[fogzen]

My 5 year old has his own iPad. We choose which games he can install, and he uses YouTube kids to watch videos (which we curate).

He plays all sorts of games: Monument Valley, Hello Kitty Adventure Island, What the Car, and more.

He also uses a few “learn to read” apps like Teach Your Monster and Khan Academy Kids.

We generally don’t restrict his hours on it, but also ensure he goes outside daily for walks, playground trips, or to ride his bike. He seems to regulate his usage on his own, he’ll get bored after a while and do something else. When he gets into a game he’ll spend a lot of hours on it, then beat it or lose interest. Some of the games require reading so he will ask me to play with him so I can read things or tell him what to do.

There seems to be a lot of moral or health concern from other parents regarding devices, and many at his preschool did not allow any device usage. But I haven’t found those concerns to be based on anything tangible.