'We’re strict on not giving screens a couple of hours before bedtime': How to reduce your child's screen time

Audio players, including Yoto Players and Tonieboxes, will be on many Christmas lists this year. They entertain without internet access and can be a great addition to a calming bedtime routine

Nina Birmingham and her four-year-old daughter Sophie Kavanagh read a story together from the Yoto collection in the playroom at their home in Cork. -Picture: David Creedon

Keeping children entertained while minimising screen time is a common challenge for parents. During long car journeys or bedtime battles, it can be tempting to hand over an iPad to keep the peace.

But there are low-tech alternatives. Screen-free speakers like the Yoto Player and Toniebox entertain without bright displays or internet access. They play educational content, activities, music, and stories from authors such as Roald Dahl and Julia Donaldson.

The Yoto counts the Dahl family, Paul McCartney, and Mark Zuckerberg among its investors. Demand for the Yoto Player is rising fast in Europe, including Ireland — since October they have been stocked by Smyths. The content comes on Yoto cards, which are inserted into the player and can be backed up on your phone and played in the car via Bluetooth. There’s a travel-friendly Yoto Mini player too.

Last Christmas, we got a Yoto for my then two-year-old daughter. She adores stories and songs, and we wanted to encourage this interest while limiting screen time. She immediately loved the audiobooks and particularly enjoys the added sound effects and songs.

Jenny Hillier, speech and language therapist and founder of The Speech Monsters puppets, says “screen-free listening” is a benefit of these players, supporting attention and reducing overstimulation that children can get from screens.”

Speech and language therapist Jenny Hillier

“It’s encouraging children to make their own mental images of the story, and that’s a really important literacy skill as they go through schooling,” says Hillier.

The Yoto has made bedtime easier for us. We always read books first, but previously it was hard to draw story time to a close. Now my daughter is happy to switch to the Yoto as she falls asleep.

I’m not alone in finding it helpful at bedtime. Cork mum Nina Bermingham says the Yoto helped her daughter Sophie, four, let go of her soother.

“We got rid of the dodie at nighttime, so she finds it really hard to fall asleep. It’s handy that she has the Yoto until she drifts off,” says Bermingham.

Sophie can operate the Yoto herself. It has a night-and-day time clock, and the player offers a free radio function that tailors music to the time of day.

“If she wakes during the night, it has the nighttime moon or the morning sun so that she can check the time,” says Bermingham. “If she can’t go back to sleep, she has the nighttime radio… she calls it her relaxing music.”

Bermingham really noticed the benefit when her second daughter, Emmie, was born. “If there’s only one of us here and we’re doing bedtime with Emmie, Sophie would often go and listen to it,” she says. “We’re quite strict on not giving screens a couple of hours before bedtime.”

No substitute for reading

While these devices are beneficial, Hillier says reading to children is “still the gold standard”.

“It’s lovely and calming, and it’s a nice, engaging alternative to screens,” she says. “But we have to be really careful that they’re not being used as a substitute for that face-to-face interaction.”

Birmingham says this hasn’t been an issue for Sophie: “She would never ask to listen to the Yoto over us reading her a story, because of the whole comfort of the cuddle and the interaction and the chat, and that comes with that.”

The Yoto is also popular with older children, and the content grows with them.

Ciara White from Dublin is mum to 13-year-old Sadhbh and 10-year-old Derbhla.

She says the Yoto has reduced the time her daughters spend on screens: “The draw-along cards…they’ll put them on and sit at the table. They do the follow-along baking. It definitely has [decreased] screen time.”

The Yoto has been particularly helpful for Sadhbh, who is dyslexic. “They were doing Treasure Island [in school]. I couldn’t get a copy of that in the dyslexia-friendly font, and then I got it on the Yoto, and it was a game-changer, because it helped her be included in class.”

Blank ‘Make Your Own’ Yoto cards allow users to record content. “My husband’s mum, who is deceased now, did a story for me and we recorded it… so they have a story from Nana Mona of her reading a book to them,” says White.

The other major player in the audio player market is the German company Tonies, which recently celebrated the milestone of 10m Toniebox players sold worldwide.

Magnetic character figurines called Tonies are placed on the speaker to play a story or song. A blank ‘Creative Tonie’ is included with the player, with space for 90 minutes of recorded content.

Cork mum Emma Crowley uses the Toniebox at bedtime with her four-year-old twins, Bradán and Brí, and her three-year-old son, Lúgh, who all share a room.

“We were getting into struggles with brushing teeth, so we ended up using a screen. Stories were a bit of a disaster, because I’d have to read three different stories,” she says.

Now they listen to a Tonie while brushing their teeth, and choose a story afterwards. “They can all lie in their own beds and listen to it without me having to hop to different beds to read stories,” says Crowley. “I do miss reading stories, but we do that during the day.”

All this screen-free entertainment comes at a price.

The Yoto Player is €99.99, the Yoto Mini is €69.99, and cards start at €4.99. The Toniebox is €89.99, and Tonies are €16.99, or a starter pack including four Tonies is €174.99.

“It is kind of expensive…it would have to be Christmas or a birthday for that kind of expenditure,” says Crowley. “You can change the creative Tonie as much as you want, so you really don’t need to buy extra Tonies if you’re on a budget.”

With Yoto players and Tonieboxes set to be on many Christmas lists this year, Hillier says it’s all about balance.

“They’re a really wonderful tool, especially as part of nice, calming bedtime routines,” she says.

“It’s just key to remember that children still need face-to-face interaction for their speech and language to really thrive.”