Virtual return for students: How much screen time is too much?

DORCHESTER COUNTY, Md. -For most students across Delmarva, this is what the beginning of their school year will most likely look like: Classes now being taught online, amid the coronavirus pandemic. And as schools in Maryland roll out their remote learning plans -health officials are working to figure out what affects virtual learning will have on students.

“We don’t have a lot of good research on what happens with virtual education across the board. This is new,” said Pediatric Psychologist at Nemours DuPont Hospital for Children, Dr. Meghan Walls.

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, they recommend children over the age of two to limit their screen time to about two hours a day. A time that some schools here on the shore are already aiming for, for their pre-k and younger students.

“They’re going to be on the screen for a lot less time. So a two hour period, during that time might be all that we get,” said Talbot County Public School’s Superintendent, Kelly Griffith.

But school officials say the older the students are, the more time they’ll be spending online for their classes.

“The highest block of time is 3 hours which is for middle school and high school kids,” said Dorchester County Public School’s Superintendent, Dave Bromwell.

“When it comes to high school, obviously it’s even more time because each teacher will have a window of about 40 minutes for those classes and they have 5 classes,” said Griffith.

Health officials tell 47 ABC, it’s too early to tell if online learning will affect students as much as kids who spend way too much time on media devices.

“I think there’s a big difference between sitting on the screen and listening to your teacher talk about math, then randomly scrolling through YouTube,” said Dr. Walls.

But they say the best thing to do for now is to be involved and monitor your child’s behavior.

“I always tell parents, check-in with your kids every kid is different. If your kid is getting headaches in the afternoon, I’m not a medical doctor, but you think maybe it’s because they’ve been staring at a screen all day? Alright let’s see how we back that up,” said Dr. Walls.