Study: Two-Minute Warnings For Screen Timeouts Only Worsen Tantrums; What Parents Must Do?

Giving a two-minute warning for screen timeouts among children between the ages of one to five might not be a good idea. Experts said that this can only trigger tantrums and meltdowns, thus making the transition worse for parents and their children. What should parents do instead?

These days, parents allow their children to use smart devices as a tool for education and entertainment. It is also a way to keep them engaged and productive in positive ways, such as when ensuring they don't fidget at the doctor's clinic, or when going on a long car ride, or if the parents have chores and work to finish. However, finding the right way to tell the kids their screen time is up has become a problem for some families.

Screen Time Resistance Among Toddlers And Preschoolers

Researchers highlighted how a two-minute warning can backfire on parents imposing screen time on their young child in a study, which was presented at the 2016 CHI conference May 9. The experts stipulated that parents usually give the warning believing that it would make it easier for children to "disengage" from playing on tablets and computers or watching television. They do this to avoid resistance or unpleasant episodes with the kids.

However, of the 28 families with toddlers and preschoolers that were interviewed and documented for the study, 22 percent said that the children had a negative reaction to the warning that their screen time is up. "So we did a lot of things to control for that but every way we sliced it, the two-minute warning made it worse," said the study's lead author Alexis Hiniker, via the University of Washington Today.  

Alexis Hiniker rocking her #chi2016 talk on screen time transitions, despite technology glitches! pic.twitter.com/tFWt6h3Lm6

— Julie Kientz (@juliekientz) May 9, 2016

Establish Screen Time Routines In More Effective Ways

Researchers further found out that among 19 percent of parents who have no difficulty in imposing screen time, the transition has actually become part of the family's routine. Meaning, screen time is already set and agreed upon beforehand.

For instance, turning the television off or letting the kids put down the iPad at a certain time in the night, is usually not met with resistance when the kids know it's already way past their set time. In some cases, parents take the opportunity to end the kids' screen time as soon as a video they are watching or the game they are playing is over. The experts call this the "natural stopping point."

Young kids also don't throw tantrums when they know that the gadget's battery is dying or Wi-Fi is down and unavailable. Thus, the researchers alluded that technology developers and designers might consider giving the children the two-minute warning on the app itself instead of the parents. The app might even tell the kids it's time to do the next activities after using the iPad. "Once you take that parental withholding component out of it, kids are a lot more accepting," said Hiniker.