If you’re wondering how much screen time is okay for your toddler, the Canadian guidance is pretty straightforward. For children under 2, screen use isn’t recommended, except for video chatting with caring adults. For children ages 2 to 5, routine screen time should be limited to about 1 hour per day or less.
But healthy screen habits aren’t only about watching the clock.
What your child watches, whether you’re watching together, when screens are used, and whether they’re replacing sleep, active play, reading or family interaction all matter too.
So you don’t need to feel guilty because your 3-year-old watched a cartoon today. The bigger goal is to make screens a small, intentional part of childhood rather than the default activity whenever there’s nothing else happening.
Recommended Screen Time by Age (Canada)
The Canadian Paediatric Society (CPS) screen time guidelines focus on minimizing screen use during the early years, when children learn primarily through real-world experiences and interactions.
Here’s the quick version:
| Age | Canadian Recommendation |
| Under 2 | Screen use isn’t recommended, except video chatting with caring adults |
| Ages 2–5 | Limit routine or sedentary screen time to about 1 hour or less per day |
These recommendations cover screens such as TVs, smartphones, tablets, computers and gaming devices.
Under 2 Years
For babies and young toddlers, CPS recommends avoiding routine screen use.
There’s an important exception: interactive video chatting with caring adults, such as grandparents or other family members.
A FaceTime call with Grandma isn’t the same experience as putting a baby in front of an autoplaying video. Another person is responding, talking and interacting with your child.
For children this young, real-life interaction is particularly important. Talking, singing, reading, playing and exploring physical objects give babies and toddlers experiences that passive screen viewing can’t replace.
If your child is under 2, you also don’t need to introduce apps or videos because you’re worried they’ll be “behind” technologically. CPS notes that there’s no evidence supporting the need to introduce technology at an early age.
Ages 2–5
For children ages 2 to 5, CPS recommends limiting routine or sedentary screen time to 1 hour or less per day.
That means a good target for screen time for a 2-year-old isn’t several hours spread across phones, TV and tablets simply because each session feels short.
Remember that it all adds up.
20 minutes of cartoons in the morning, 20 minutes on a tablet after lunch, and another 40 minutes of TV before dinner already add up to 80 minutes.
But don’t treat 60 minutes as a magic line, where 59 minutes is healthy and 61 minutes suddenly becomes harmful.
The recommendation is better understood as a guide for building healthy everyday habits.
Our two main childcare services include flexible drop in daycare and dependable Regular hours daycare in Calgary for busy families.
Why Limits Matter for Early Development
Young children have a limited number of waking hours each day. Every hour spent passively watching a screen is an hour that can’t be spent running around outside, building with blocks, talking with a parent, drawing, pretending, reading together, or interacting with other children. That’s one of the biggest concerns around excessive screen time: displacement. It’s not simply about the screen itself. It’s about what the screen might replace.
During the toddler and preschool years, children are developing language, attention, self-regulation, social skills, motor abilities and imagination. They learn these skills through interaction. When your toddler hands you a toy dinosaur, and you say, “Wow, that’s a huge dinosaur! What sound does it make?”, you’re having a tiny back-and-forth interaction. Your child responds. You react. They try something else.
A prerecorded video can’t respond to your child’s individual words, facial expressions and ideas in the same way. Too much screen use can also interfere with other important routines. Research reviewed by CPS has linked higher screen exposure to concerns about sleep, physical activity, and aspects of social, emotional, and cognitive development.
Screens around bedtime deserve particular attention. CPS recommends avoiding screens for at least 1 hour before bedtime.
Quality Over Quantity: Better Screen Habits
If your preschooler is going to watch something, what they watch and how they watch it matter.
Imagine two children both getting 30 minutes of screen time.
One sits alone scrolling through random short videos.
The other watches an age-appropriate program with a parent who asks questions, laughs with them and later connects something from the program to real life.
They’re both technically getting “30 minutes of screen time,” but they’re not having the same experience.
Choose content intentionally
Look for content that’s:
- Age-appropriate and developmentally appropriate
- Engaging rather than highly stimulating
- Interactive where possible
- Free from inappropriate content
- Designed without endless autoplay or constant commercial prompts
Educational content can be useful, particularly when an adult watches and interacts with the child, but a screen should not replace real-world play, conversation, movement or shared reading.
Watch together when you can
You don’t have to sit beside your child for every second of every program. But co-viewing gives you opportunities to turn passive watching into interaction. Ask simple questions:
“What colour was the truck?”
“Where do you think they’re going?”
“Can you jump like that?”
You can even bring the activity into the real world afterward. If you’ve watched something about animals, grab some toy animals and continue the game away from the screen.
Create screen-free parts of the day.
Instead of constantly negotiating screen time, establish predictable boundaries.
Meals can be screen-free.
Bedrooms can be screen-free.
The hour before bedtime can be screen-free.
Family reading time can be screen-free.
When these boundaries become normal parts of the routine, you don’t have to make a new decision every single day. And there’s another important habit: turn screens off when nobody is actually watching them. Background television still adds noise and distraction to the environment.
We currently provide daycare services in three main Calgary locations:
Practical Ways to Reduce Screen Time
If your toddler currently gets much more screen time than you’d like, you don’t necessarily need to go from three hours to zero tomorrow. Start with the situations where screens have become automatic. Maybe the TV goes on every morning even though nobody really watches it. Turn it off. Maybe your toddler always gets your phone during meals. Start with one screen-free meal each day. Maybe cartoons are part of bedtime. Replace them with two short books.
A few other changes can help:
- Keep tablets and phones somewhere your child can’t automatically grab them
- Turn off autoplay where possible
- Decide what your child will watch before handing over the device
- Give a warning before screen time ends
- Use predictable limits rather than negotiating every session
- Avoid using screens as the only way to manage boredom or difficult emotions
- Keep your own phone away during dedicated play and family time
That last one can be harder than it sounds.
Young children learn screen habits partly by watching adults. If everyone at the dinner table is looking at a phone, “no tablet at dinner” becomes a difficult rule to explain. You don’t need perfect screen habits yourself. Just try to model the behaviour you want your child to learn.
We offer daycare programs in Calgary for different age groups, including:
Play-Based Alternatives to Screens
Reducing screen time is much easier when you answer the obvious toddler question:
“Okay… what do I do instead?”
Fortunately, alternatives don’t need to be expensive or complicated.
| Instead of… | Try… |
| Watching cartoons | Picture books or storytelling |
| Tablet games | Puzzles, blocks or sorting games |
| YouTube songs | Singing and dancing together |
| Videos during meals | Family conversation |
| Screen time when bored | Drawing, playdough or pretend play |
| Watching other children play | Playground or outdoor play |
| Phone before bedtime | Books, cuddles and quiet songs |
A cardboard box can entertain a preschooler longer than an expensive toy if they’re allowed to decide whether it’s a spaceship, grocery store or dinosaur cave. That’s the value of open-ended play. Children have to create their own entertainment.
At Clever Daycare, play-based activities and real interactions are an important part of providing young children with opportunities to explore, communicate, move, and learn throughout their day.
Looking for a Calgary daycare where your child can spend their day learning through play, movement, conversation and hands-on experiences? Book a tour at Clever Daycare to see our daily routines and learning environment for yourself.
FAQ
How much screen time should a 2-year-old have?
Canadian Paediatric Society guidance recommends limiting routine or sedentary screen time for children ages 2 to 5 to about 1 hour per day or less.
Is screen time okay for children under 2?
Routine screen use isn’t recommended for children under 2. Interactive video chatting with caring adults, such as family members, is an exception in CPS guidance.
Does FaceTime count as screen time for a baby?
It’s still screen use, but interactive video chatting is specifically treated as an exception to the recommendation to avoid screens for children under 2 because it can support real social interaction with caring adults.
Is educational TV okay for toddlers?
Age-appropriate educational content can provide a better screen experience, particularly when a parent or caregiver watches and interacts with the child. It still shouldn’t replace real-world play, conversation, physical activity and sleep.
Is 2 hours of screen time too much for a 3-year-old?
Canadian guidance recommends about 1 hour or less of routine screen time per day for children ages 2 to 5, so regularly spending 2 hours would be above that recommendation.
Should toddlers have screens during meals?
It’s better to create regular screen-free times, and family meals are a particularly useful opportunity. Meals allow children to talk, observe others and participate in family interaction.
How long before bedtime should toddlers stop using screens?
CPS recommends avoiding screens for at least 1 hour before bedtime. Replace them with calmer activities such as reading, cuddling or quiet play.
What should I do if my toddler has a tantrum when screen time ends?
Use predictable boundaries and give a warning before the screen goes off. Stay consistent and offer an alternative activity instead of extending screen time whenever your child protests.
Does screen time at daycare count toward the daily limit?
Yes. Think about your child’s total daily screen exposure, not just what happens at home. Ask your childcare provider how and when screens are used.
What are good screen-free activities for toddlers?
Outdoor play, blocks, puzzles, books, drawing, music, dancing, pretend play, sensory activities and helping with simple everyday tasks can all provide developmentally valuable alternatives.
