Think twice before limiting your kids’ video play; then don’t.
Quite a few parentshave asked me, at talks I’ve given, about the advisability of their limiting their kids’ computer play. Others have told me that they do limit their kids’ computer play, or their total daily “screen time,” in a tone that seemed to suggest that any reasonable parent would do that.”People who have been reading this blog can probably guess my reaction. I have a very high opinion of children’s abilities to make good choices about how to use their free time, as long as they really have choices. Some kids go through long periods of doing what seems like just one thing, and then some adults think there’s something wrong, because they (the adults) would not make that choice. But in my experience, if kids are really free to play and explore in lots of different ways, and they end up playing or exploring in what seems to be just one way, then they are doing that because they are getting something really meaningful out of it. For a nice example of this, you might watch the film on the home page of the Sudbury Valley School website, where a young man describes his year of doing almost nothing but computer play.” … read the whole article here:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-learn/201201/the-many-benefits-kids-playing-video-games
