Hints for healthy digital balanced diet

• Make a conscious effort to have face to face parent-child interaction. Sometimes, when teenagers isolate themselves in the bedrooms with their screen on, they still need your understanding, positive assurance, and support.
• Have a regular digital screen free together such as meal times and allocate screen free zone area such as the bedroom or any area for family board games or other unplugged activities. Have a regular family fun together.  
• Have open ongoing communication about online safety and good citizenship. Take advantage (and with respect) on the social media the children are involved as an avenue for personal communication. Asking them with fascination about digital games they play or knowing what programs they watch can open an endless array of topics and learning. It can provide an opportunity to model, teach or discuss:
  • Online stereotyping.
  • Proper posture during screen time. How to relax the eye muscles
  • Being critical of an on-line advertisement
  • Violence and how they feel.
  • Credibility of the website
  • Fantasy and reality and lots more….

 

• Take opportunity to teach self-reflection and responsibility by engaging restorative chat rather than punitive measures for on line mistakes. 
• At least have one hour a day, three times a week of physical activity including strengthening of bones and muscles exercises such as jumping and skipping rope. Here at Nexus the screen free time during lunch breaks is practiced.  
• Take charge or place consistent limit on the time and the type spent in social media. Develop a  Family Media Plan . 
• Make sure good sleep, physical activities, have time to eat healthy food and other screen free activities essential for wellbeing transcend digital mediated activities.
• Avoid Evening Screen time one hour before sleep time.
• But above all, it’s the parents’ modelling of digital technology usage that counts and the awareness on the effect it influenced the children. The lovingly warmth parental presence; enjoying playing sports, exercising and doing things together or reading books especially to the younger children, can sustain healthy digital balanced diet.

And perhaps Roald Dahls poem forbade to watch TV and instead “reading paper books” encouraged as an alternative can be a metaphor for this modern age “digital balanced diet:
  


Malou Bromley, our Nexus Whole School Counsellor was the guest speaker on Stress Management in the Australian National Leaders' Summit, an initiative organised by the Malaysian Students’ Council of Australia, held in KDU. One of the student leaders who organised the event was our former learner Kenny Ng.
 
It was an interactive gathering which covered issues concerning parental pressures, healthy/unhealthy stress and the impact of culture, family and technology on stress and how to get through it.

For further information or for any parental related concerns you can contact Malou Bromley:
bromley.m@nexus.edu.my or +60 3 8889 3868