PHYSICAL activity might not only have an impact on your child's fitness, but also their sight.
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Specsavers completed a research project designed to better understand screen use amongst children and parental understanding of their child's eye health as children spend more and more time in front of a device.
The research found children aged from newborn to 17 across the state spent an average of two hours and 36 minutes a day on screens.
Of those, 14 per cent spending more than four hours, equating to more than 3000 children in Orange.
Just 15 per cent of that time is at school or day care.
Children aged 0 to four years spent almost two hours a day, while 13-17-year-olds spent more than three hours.
Optometrist Scott Priddle said the biggest problem with screen time had nothing to do with the screens themselves.
"It's simply the fact that normally when kids are on screens like phones and computers, there is a lot of near vision work that is often indoors without natural light - that's the part that's bad for your eyes," he said.
Mr Priddle said children were particularly susceptible to short-sightedness if they focused too much on close objects while their eyes were still developing.
Those objects could include homework or books in a low-light environment, not just screens, he said.
He said spending time in front of digital screens was essential given future work prospects required an understanding of technology but a balance was needed and spending time outdoors held the answer.
"It means exposure to natural night and more time looking at a distance," he said.
"It's a bit hard with the smoke recently, and during winter because of the cold, [but] the school holidays are the perfect opportunity to encourage healthy eye habits.
"Anything from running around the garden to helping mum and dad with errands could have a huge benefit for the eyes."
Mr Priddle said parents were concerned about the impact screen time might have on their children's health, including on their sleep patterns, social skills and mental health, especially once they started school.
"But most of the screen use is at home so there's some control there," he said.
He encouraged any parent concerned about their child's sight to have it checked by an optometrist.
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