My 10 year old started have tics and twitches mimicking Tourette’s syndrome after playing with the oculus Virtual reality. I noticed changes in his pupils as well. I took him to the pediatrician that said he was fine after running multiple tests and said that it could be Tourette’s . The onset was so soon after his grandparents gave him the oculus for Christmas that I had a gut suspicion to research and it’s HAPPENING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY! Do not get the oculus for kids under 18.
As a mom of a 6 year old boy, I notice that my son reaches for his iPad when he feels bored. So I’m prepared to stop whatever I’m doing to engage him 1:1. I keep a jar of things we can do and we try to do them. It’s hard and I hate it sometimes, that I have to switch gears in the middle of something, but I want us both to have better habits with our devices. I also reach for my phone when I’m bored :(
Helpful breakdown of the common problem. Thank you for posting! The manner in which we help our children separate from that stimulation can also affect the transition. Yelling from the other room “time to turn off the tv!” Doesn’t always work.
“Bridging” can make it less abrupt and only takes a couple minutes of your time. A few minutes before you expect to get your child off the screen, sit down with him and watch. Then make a comment about the show “Oh. It looks like Bluey is having fun with that cat.” Keep it benign, but once your child engages with you (even if they don’t take their eyes off the screen), you’ve become a part of that screen experience.
Then tell him. “In a few minutes we are going to turn off the tv and have dinner. Ok?” Even if there is mild protest, another engaging comment about the show can help. Either way follow through. When it is time, tell him you’re turning off the tv and do it. This works for all sorts of activities as well.
Medium (small versus big screen) seem to make a difference as well. My son will willingly turn off the tv, but a game on the iPad is much harder, so an iPad is a rare travel treat. We don’t do unsupervised youtube (he’ll watch Lego speed builds with my mum, and occasionally we’ll watch a video of a place we are going). It just freaks me out too much, and again, youtube tends to happen on a small screen. All his pals are getting switches and diving into Minecraft, and honestly, I’m holding out. All they do is talk about Minecraft, even with what seems to be decently strict screentime limits?
My 10 year old started have tics and twitches mimicking Tourette’s syndrome after playing with the oculus Virtual reality. I noticed changes in his pupils as well. I took him to the pediatrician that said he was fine after running multiple tests and said that it could be Tourette’s . The onset was so soon after his grandparents gave him the oculus for Christmas that I had a gut suspicion to research and it’s HAPPENING ALL OVER THE COUNTRY! Do not get the oculus for kids under 18.
As a mom of a 6 year old boy, I notice that my son reaches for his iPad when he feels bored. So I’m prepared to stop whatever I’m doing to engage him 1:1. I keep a jar of things we can do and we try to do them. It’s hard and I hate it sometimes, that I have to switch gears in the middle of something, but I want us both to have better habits with our devices. I also reach for my phone when I’m bored :(
Helpful breakdown of the common problem. Thank you for posting! The manner in which we help our children separate from that stimulation can also affect the transition. Yelling from the other room “time to turn off the tv!” Doesn’t always work.
“Bridging” can make it less abrupt and only takes a couple minutes of your time. A few minutes before you expect to get your child off the screen, sit down with him and watch. Then make a comment about the show “Oh. It looks like Bluey is having fun with that cat.” Keep it benign, but once your child engages with you (even if they don’t take their eyes off the screen), you’ve become a part of that screen experience.
Then tell him. “In a few minutes we are going to turn off the tv and have dinner. Ok?” Even if there is mild protest, another engaging comment about the show can help. Either way follow through. When it is time, tell him you’re turning off the tv and do it. This works for all sorts of activities as well.
Medium (small versus big screen) seem to make a difference as well. My son will willingly turn off the tv, but a game on the iPad is much harder, so an iPad is a rare travel treat. We don’t do unsupervised youtube (he’ll watch Lego speed builds with my mum, and occasionally we’ll watch a video of a place we are going). It just freaks me out too much, and again, youtube tends to happen on a small screen. All his pals are getting switches and diving into Minecraft, and honestly, I’m holding out. All they do is talk about Minecraft, even with what seems to be decently strict screentime limits?