December 21, 2016.

According to a study conducted by a team of doctors from the French Association of Pediatrics (Afpa), any hour spent in front of a screen is an hour lost for those under three years old. Explanations.

No screens before the child turns 3

Parents are asked not to expose children to screens too early. We are now learning the reasons for this recommendation. According to an Afpa survey, screens could be detrimental to the proper development of the child. He should therefore be avoided any contact with the screen before he is 3 years old.. And from 3 years old, and up to 6 years of age, the time spent in front of a television screen, smartphone, tablet or computer must be very limited.

According to the French Association of Pediatrics, 44% of parents put their child under 3 in front of their laptop to occupy or console him and half of those under 3 spend an average of thirty minutes per week on an interactive screen. It is therefore without counting on the time spent in front of the television.

Encourage creative play

Figures worrying enough to be taken seriously by Afpa specialists. The latter stick to the recommendations of the psychiatrist Serge Tisseron who had invented, in 2008, the rule of 3-6-9-12: no screen before 3 years old, no video games before 6 years old, no unaccompanied Internet before 9 years old and no social networks before 12 years old.

« The more time children spend in front of the TV, the less time they have for creative play, interactive activities and other fundamental social cognitive experiences », Explains Serge Tisseron, in the columns of Figaro. ” Skills such as sharing, appreciating and respecting others do indeed seem to be acquisitions rooted in early childhood. “. So we put the tablet down and take out the cubes.

Read also: Adolescents: avoid screens to protect sleep