps better
'Earn it' rather than 'limit it'
Some families find more success with an active first approach: physical activity, outdoor time, reading, and chores come first. Screens are what follows, not what you take away
Name it without shame
Talk to your children openly about why you are making these choices. Children who understand the reasoning are far more cooperative than those who feel rules are arbitrary
Watch your own use
Our children learn from watching us. If we reach for our phones at every quiet moment, they will too
We have put together a detailed resource sheet on screen time that accompanies this newsletter. Please reach out to your therapist if you'd like to discuss your child's specific situation.
CAREGIVER / PARENTS CORNER
The challenge with how screens are designed:
It is important to understand that the platforms and apps our children love are engineered by teams of people specifically to be as engaging and hard to stop as possible. Autoplay, infinite scroll, reward loops, and notifications are not accidental, they are features. Adult brains struggle to disengage from screens; children's still-developing prefrontal cortexes have virtually no defence at all. This is not a parenting failure, it is a design problem that falls in your lap.
The benefits, they do exist:
High-quality educational content can genuinely support language, literacy, and numeracy. Video calls maintain connection with family members far away. Documentaries, creative apps, and coding games have real value. The research distinguishes not just between how much screen time, but what kind and how it's used. Co-viewing with your child, watching together and talking about what you're seeing helps transform passive screen time into an interactive, language-rich experience. For age-based guidance, refer to our LSG Screentime guidelines for your child.
The Power of a Family Media Agreement
Introducing a family media agreement is a practical, proactive way to establish clear boundaries around screen time without the daily power struggles. By collaborating with your child to set clear expectations such as designated device-free zones (like bedrooms) and specific times for use, you help protect essential daily habits like outdoor play, face-to-face connection, and quality sleep. Involving your child in the process fosters mutual respect and helps them develop healthier, more self-regulated tech habits for the long term.
Download our Media Agreement contract resource
Screen time: the honest conversation
We are not here to shame or scare you. Screens are in our pockets, on our walls, and used in our children's classrooms. They connect us, educate us, and yes, sometimes they give us the 20 minutes of peace we desperately need to get dinner on the table. That is real, and it is valid. But as paediatric OTs, we also need to be honest with you about what we are seeing.
What we are noticing in clinic:
More and more children are arriving with reduced core strength, poor postural endurance, and difficulty sitting upright at a desk. We are seeing delays in fine motor development, particularly grip strength and hand stamina, in children who have spent significant time swiping rather than manipulating objects. We are seeing children who are less tolerant of boredom, less comfortable with mess and challenge, and less able to regulate their emotions when things don't go their way. We are seeing more referrals for attention and sensory difficulties and screens are rarely the sole cause, but they are almost always part of the picture.
SUCCESS STORY
A seven-year-old came to us referred for attention and handwriting difficulties. During our initial assessment, we noticed he had significant difficulty sustaining a seated position, fatigued quickly with tabletop tasks, and showed low core strength and reduced hand stamina. His parents shared that he was spending between four and six hours per day on screens, primarily gaming and YouTube, and that transitioning off screens was a significant daily battle.
Over twelve weeks, we worked with the family on a gradual, structured approach. Rather than removing screens abruptly, we introduced a movement-first rule, thirty minutes of outdoor or active play before any screen time each day. We added a proprioceptive warm-up routine before school each morning (heavy work, animal walks, and wall push-ups) and worked on fine motor activities three times a week at home. The family committed to screens-off dinners and a 7:00 pm device curfew.
FREE RESOURCES
FAMILY MEDIA AGREEMENT
LSG SCREEN TIME INFORMATION SHEET
AGE RELATED
HEALTHY GUIDELINES
