By Playeum In the time it takes a child to build a tower with blocks, a toddler today can scroll through dozens of videos on a tablet. In Singapore, young children spend an average of 2.5 hours daily on screens (Chen et al., 2020), while teenagers can spend up to 8.5 hours immersed in digital worlds (Anand & Tang, 2025). Screens may entertain, but they cannot replicate the sensory, physical, and social experiences that hands-on play offers. Research shows that excessive scree