Psychologist warns of screen addiction risks as children return to school

September arrives and with it comes a familiar dread. Children who have spent weeks untethered from alarm clocks and homework now face the prospect of returning to classrooms. Parents know the resistance will come—the complaints, the dragging feet, the sudden stomachaches. But Lara Ferreiro, a psychologist who studies how children navigate these transitions, wants parents to understand something crucial: not all reluctance is the same. Some of it is laziness. Some of it is fear. And learning to tell the difference could protect a child from serious harm.

Ferreiro has spent time explaining what happens when summer ends and routine reasserts itself. For adults, the adjustment typically lasts between two and fifteen days—a mild melancholy about returning to work that fades quickly. Children experience something longer. Because they have had more time away, the readjustment period stretches to roughly three weeks. But if that resistance persists beyond that window, Ferreiro warns, parents should ask harder questions. A child who continues to dread school after three weeks may have experienced bullying in the previous year. Or their parents may have separated during the summer—a timing that is disturbingly common, with seven of every ten divorces occurring in September.

The distinction between ordinary reluctance and genuine fear matters enormously. About forty percent of children will resist returning to school simply because they have grown accustomed to the freedom of vacation. Most of them will adjust within days, walking out of the school building with a smile by week two. But others carry something heavier. These are the children who experience physical symptoms: bedwetting, insomnia, nightmares, a stomach that closes against food, or eating driven by anxiety rather than hunger. When a child has spent the summer calm and suddenly displays these signs as school approaches, it is a signal worth taking seriously.

Ferreiro cites a statistic that frames the scale of the problem: one in three Spanish schoolchildren will experience some form of bullying at some point during their academic lives. This is not a minor social friction. It is a grave problem that shapes how young people see themselves, often for years afterward. The damage to self-esteem can be profound and lasting.

For children whose resistance is rooted in simple reluctance, Ferreiro offers practical guidance. The key is establishing routine one week before school begins—not to force children awake at unnatural hours, but to gradually shift their sleep and meal schedules. If a child naturally wakes at eight in the morning during vacation, the goal is to have them waking no later than nine once school starts. For children under twelve, the ideal is nine to eleven hours of sleep per night, though Ferreiro notes that most are getting far less because they are spending their nights on phones and tablets.

Validating emotions matters as much as adjusting schedules. Parents should help children name what they are feeling—teach them to recognize anxiety, to understand it, to learn techniques for calming themselves. Buying school supplies together, getting the uniform, arranging time with classmates before the first day—these concrete steps can ease the transition. Physical activity helps. Three hours of sports per week allows children to discharge anger and tension. Music and board games serve similar purposes.

But Ferreiro raises a concern that extends beyond the back-to-school season itself. During summer, most children have spent excessive time on screens. If a child is using phones or tablets for more than two hours daily, Ferreiro says, addiction may be developing. The risk is not merely about time wasted. Prolonged screen use appears to atrophy the regions of the brain responsible for creativity and memory. Children, she argues, are becoming measurably less capable because of the hours they spend looking at glowing rectangles. The solution is not sudden abstinence but gradual reduction—adjusting screen time downward in increments as the school year approaches.

The return to school is never simple. It requires parents to observe their children closely, to distinguish between the normal friction of routine and the signs of something more serious, and to help them build the emotional and physical habits that will sustain them through the year ahead.