Early childhood education advocates give screen time policy mixed report card

Early childhood education advocates say National's policy to ban screen time in early childhood education centres and set up more reports on a child's progress will give parents and teachers more clarity on how their children are doing at school.

However, there are concerns a ban could mean children miss out on the benefits that technology in the classroom brings.

On Sunday, National unveiled its Set Up for Success policy, which includes banning screen time in early childhood education centres, limiting screen use in years 1 to 3, and introducing clearer developmental reports for parents.

Tony Bracefield runs Clendon Christian Preschool in South Auckland and told RNZ the children at his school were "flourishing" because they already had similar policies.

"We focus on the foundations and on keeping children in front of teachers and not in front of screens ... we set them up for success at school," he said.

His preschool tested children regularly to prepare them for primary school, Bracefield said.

"You don't need lots and lots of paper, you just need simple testing to say 'are the children progressing?', and we do that at a three-year-old, a four-year-old, and at five, getting ready for school."

Asked how the policy to ban screen time might affect neurodivergent children who benefit from using a device, he said most of the neurodivergent children at his preschool wanted to interact with people.

"They want to be able to do something well ... just slowly building them up, and they see the joy of success.

"If you work with them, we generally have success on strengthening their interpersonal skills because that's often what they struggle with - how to relate to other children. If you bring structure around them, it helps them to succeed," he said.

That was echoed by Kelly Seaburg, chair of Advocates for Early Learning Excellence, who told RNZ that New Zealand had a "world-class curriculum" but it was often reported back to parents inconsistently.

"What I really like about it is the fact that teachers will be able to say, 'Hey, look, this is where a child is against this curriculum, and now what am I going to do next?'

"If you're going to gather information, it is the 'what now' or 'so what' [that] is really the thing that's most important."

Seaburg is a member of a ministerial advisory group reviewing early childhood education funding and a member of the Teaching Council's governing council, which is appointed by the Minister of Education.

She hoped the policy, if enacted, would lead to consistency and transparency around how children are performing in the classroom.

However, Kiri Gould, a senior lecturer in early childhood education at the University of Auckland, told RNZ a blanket ban on children using smart devices risked "oversimplifying [the] technology's benefits".

"The question should be about how technology is being used in early childhood centres - for what purpose, whether it supports or displaces the relationships, play and exploration that matter for young children.

"Digital technologies can be a distraction but they can also be really beneficial, rich learning devices for teachers to use in supporting children's interests and curriculum," she said.

Gould said she was "very cautious" about the introduction of the School Start Check because the current curriculum - Te Whāriki - already had "deliberately broad" learning outcomes within it.

"They recognise that children develop knowledge, skills and dispositions over time, rather than prescribing a set of things that every child should know and be able to do by a particular time.

"I feel like there's a real irony here: the more we understand about the complexity of children's learning, the more we seem to be moving towards standardising what they should know and be able to do," she said.

National's education spokesperson Erica Stanford told Morning Report on Monday that early childhood education centres were already doing a good job of limiting screen time.

She said the policy was to ensure there was consistency across the year groups.

"We want to make sure it's consistent and it doesn't sneak in and more importantly sending a message to parents that under five screen use is damaging and it can cause delays and some of the things that we are we're looking at," Stanford said.

"It is more a message that actually all of the research now, especially under three, is no screens at all and over three."

Stanford said while screen use was happening "very rarely", it was still occurring.

She said it was important to consider the different types of early childhood education centres.

"It's not just what your listeners might be thinking of just, kindergarten or your private centres.," Stanford said.

"There's home-based, there's a whole range and we want to be clear across that these screens don't sneak in, and they don't have a place.

"This policy is more about year one to three and year four to six because that is where you are seeing it sneak in in a rapid pace."

That's where the rest of the world was now looking at the evidence, Stanford said.

Stanford said young people need to be taught how to use technology, but it had to be done in a purposeful and careful way.

"You look at New South Wales, for example, they've just from next year said, right, anyone in year one to three, there's a 15-minute limit per day, which shows that there are some purposes.

"You might want to show a short video and then say, right, 'we're all going to write about what we just saw or we're going to make some, we're going to use scissors and cut out some pieces of paper or whatever it is relating to what we just saw', so we haven't set those.

"What we want to do is work with the experts and the sector to make sure we have those limitations, but more importantly, the guidelines on how technology should be used."