Screen time for 5-year-olds
At 5, official guidance is 1 hour a day of high-quality programs, watched together. The sources, sleep and activity needs, and house rules that work.
What official guidance says
- American Academy of Pediatrics, Media and Young Minds (2016): for 2 to 5-year-olds, limit screen use to 1 hour a day of high-quality programs, and watch with them to help them understand what they see.
- American Academy of Pediatrics: designate media-free times together, such as dinner or driving, and media-free locations at home, such as bedrooms; the AAP offers a free Family Media Plan to write the family rules down.
Sleep and activity at 5
- Sleep
- 10-13 hours a day, including naps
- Asleep by, for a 7am wake-up
- 8:30pm
- Screens off by (an hour before)
- 7:30pm
- Activity
- being physically active throughout the day, with active play of all kinds
Sleep: American Academy of Sleep Medicine consensus, endorsed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (2016). Activity: Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition (2018).
A school day, in hours
| Hours | |
|---|---|
| Awake | 12.5 |
| School, with travel | 7 |
| Homework (10 minutes per grade) | 0 |
| Meals, washing, getting ready | 2 |
| Active play or sport | 3 |
| Left for everything else | 0.5 |
Our arithmetic from these assumptions, not guidance: the middle of the sleep range, a 7-hour school day with travel, and the "10 minutes of homework per grade" rule of thumb. Screens, friends, hobbies and family time all share what is left.
House rules that work at this age
- Watch together and talk about what you see
- Choose the show before the screen goes on, and decide how many episodes
- No screens at meals or in the bedroom
- A timer they can see, with a five-minute warning
- Screens off at least an hour before bed
TaskFamily's suggestions, not official guidance.
TaskFamily helps you keep screen rules without the fight: extra screen time as a reward children earn in your own shop, focus timers, a routine step for "devices on the charger" and chat quiet hours.
Free for one household. Premium is $5.99 a month or $49 a year for the whole family, never per child.
Keep reading
Guidance is quoted only from the named official sources; the school-day hours are our arithmetic from the stated assumptions. The guide text is drafted with AI from these numbers and checked automatically before it is published.