The Five C’s of Media Use

Children develop along a specific pathway. They develop a social smile to show that they are thinking human beings and want to please their caretaker. They crawl before they walk. They use single words before sentences.

Once they reach 18 – 24 months, they become much more social. They learn from their parents. They learn from siblings. They learn from other people.

They also learn from things that are in the environment around them. One of those things is media. This also should be introduced for the first time at 18 – 24 months. From this age until 5 years of age, one hour per day of screen time should be sufficient.

We know that too much of the wrong kind of media at too young an age can be harmful. However, that is not true of all media.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has created some guidelines for parents. These are aimed at helping parents select the right kind of media for their children. They entitle the program “The Five C’s of Media Use”. 

The first C stands for child. Media needs to take into account several characteristics of the individual child. The first of those is age. What is appropriate for one age may be too advanced or not advanced enough for another age. The second one is the developmental level. All children acquire new skills at a different rate. The media needs to take that into account. The third is temperament. Each child has a different personality. Media should fit that as well as possible.

The second C is content. Not all content is created equally. Some provide no educational benefit. Some provide little in the way of real social interaction. Parents should seek out high-quality, educational media. Again, it should be age-appropriate.

The third C is context. This refers to the environment that surrounds the media interaction. Co-viewing with the parent is important. Parental active interaction based on what is being taught is highly beneficial.

The fourth C is critical thinking. This means the parents need to take the opportunity to make sure that the child does not necessarily take everything at face value. There might be pros and cons to what is being viewed. It is important for the parent to point these things out. It helps develop critical thinking.

The last C is creating balance. This means that the use of media needs to take second place to more important activities. I have already mentioned the rule when I take my grandchildren out to eat of no electronics at the dinner table. There needs to be time for physical exercise. There needs to be time for family interaction. There needs to be a wind-down period before sleep.

The idea of just randomly setting a certain amount of time for media use no matter what the media is (or no media use) is changing. Educational uses can help a child develop language skills. They can help develop social skills. They can help develop critical thinking skills. It is up to the parents to ensure that this happens.

Childhood development will inevitably take place. However, it is up to us to see the it is optimized.