The winter holidays are conducive to the increase in the time that children spend in front of the screens. A recent study highlights worrying figures.
School holidays are a period when children have more free time and it must be occupied. This leaves room to do more activities, but also to be more on screens. This is particularly the case during these winter holidays where outdoor outings are more limited. This period is also less conducive to travel. This is noted by a study OpinionWay for Toninsmade on a sample of 1040 parents of children aged between 3 and 10 years old, interviewed last January.
The overall observation is quite worrying: 87% of parents exhibit, in fact, their children on the screens all year round with an average time of 1h17 per day. This figure rises to 97% during the winter holidays for an average of 1h51 per day. The difference is light with the summer holidays where the average is 1h44 daily. In addition, 79% of children spend an hour or more in front of a screen during the winter holidays, including 16% more than three hours, against 47% during school. The most popular digital activities are the viewing of cartoons and films or even tablet, smartphone or console games.
83% of parents assure trying to avoid screens as much as possible, be it the phone, computer, tablet or television. They then mainly favor board or awakening games, reading, manual activities and sports activities.
An excellent alternative to screens is developing, it is recommended by many education specialists: the use of audio stories. A study on the subject, which refers, is even published in The Journal of Neuroscience In 2019. The great advantage of the latter is that it is an activity achievable in autonomy and which, moreover, generates a moment of calm and concentration and calls on the imagination.
It is even proven that audio stories, in podcast or listening on CD promotes hearing recognition Sounds, develop language and prepare for the distinction of syllables and letters, prior to entry into writing. It also helps to acquire vocabulary which will be better recognized then when learning to read.
If 73% of parents apprehend the negative consequences of this exposure on the development of their children, 57% of them find, in fact, difficult to define rules on vacation screens. The second problem raised by half of them is the lack of time to occupy their children, making screens the easy solution. Finally, even on vacation with grandparents, which concerns 28% of children for the 2025 winter holidays, this problem is perpetuated: 46% of parents believe that their own parents are too lax on screens.