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Excessive screen time may contribute to delays in children's fine motor and social skills.

Children need hands-on practice and adult guidance to master everyday life skills.

Setting screen limits and encouraging boredom can strengthen self-regulation skills.

Face-to-face play and conversation provide learning experiences screens cannot replace.

Post by Jenna M. Leadbeater & Roberta Michnick Golinkoff, PhD (University of Delaware)

Imagine a class of 8-year-olds getting ready to go outside for recess, but the teacher is held up because a child needs help tying their shoes. Another child asks the teacher to help zipper their jacket, a task that many children usually master in preschool or early elementary school. Two students argue loudly about who got to the door first. Other students wander between their desks and the door, not following the teacher’s instructions to line up.

Though these behaviors may be more common in preschool classrooms, these scenarios seem all too familiar to some third-grade teachers, according to the results of a recent survey conducted by EdWeek Research Center. Seventy-seven percent of teachers surveyed suspected that increased screentime was a reason that current students were struggling with fine motor skills. But it might not just be children’s screentime; parents are on their devices more than ever too, and this might interfere with helping children learn these basic........

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