Abstract
I recommend that readers of Word of Mouth explore the Children’s Screentime Action Network website (https://screentimenetwork.org/) and the Screen-free Parenting website (https://www.screenfreeparenting.com). The Children’s Screen Time Action Network is a coalition of practitioners, educators, advocates, and parents working to promote a healthy childhood by reducing the amount of time kids spend with digital devices. Many of these persons are concerned about potential negative effects on children’s well-being related to overuse of digital devices. The coalition network encourages children and families to spend less time with screens and more time in creative and active play. The Screen-free Parenting website is designed to support parents wherever they are on the screen usage continuum—screen-free, screen-limiters, or screen-embracers all deserve research-based information to help them make the best tech-wise choices for their families.
I am not a Luddite. I love my technology and cannot imagine what this past year would have been like without it. I do not want to give up my multiple desktop and laptop computers, two iPads, Kindle, and iPhone. But I am concerned about inappropriate or overuse of digital technologies with children and adolescents. Marketing trends promote the myth that digital technology is essential to young children’s learning. The two websites discussed in this article work to dispel the marketing myth and offer information and strategies for decisions on digital screen use.
In February 2020, shortly before the COVID shutdown, the Screentime Action Network launched the Screens in Schools Action Kit. The Action Kit can be downloaded for free from the Action Network website. (If it is read online, the hyperlinks in the text work; the hyperlinks are not functional in the download). The Action Kit aims to empower concerned parents and educators to inform others about the faulty assumptions or problems with edtech in schools and advocate in their schools for thoughtful use of digital technology. The Action Kit team was led by Joe Clement and Matt Miles, authors of Screen Schooled. In Screen Schooled, Clement and Miles reveal why an education increasingly centered on digital devices is failing children. The first section of the Action Kit presents current research on effects of screen time in several areas: effects of edtech on learning, health, psychological and social-emotional well-being, and privacy and misuse of student data. For each area, readers are given strategies for countering counter-arguments (which explain arguments against screen usage). The Action Kit guides parents through questions to ask and provides everything they need to take action: templates for letters to school administrators, handouts for PTA meetings, petitions, opt-out forms, fact sheets, and more. For educators, it shines light on policies and pedagogy (including success stories from teachers and administrators) that support students and offers ways to stand up to administrations and systems that invest in technology over students and teachers. And for everyone, it offers an extensive resource list that spells out the problem with the overuse of screens in schools. In response to COVID, a COVID-19 Response Addendum with additional and updated information on edtech resources, resources for parents, and resources for educators has been added to the Action Kit.
The website has extensive resources that can be searched according to child age, developmental/learning areas, physical/mental well-being, profession, and type of resource (PDF, PowerPoint, podcast, webinar, link). The Screentime Network has sponsored a number of webinars for professionals and parents on screen time across ages, use of edtech in different contexts, and play that are archived and can be viewed. The Action Network collaborated with the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association to develop a flyer in English and Spanish, “Be Tech Wise With Baby! Create a Healthy Technology Environment for Your Baby to Thrive.” Several flyers and PDF guides for parents promote interactive play (e.g., TRUCE Guide for Using Children’s Books to Promote Play; TRUCE Play Boxes; Play and Toy Guide; Young Children in a Digital Age: A Parent’s Guide).
The Screen-free Parenting website is home to the research and practices of the child development-based S.P.O.I.L. system for prioritizing activities for a child’s day. The S.P.O.I.L. System guides parents through the 5 important activities they should engage in with their young child each day:
The website provides numerous detailed discussions of activities in each of the S.P.O.I.L. categories. The activities are based on the developmental needs of children ages 2-10 and are proven to lead to well-adjusted, bonded, and academically successful children. The website also offers suggestions for resources in three categories: products that help limit screentime, parenting and child development books on screen use, and kid’s toys.