The question of the month:
Hello,
I am the mother of a 3½-year-old who has been attending a nursery school in central Paris since September. We have just discovered that, during the TAP (after-school activity time), the children are “put” in front of the television.
Before raising the subject with the people in charge of the TAP (who are under the direct authority of the district town hall), I wanted to ask what you think of this situation and whether you have already dealt with this kind of situation. I am looking for arguments, reference contacts and solutions to propose so that TV is eliminated from these “activity” times.
Thank you in advance for your reply; I remain at your disposal.
Our answer:
Many of you write to us about screen-use practices in day nurseries or nursery schools. Your accounts mention tablets used in day nurseries or television in nursery schools. You wonder how to talk about it with the people in charge and which arguments to put forward in order to limit this use to practices that are useful for children.
The question is finding the right person to talk to. Most often, these times are managed by socio-educational facilitators employed by the city. This question is discussed at length in the report submitted by Serge Tisseron to the CNC in April 2019 on the challenges of protecting minors in audiovisual media in the age of the internet, with his proposals. https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/etudes-et-rapports/rapport/quelles-protections-pour-les-mineurs-dans-laudiovisuel-a-lere-dinternet_1130002
Depending on the town where you live, you therefore need to contact the town hall. Only local interventions are possible.
Here are a few arguments to help you:
In April 2019, the Académie des sciences, the Académie nationale de médecine and the Académie des technologies published a report calling for reasoned vigilance regarding digital technologies. They recommend limiting access to screens for the youngest (especially under 3s) but above all always accompanying reasonable use. On the same subject, Jacques Toubon, the Défenseur des droits, and his deputy Geneviève Avenard, Children’s Rights Defender, recommended in 2018 that the public authorities apply a strict precautionary principle by banning the exposure of children under three to screens in the places that care for them, and by allowing such exposure for over-threes only in an accompanied and limited manner and within an educational project. Finally, we can add the recommendations of the American Academy of Pediatrics: screen use should be discouraged before the age of 18 months, apart from video chatting (such as Skype or FaceTime). Between 2 and 5 years old, screen time should be limited to less than an hour a day, favouring educational programmes and always accompanying children to help them understand what they are watching.
Exposing nursery-school children to television must therefore take place within a structured educational project so that the child benefits from it. At this age, the screen is only of interest as a way of sharing a common object among all the pupils, and if an adult accompanies it and helps give it meaning. Its use must remain limited in time and must not be used for purposes other than educational work. It is not recommended, for example, to use it to calm over-excited children, as this could increase their need to let off steam!
Sophie BRUNETEAUX is a clinical psychologist and EDA (Education Développement Apprentissage) practitioner
