Lauren Edmunds, founder of a school specialising in learning delays, delivers a candid warning about the real cost of unchecked screen time.
Drawing from her classroom experience, she makes the case that screen addiction is reshaping how children think, learn, and engage with the world and that the first step towards change starts at home.
Transcription: Addiction: the battle for our child’s mind
I want to talk about screen time, and I know so many people are, and I want to put my voice in here from a teacher’s point of view and a school owner’s point of view.
It’s not the teachers that are fighting against the screens. It’s your children that are fighting against the screens.
In my environment, I have seen full-blown screen addiction. This manifests in completely zoned-out children in class, because while they don’t have their screens in front of them or in their hands, they’re playing the game or watching clips in their heads.
Teachers are trying to get the children out of their heads and into the real world.
The Drive to Get Back to Screens
Another way I see this manifesting in a school environment is that children have a very strong drive to get home.
It’s a drive towards the thing that is feeding their addiction. It’s the same as an alcoholic or a drug addict. Their nervous system has a strong drive to go and get the thing that they crave.
I’ve seen children create all sorts of situations in a school environment to make sure they get home so they can get onto their screens.
If that isn’t a full-blown addiction, I don’t know how else you would describe it.
When Addiction Takes Over
The problem with all of this is that the addiction starts doing the talking, rather than the child, the parents, or even the teachers.
The addiction starts to rule the child.
They are no longer learning. They are completely switched off from life. They are not regulated. Their brains have literally turned off.
They are not thinking, not exploring, not problem solving, and not moving their bodies.
You have a child where the power of their nervous system, their life force, has been unplugged every time you give them a device.
The Impact on Brain Function
This is not true for all children. I do see many children who have limited access to devices and are not driven by the need to get back in front of a screen.
But I have seen far too many children who are driven to get back to screens because of how their brains function.
They can’t remember things for very long. They can’t regulate themselves. They can’t inquire or think independently.
Their brains begin to function only in short, sharp, screen-based bursts. They no longer have the capacity for the rest of their lives.
Looking Inward Before Blaming Outward
Then we ask, do we need to change the education system?
Yes, maybe some things need to change.
But instead of blaming externally, I think the best way to help your child is to look inward first and ask, “What can I do differently?”
As a family, what can we do differently at home before we start looking elsewhere for solutions?
Creating Screen-Free Environments
We are a zero-tech school, a zero-screen school.
The only reason I run an aftercare programme is to try to keep children off screens for longer during the day.
They play with mud and sand. They climb trees. They play on the jungle gym. They do arts. They play imagination games.
A tree was cut down at our school the other day, and the children got to watch that. We kept pieces of bark, and now they are used as stepping stones.
Imagination is coming out. It is a beautiful thing.
We are doing all of this so that children don’t go home and go straight onto screens.
The Challenge for Working Parents
Full-time working parents have it even harder because they are not there to monitor screen time.
They are busy and distracted by work, and often don’t have the time to entertain their children.
If we look back to the 1980s and 1990s, children entertained themselves.
I remember swimming, jumping on trampolines, playing French cricket and hide-and-seek, climbing trees, and being bored.
The Value of Boredom and Play
I’m happy with that because my brain has developed, and I can do what I do today.
I raised my children in the same way.
So what are you doing with your children?
Are you putting them in front of screens? Are you shutting down their brains? Are you turning off their life force?
Addiction is a real thing, and we must change.
Before we start medicating our children and seeking diagnoses, let’s change how our families run, how our homes function, and what we prioritise.
