Autumn, a mother of two from Texas noticed her kids are desperate to play on their electronic devices every free moment.
It’s gotten to the point where they often ignore her when she tries to put time limits on their use and go into full meltdown mode when she tries to take them away.
Autumn said, "The first thing out of their mouths is, ‘Hey mom, I want to get on the device. What do I have to do? Do I have to read? Do I have to do this?"
Very frustrated, Autumn and her family agreed to have ABC News connect them with child psychologist Dr. Victoria Dunckley, for a mini-intervention.
Dr. Dunckley, calls it electronic screen syndrome, which is when “The child goes into a state of hyper-arousal, and the brain just starts to malfunction, so you see problems with focus, behavior and mood.”
She continued saying, that a lot of times screen-time issues, people tend to blame the parents. They just say, ‘Oh, this is a parenting issue,’ and that’s not actually true.
Apparently, a lot of families will actually restrict screen time pretty well, but the kids can still have symptoms.
Autumn’s husband, Chad, acknowledged that their children’s constant electronics use seem to be negatively impacting both of them.
Dr. Dunckley convinced the family to do a four-week electronic “fast,” meaning giving up their devices for about a month.
She suggested fun replacement activities instead so the kids had less time to focus on not having their devices.
At the end of the four-week fast, their son says he has “more fun without the devices now” because “we spend more time outdoors.”