Child with tablet, courtesy of The Commons Getty Collection

I just attended an outstanding webinar from The Erikson Institute, Strategies for Using Digital Technologies at Home.  It was presented by Devorah Heitner.   I can’t recommend listening to the recording enough!  If you don’t have time for that, take a quick listen to her TEDx Talk (only 13 minutes), which deals with older kids, empathy, and technology.  Here are the resources and links she referenced in the webinar.

The webinar covered many important points, and I am going to try to delve into a few of them one at a time, so as not to overwhelm you with tons of stuff all at once.  The one I want to mention today is:

Mixed Messages.  Parents and caregivers get all sorts of mixed messages about media (and about parenting in general).  Because parenting can be one of the most vulnerable tasks any of us can undertake, it is especially hard to navigate these dire warnings without feeling guilty and worried.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time at all for anyone under the age of two, and very limited screen time for preschoolers.  There are others who say that if your child doesn’t have access to technology at a young age, they will fall behind in skills and development.  And still others that are trying to market videos that will help teach our babies to read or be smart despite mounting evidence that these kinds of materials don’t work.

Because there are so many confusing mixed-messages, and because it is very easy for parents to feel judged, castigated, or guilty about these things, it can be hard to just have an honest conversation about it all.  How can we help parents feel comfortable and welcome, so that they can ask questions and talk about their own family’s use of media and technology without feeling worried we’ll tell them they are doing it wrong?