Dealing with the Screen Time Blues

Is your kid struggling to give up Mind Craft, Angry Birds or PBS kids? School is back in session and for some kids who spend their summers with free access to online gaming, going back to school can be more than an arduous task. Many kids with autism have an obsessive nature in general, but when you mix that with technology, the combination can make the separation all the more challenging.

Yes, as parents of kids with or without disabilities, we can easily rely upon computer technology to keep them engaged while we cook dinner, stand in line at the grocery store or even just grab a few minutes for ourselves at the end of a long summer day. Technology can be a very reinforcing activity and just like anything else that brings us pleasure, can be a very challenging thing to give up… especially when asked to give it up “cold turkey.”

Here are some tips and ideas to begin the phase-out of “too much tech time.”:
• Implement Parental Controls with extra time earned for positive behavior.
• Have scheduled tech-time each day… after scheduled outdoor or fun family activities. Be sure to post a notice on a calendar, or on a visual list, of the activities of the day in a place where it can be easily reviewed (ie; the front of the frig)
• When the kids go to bed at night place the device (if you can) in “mom’s secret hiding place.” In addition to the fact that he/she will likely grab it before you even wake in the morning, hiding it will cause them to have to use their communication skills to request its use.
• Use a timer so that your child knows how much access time they actually have.
• Use technology during a turn taking activity with yourself, a sibling or peer buddy.
• Once school begins, be sure that tech-time is scheduled later in the day AFTER homework, and/or therapies, have been completed.
• Do not bring the device into the car with you on the morning drive to school if you know it will make getting out of the car a challenge. Bribing a child with tech to get into the car will only make it more challenging to get them out. This could set them up for a very rough morning in school… AND morning-time is when most teachers implement intensive instruction activities.
• Look for items such as stickers with favorite tech characters on them for both you and the teacher to use as positive rewards. A certain number of stickers can be exchanged for a predetermined number of minutes on the actual game.

Tech-time is likely here to stay, but that doesn’t mean kids can’t find other fun and exciting things to do if they’re taught and supported by others in their lives.