Michael Regilio

Before babies can talk or understand words, they are already fluent in faces, body language, microexpressions, the emotional feedback they get from the parents.

The very thing that people thought talking on the telephone would rob us of.

A screen can't do that.

Even educational apps for really young kids replace human interaction with bright lights and sparkly distractions that overstimulate.

These are hardly a replacement for a loving parent.

Yes, you are talking about the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines.

And you're mostly right.

There is one small exception that they make.

They say FaceTiming with grandma is fine.

And that is probably because you can see grandma's face.

She reacts to the baby and the baby reacts back.

That back and forth is the natural way humans learn.

So that's the way it is until 18 months of age.

They say just pretty much no screen time at all.

But then after 18 months, the recommendation is limited screen time between 18 and 24 months.

And even then, an adult should be present to explain what is happening and help make real world connections for the young person.

Yeah, I can only imagine.

This gets exactly into what the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends.

So they say for kids between two and five, no more than an hour a day of what they call sedentary recreational screen time.

That phrase definitely matters.