LANCASTER, N.Y. (WKBW) — When you walk into Bloomsbury Lane Toy Shoppe, you can find some of your favorite games and toys like bingo, puzzles, kites, toy cars and a wall full of dolls.
"It is the greatest joy when the kids walk in the door and they’re like oohing and ahhing," Bloomsbury Lane Owner Crystal Newman said.
For Crystal, seeing the joy the kids out of the toys is everything. However, with many kids being tied to devices, she's starting a new program in celebration of the screen-free week called the Imagination Initiative.
The program partners with other local businesses including Skoob's Village Grille and Fattey's in Lancaster and Great Lakes Coffee Roasters in Clarence. The program allows Bloomsbury to host a bin of different educational and skill-driven toys in all of these locations as a way for families to enjoy time rather than doing so by a device.
"Whenever we go out to coffee shops and restaurants and you see children there, more likely there playing on their devices than engaging each other," Newman said. "So we saw a need to put age-appropriate developmental toys in these environments to give an opportunity to play and to explore and be creative".
According to Medline Plus, most American children spend about 3 hours a day watching TV. Added together, all types of screen time can total 5 to 7 hours a day. Part of this high usage is tied to the early exposure of devices. Pew Research Center says more than 1/3 of parents with children under the age of 12 say their child started interacting with phones before they were 5.
"Some of the areas it impacts are academics, physical health, obesity, insomnia, sleep habits and so on. So I do think that there are consequences," Quality Assurance Manager and Child Psychologist Dr. Keith Klostermann said. "I think technology is here to stay and I do see the benefits, however I think it does require deliberate and intentional planning on the part of parents."
So what is a healthy amount of screen time?
"So it’s interesting because I think COVID changed it," Klostermann said. "I think it used to be an hour a day. And now I’ve seen recent recommendations saying a couple of hours a day is acceptable and maybe even three hours on weekends".
While two to three hours according to Dr. Klostermann is the new recommended time, Dr. Klostermann says that more is less. He also voices that parents not only need to monitor their child's screen time, but they need to monitor their own.
"Sometimes parents don’t recognize that the behaviors that they’re engaging in are things that their kids are mimicking," Klostermann said. "Kids learn more by watching and observing what their parents are doing than what they’re told".
If you'd like to become a participating business in the Imagination Initiative, you can learn more here.
