How Ann Sandeep got her daughter to detox from using her smartphone

Ann Maria Sandeep had a Eureka moment in the middle of a challenging moment with her toddler. When she realised that her child was so dependent on her mobile phone that she refused to eat breakfast, she realised that it was time for her to bring some of her experience in the Public Relations field into the parenting game. If a distraction was what her daughter needed, she was going to create one herself.

“I would make little activity books for my daughter for her to work in and play with,” says Ann, a Journalism major who went on to switch lines. “I wanted to shift her attention from that to something else. In the beginning, there were countless times when she I would try and devise creative distractions just to make sure that my child would eat properly or go to sleep without the influence of technology.” 

Her daughter slowly started to become interested in them. “It was when I started getting a response from my own child that I thought, why not introduce this to other people as well? Because this is a widespread thing, children are getting addicted to technology in a way that we cannot handle. All parents are looking for a solution or some way to get their kids attention.” 

On June 29, she hosted a workshop on ‘Felt Activity for Kids’. The programme aimed to use Ann’s self-taught methods to help toddlers engage in activities that involve reasoning, problem-solving, hand-eye coordination, imagination and other motor skills to help their brain develop. She explains, “I chose felt paper because it lasts longer and there’s a lot a child could learn in terms of patience and method if they work with it. The thing about paper is that once its used up your mistakes are there for you to see and you are determined to get it right the next time around.”