DENVER — As we start a new school year, this could be a good time to reset and talk about screen time.

Denver7 talked to clinical psychologist, Jennifer Harned Adams, with HCA HealthOne about how to determine healthy screen time.

“For kiddos who have gotten used to using their screen time allotment for you know scrolling on Instagram or you know watching silly shorts on YouTube, making that shift to using their content for educational content may be a shift,” Harned Adams said. “There may be some resistance or you know some limit setting that needs to take place for families to kind of get them back into those healthy habits.”

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How to determine healthy screen time amid back to school

Here are the general guidelines from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry:

• Until 18 months of age limit screen use to video chatting along with an adult (for example, with a parent who is out of town).
• Between 18- and 24-months screen time should be limited to watching educational programming with a caregiver.
• For children 2-5, limit non-educational screen time to about 1 hour per weekday and 3 hours on the weekend days.
• For ages 6 and older, encourage healthy habits and limit activities that include screens.
• Turn off all screens during family meals and outings.
• Learn about and use parental controls.
• Avoid using screens as pacifiers, babysitters, or to stop tantrums.
• Turn off screens and remove them from bedrooms 30-60 minutes before bedtime.

Harned Adams said it’s particularly important to know the difference between what’s considered educational and what’s not.

“This might look like connecting with a classmate on FaceTime to work on a project. This might look like, for an older student, watching something on Khan Academy to help them with their math homework. It might be watching a documentary to help them better understand their history project or something like that. It might be using screens for artistic creativity, you know, making digital art, maybe making a movie or a musical piece online,” Harned Adams said.

As for the balance with screen time integrated into classwork, this is the advice from Harned Adams.

“For older kids, the recommendations really say that don't even worry about educational usage. So, if it's you know part of a homework assignment, if it's part of something that they're doing, you know, for classwork during the day, it does not count. It really kind of that's more like instructional time versus you know kind of personal use time,” she said.

Harned Adams said for parents and caregivers it’s important to model the behavior they want to see, whether that’s screen free dinner time or other rules. She said that’s important for older and younger kids.

“Showing them being intentional about it, kind of narrating your use as a parent. Saying you know – oh I have do work email for 15 minutes and the I'll be able to play with you," Harned Adams said." Or you know this is your Aunt Sue calling me or texting me about her doctor's appointment, so I'm going to reply to her right now, so that they understand that you're being thoughtful with your time online.”

Harned Adams said being transparent with kids is particularly useful, especially as kids gets older.

“Technology and screens are a part of our reality,” Harned Adams added. “You know, our kids are going to grow up in this digital culture and need to know how to use screens in a responsible way as they're getting older. So it's less about putting strict time limits on it and counting every minute that they're on the screen and teaching them how to be good digital citizens, how to utilize these resources in a way that's healthy and supports their growth.”