On this week’s Parenting segment, one mother’s three-year-old has accidentally developed an unhealthy fixation with phones. 

“I have tried to avoid technology around my kids,” she told Moncrieff.  

“But my three-year-old was given my sister's phone to play with when she was minding them for me. 

“I didn’t realise this for quite some time, so my three-year-old has now got this unhealthy fixation with phones. 

“Initially, it seemed she just wanted the phone out my sister sighs but now she screams the house down when she doesn't get one of our phones. 

“My husband just gives in and lets her have his phone – how can I detach her from it?” 

Child psychotherapist Joanna Fortune said the three-year-old has simply learned the lesson that if she screams enough, she will get a phone. 

“You have to put this in the developmental context because children this age are at that very stage of development when their job in life is to test every boundary we put down,” she said. 

“It is our job to hold those boundaries in place and teach them that screaming is not an effective form of communication or a means of getting what you want. 

'What does she like on the phone?'

Joanna said the first step she needs to take is talking to her sister and husband so they all agree that “a three-year-old should not be having a phone”. 

“You also have to ask your sister, who I'm reading between the lines might be providing some childcare here support, which is fantastic,” she said. 

“You just want to ask her not to give it - that consistency is key.” 

The psychotherapist also recommended redirecting the toddler to other activities that will distract her from the phone. 

“I'm interested what does she like on the phone?” she said. 

“I imagine it's cartoons or something, so if she has cartoon time on the TV and it's ring-fenced. 

“And otherwise, you're taking things that might be character she likes playing with and you're actually playing with them on the floor or giving her things that she can colour and paint. 

“You're trying to take what interests her and branch it out from the phone into her play.” 

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