More and more homework that needs doing on the computer - I'm getting concerned about DD's eyesight as a result, am I overreacting?

[MadreInglese]

DD is in yr 8 and in recent months it seems she gets increasingly more homework each night that needs doing on the computer rather than in books. The school have all sorts of snazzy systems where eg you log on to the maths section and do Qs 1-10, and an eportal where you can upload your homework to your teacher instead of printing and handing it in

It seems to be expected now that most homework will be done on a computer and DD has recently complained of headaches and eye-ache which I'm convinced is connected. I would say she spends between 1 and 2.5 hours each evening on homework, and 80% of this is on the computer (the assumption that every household even has a computer is another issue entirely!)

I sit in front of a screen all day and have done for most of my working life, luckily it has not yet had a noticable effect on my vision, but DD wears glasses already for quite severe long-sightedness and I worry that exposed computer use will make this much worse. She is allowed some (supervised) free time at home on the internet but I try and restrict this as much as possible (I'm certainly not a technophobe but HATE kids plugged into things for hours).

I've mentioned it to her form teacher and the reply was along the lines of "that's the way the modern world is heading"

We are at the optician's tonight to get her eyes checked and will mention it, but I just wondered what others thought...?

bump

Nothing terribly helpful to say, except that she should make sure she takes a break from the screen periodically (I know back in the days when I was working there was some sort of advice - five minutes every half an hour or something like that) where her focus is changed from close-up to far away - e.g. looking across to the other side of the room, or out of the window etc. Sure optician will advise on that though. Make sure they know how much time she is spending at the screen.

Is it possible that some of the headaches might be stress-related - I am depressed by year 8 pupils doing up to 2.5 hours of homework per night - my eldest child is 9 so the wonders of secondary school workloads still await us! Also the position of the chair and her posture etc might have an effect - tension in shoulders/neck could manifest as headache???

Sorry, not very helpful really!

I think this is a reasonable concern. I know my eyes suffer when I spend too long looking at a screen.

Also (slight hijack here, given this is in general health), I don't think it's fair to those DC who may not have access to a computer at home, or who have to share one with lots of siblings. Of course they can do their H/W at school after lessons but their more well-off classmates get the choice of when to do theirs.

oh yes I'm constantly making her sit up straight, move back from the screen, focus on something in the distance, take a break and stretch your legs, etc etc - sound like a stuck record!

Don't think it's stress related, she's quite open and will say if she's not happy with something, but she loves learning and does take it all in her stride and it seems all her friends have the same amount of homework to do. The only time she gets stressy is when she can't get the computer to do something she wants it to like a minor strop the other night over a publisher margin issue (perils of having a perfectionist daughter!)