Screen time and maths practice: getting the balance right

Parents are told that screens are bad for children and, in the same breath, that educational apps are good for them. Both can be true. What matters is less the screen than what happens on it, for how long, and what it replaces. This page offers a practical view for families who want to use maths games sensibly. It is general guidance from a teaching point of view, not medical advice.

Not all screen time is the same

Watching videos passively and solving puzzles actively are different activities that happen to use the same device. A child working out which two tiles make ten is thinking. A useful question to ask of any screen activity is: who is doing the work, the child or the screen?

How long?

For practice games, short is better. Ten to fifteen minutes is about as long as concentrated practice stays useful for a primary-school child. After that, accuracy drops and guessing begins. Two short sessions on different days do more good than one long one. A simple house rule is "two games, then stop", decided before the device is switched on, not argued about afterwards.

When?

• Not during meals, and not in the hour before sleep.
• After outdoor play and homework, not in place of them.
• At a regular time, so that it is a routine and not a reward or a bargaining chip.

Together is better

A child learns more from a game with an adult beside them, for the first few rounds at least. Ask how they worked an answer out. Take turns. Lose on purpose now and then. The conversation around the game often teaches more than the game.

Signs that a game is helping

• The child can explain how they got an answer, not only tap it.
• The skill shows up away from the screen: in homework, in a shop, in conversation.
• The child moves up a level over the weeks.
• They are willing to stop when the time is up.

Signs that it is not

• Fast random tapping to get through the round.
• Upset or anger over scores.
• The same level for weeks with no improvement.
• Asking for the game to escape other work.

If you see these, change the level, change the game or switch to a card game for a while.

What screens cannot do

Young children learn number through their hands: counting real things, sharing out food, measuring, pouring, building. No screen replaces that. For classes 1 and 2 especially, treat a game as a small extra on top of real experience. Our page of games without a screen has twelve to start with, and every game page here describes a paper version.

How these games are built

• No advertisements on game pages, so nothing pulls a child away to another site.
• No login, no chat, no links to other people.
• No sounds or flashing rewards designed to keep a child playing.
• Each round ends. A game is ten questions or sixty seconds, then a result screen, which is a natural place to stop.
• Scores stay on the device. Nothing a child does here is sent anywhere.

A sample week

For how to choose and use games, see using maths games in class and at home.

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