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GKIS Quick Tips for Intellectual Enrichment Through Screen Media for Preschool Age Children

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Families can no longer avoid screen media exposure in today’s technology driven society. Research demonstrates that exposure to different types of screen media, including television, computers, smartphones, and tablets, can have positive as well as negative effects on children depending on the age of the child, the quality of content, and the amount of exposure. How can we ensure that our children are exposed to the RIGHT type of media in ways that promote intellectual growth?

The Preoperational Child

Preschool age is between 3 to 5 years. The first 5 years of life are critical ages for learning and brain development. Let’s take a look at the different areas preschool-aged children learn and how their educational outcomes can be optimized through appropriate media use:

A Growing Brain & Motor Development

  • Ninety percent of a child’s brain development occurs between birth and 5 years of age (Frist, 2013). This makes it a pivotal time to expose children to a variety of educational information to expand their growing minds to their fullest potential.

GKIS Quick Tip: Choose media that introduces a wide variety of concepts to build upon for future learning. Areas can include language, math, functional skills, motor skills, creativity, and more. But make sure these concepts are delivered in small, deliberate doses. Avoid overwhelm by limiting screen time, delivering age-appropriate content, and avoiding frenetic, rapidly paced videos. Ensure appropriate engagement by co-viewing with your child and talking them through new concepts to facilitate learning and deepen your parent-child learning alliance.

  • As children progress through the preoperational stage, they learn to master gross motor skills, like running, jumping, and climbing, through exercise and play (Hanley, 2016).

GKIS Quick Tip: Interactive games that require active participation through physical activity rather than passive viewing can help improve motor, spatial, and coordination skills, particularly when outside play is not possible. For example, many Wii games encourage active participation through movement detection and feedback. Again, co-engagement is a win-win!

  • Children also learn to master fine motor skills (working with their fingers and hands) through active practice (Hanley, 2016).

GKIS Quick Tip: Tablets for children provide age-appropriate games and apps that enable children fine motor skill practice, like playing the piano, drawing shapes, as well as writing letters and words. For example, the Color and Draw for Kids app works as a virtual coloring book that helps children learn colors as well as fine-tune fine motor skills that are practiced through drawing.

Concrete & Abstract Thinking

  • According to Jean Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, children between the ages of 2 to 7 years old are undergoing the preoperational stage of development. This means kids are learning to form stable concepts but still have magic beliefs and have trouble taking the perspectives of others. With play and practice, they are constantly adding to their mental repertoire, such as major language development. In fact, children who do not develop necessary language skills by the age of 5 years are 6 times more likely to experience difficulty with reading in school (Frist, 2013).

GKIS Quick Tip: Media can benefit young children by teaching literacy and numerical skills. A recent study has shown that growth produced from watching the show Sesame Street is equally comparable to learning in a preschool classroom (Tankersley, 2015). Children exposed to the show were more likely to keep up academically at the appropriate grade level for their age. Interestingly, this effect was particularly pronounced among boys and children who grow up in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Reading skills can also be enhanced through computer games such as Teach Your Monster to Read. That means balanced use digital literacy using appropriate content can be intellectually beneficial by preschool age!

  • Thoughts are primarily generated by concrete rather than abstract ideas in early preschool years. In other words, young children learn about the world around them in a physical manner rather than through representations in their own thoughts.

GKIS Quick Tip: Choose games that allow your preschooler to be an active, rather than a passive, learner. For example, the game Sago Mini Toolbox lets players work virtually with tools, including saws and power drills, to complete building projects. These types of games teach children to work directly toward accomplishing a goal without too much emphasis on the depth of thinking that abstract ideas require. More information about this game can be found at the Common Sense Media website which provides ratings of educational media that will benefit your preschool child.

  • Although preschool children learn primarily through manipulating their environment, towards the end of this period they begin to use symbolic thinking, which means they use internal images to represent objects or people. This is evident through imaginary play. Preschool children often adopt roles such as doctor, mother, father, or cook so that they can practice using social norms and gender roles they see performed in their everyday lives. A child will also use inanimate objects as symbols for other objects (Cherry, 2016). For example, a child may use a blanket to represent a cape, therefore making him/her a real-life superhero.

GKIS Quick Tip: Because imaginative play is developing in the preschool years, exposing children to apps and computer games that emphasize pretend thinking may enhance intellectual abilities as well as creativity. Dr. Panda School is a highly rated game from the website Fundamentally Children’s “Good App Guide.” This app enables players to adopt and explore different roles in an educational context by telling stories about their experiences from the perspective of a teacher, nurse, cook, or even a janitor.

Making and Keeping Friends

  • According to Erikson’s psychosocial stages of development, preschoolers begin to practice interpersonal skills in classroom settings. They do this through participating in pretend play with others and initiating activities with others.

GKIS Quick Tip: Media can benefit preschool children by teaching social skills (Burton, 2015). Videos, television shows, and computer games can teach cooperation and sharing. An example of a beneficial program includes Toca Tea Party This program teaches social skills by allowing children to practice hosting their very own tea party with parents or friends.

  • Children at this age become increasingly curious and inquisitive. They begin to assert themselves more and ask questions to learn more about the world around them (McLeod, 2013).

GKIS Quick Tip: Try using screen activities that prompt questions that require parental input or knowledge. For example, the app Knoala requires children and parents to collaborate in a variety of activities including dancing, singing, crafts, treasure hunts, and more. These types of games not only promote learning, but also strengthen the attachment between you and your child.

  • Children in later preschool years begin to develop theory of mind, which means they gain the ability to understand the feelings and thoughts of others rather than just their own (Cherry, 2016). This particular change in mentality strengthens relationships with peers as well as adults.

GKIS Quick Tip: Computer games can provide children with the practice they need to interact with others appropriately. The game Social Express allows children to interact in simulated situations that mimic social interactions in real-life. It involves decision-making on the part of the player. Each social decision made will have a positive or negative response (Higgin, 2014). Through these experiences in a virtual world, preschool children are able to learn social cues, norms, and skills that they can apply in different settings as well as identify how their actions affect others.

Early exposure to educational media during the preschool years may contribute to intellectual growth. However, preschool children using too much screen media is associated with lower cognitive development and academic achievement (Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson, 2008). That means short time periods and age appropriate educational content is key for screen media benefit. Furthermore, accessibility to loving, responsive caregivers is necessary to enrich screen learning and teach important interpersonal skills such as empathy and emotional soothing. There is simply no replacement for love and one-to-one attention.

Thank you Alanna Daytona, CSUCI intern, for putting together these important tips for smart tech use. If you have recommendations for great educational online content for preschool children, please share them with the rest of the GKIS community and leave a response in the comment section below.

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com

Works Cited

Burton, L. (2015, June). Media benefits for children and teenagers. Retrieved from http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/media_benefits.html

Cherry, K. (2016). What Is the Preoperational Stage of Cognitive Development? Retrieved from https://www.verywell.com/preoperational-stage-of-cognitive-development-2795461

Frist, B. (2013). Child’s first 5 years hold key to success. Retrieved from http://toosmall.org/news/commentaries/childs-first-5-years-hold-key-to-success

Hanley, S. (2016). Major Milestones in the Biological Development of Children. Retrieved from http://oureverydaylife.com/major-milestones-biological-development-children-1883.html

Higgin, T. (2014). Inventive Games That Teach Kids About Empathy and Social Skills. Retrieved from https://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2014/04/18/inventive-games-that-teach-kids-about-empathy-and-social-skills/

Kirkorian, H. L., Wartella, E. A., & Anderson, D. R. (2008). Media and Young Children’s Learning. Retrieved from http://www.futureofchildren.org/publications/journals/

McLeod, S. A. (2013). Erik Erikson. Retrieved from www.simplypsychology.org/Erik-Erikson.html

Tankersley, J. (2015). Study: Kids can learn as much from ‘Sesame Street’ as from preschool. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/sesame-street-and-its-surprisingly-powerful-effects-on-how-children-learn/2015/06/07/59c73fe4-095c-11e5-9e39-0db921c47b93_story.html

Photo Credit

9/365 game day by Jack Fussell, BY CC 2.0

On the Edge by Miika Silfverberg, BY CC 2.0

Student With Ipad At School – 143 by Brad Flickinger, BY CC 2.0

Dr. Bennett’s Developmental Psychology Crash Course (Ages 3 to 6 Years).

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The developmental phase of 3 to 6 years old marks the progression from parallel play to group interaction in expanding peer and academic settings (preschool through first grade). Learning continues at an explosive rate with rapid brain development (nature) interacting with a protected and enriching environment (nurture). As children become increasingly familiar with and master activities, their cognitive resources are freed up to grasp an increasingly complex understanding of the world around them. During this time our amazing little beings are blossoming and developing initiative, complex communication, and creativity.

This article offers a developmental psychology review/crash course outlining the developmental tasks children master between the ages of 3 to 6 years old. With this information, you can decide for yourself if screen time would enhance, be neutral, or interfere with your child’s development.

Brain Development

Research on brain structure has been difficult with this age group due to the complexities of sedating children for brain research. However, with more sophisticated brain imaging and recording technologies, we have evidence that the preschool developmental period is characterized by the ongoing “remodeling” of brain tissue. More specifically, brain cells (neurons) grow and migrate, only to die off or be “pruned and tuned” later as the child matures and gains experience (Brown). Brain maturation is affected by experience and interactions between nature and nurture. The better the match between children’s capacities and the demands placed on them, the better the learning. If the mismatch is too big, stress and dysfunction may result (Lenroot). Fortunately, loving parents are expert at ratcheting up difficulty level at a customized rate that best fits their child. It is the perfect partnership!

Here are some quick brain facts to help you customize your parenting genius:

  • At 3 years old, your child’s brain has reached 50% of its adult size already and will reach up to 95% of its adult size by 6 years old (Lenroot).
  • The brain remodels from phylogenetically older to newer brain structures. As lower brain regions develop, they perform scaffolding for later developing, higher brain regions. In other words, when performing a cognitive task, young children must enlist more brain regions for a single task, while older children with more specialization use fewer regions to perform the same task (Brown). This progression of mastery frees brain resources for more and more specialized development. Truly magical to behold!
  • Just as we see a spike in surface area growth of the frontal lobes at age 2 years, we see another between 5 to 7 years. This is consistent with the dramatic improvements in executive functioning (attention, concentration, and organization) that we see at these two phases of development.

There’s increasing evidence that frequent and rigorous exercise, good sleep, good nutrition, unstructured play, one-to-one parent and peer interaction, and time with nature play important roles in the healthy development of executive functioning. Parents would be well advised to structure their preschooler’s day with quality stimulation in all of these areas.

Although educational and prosocial screen media activities are a cognitively- and socially-enriching addition to a well-balanced life, limits are necessary. There is also increasing evidence that too much screen time can contribute to attention problems (Christakis).

  • The brain’s auditory system develops rapidly during these ages, consistent with rapid language acquisition.
  • Consistent with the language and motor advances during the preschool period, rapid myelination occurs throughout the brain, particularly in the areas of the hippocampus (memory) and in the fibers linking the cerebellum and cerebral cortex (fine motor skills) (Lenroot).
  • More effective connections are also established between the temporal, occipital, and parietal lobes, which are brain areas critical for the synthesis of information and processing of temporal, visual, and spatial information.
  • Although little research has been conducted regarding screen-media technology use and brain change in young children, there is evidence of brain structure change with older kids. For example, Hong et. al. report evidence that there is a significant relationship between Internet addiction and the thickness of a child’s medial and lateral orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), similar to changes seen due to drug addiction. The medial OFC is affected by choices involving immediate rewards, and the lateral OFC is affected by choices involving delayed rewards. These areas of the brain also demonstrate similar changes among subjects with obsessive-compulsive disorder. In conclusion, it doesn’t take a brain scientist to recognize that even child programs on screen media are expertly designed to encourage compulsive play. It’s up to parents to run a risk/benefit analysis about whether to allow play at all, to choose appropriate content, and to monitor use time. I suggest you keep it conservative for now. There’s plenty of time to develop expert digital literacy.

Cognitive & Motor Development

  • Preschool children are rapidly developing a self-concept, with both concrete and psychological dimensions (e.g., sociability). Preschoolers are wildly curious and often focused on gaining independence and self-control. As they collect new experiences, expect new behavioral patterns to emerge. For instance, it is very normal for preschool age kids to become preoccupied with the classification and grouping of things. Clients sometimes worry their children have a clinical form of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). I assure you, lining up toys and insisting on rigid rules and routines is common among the preschool age group. Go with it, this too will pass.
  • Piaget theorized that children of this age are in the preoperational stage of cognitive development and start to demonstrate precausal/magical thinking:

In other words, they still have a hazy idea of how their ideas and desires relate to the world around them. They tend to accept what can be immediately seen (concrete appearance and reality), yet unable to reason concepts through (precausal thinking). As a result, they are better at grasping the short-term rather than the long-term outcomes. Flaws in thinking during this developmental phase include egocentrism (self-centered thinking), irreversibility (things operate only one way), and animism (ascribes lifelike qualities to inanimate objects).

 Young children are not confident in their opinions and ideas and are easily led astray by the influence of others. Therefore, even if you’ve provided good information and practiced appropriate response, young children should not be expected to be able to make choices about activities and are unable to adequately protect themselves against predatory peers or adults. They simply don’t have the cognitive resources to do it well yet. So as an awesome parent, you must provide deliberately filtered and protected home, school, social, and digital environments. They are not yet ready to go-it-alone.

  • Reaching conclusions/moral reasoning:

Preschoolers tend to be impulsive and unsystematic in their thinking. They show little understanding of the need for rules and instead play games to take turns and have fun (Piaget). Piaget called this the Premoral Period.

At this young age, they are still only able to hold a few things in memory at once. As a result, they have difficulty identifying and keeping in mind the relevant features of a complex problem. They must rely on what they can see or on hard rules rather than on another’s intent, abstract factors, or the spirit of the rule. Outcome counts for little kids, not the intent. I see many parents overestimate their children’s capabilities, thus giving them too much independence. It’s better to go in slow rather than let your children run amuck, get into trouble that can’t be undone, and then react.

  • Movement:

As with other developmental periods, physical play promotes healthy brain development, particularly in the vestibular, proprioceptive, and tactile sensory system, and results in progressive fine-tuning of gross and fine motor skills. Let those preschoolers run and provide them with fun, enriching social and sporting activities!

Language Development

  • During the preschool and kindergarten years, children’s language ability continues to explode in vocabulary and sentence complexity. Children within this age range are actively learning to tailor their language to their audience. Indeed, frequent and rewarding interaction with others is critical to healthy development.

Evidence suggests that excessive screen time, at the expense of conversational interaction, may result in developmental and language delay (Chonchaiya).

Social-Emotional Development

  • Freud famously theorized that gender identity forms during this developmental period, with sexual impulse being the primary source of motivation.

He believed that gender identity comes from identification with and fear of the same-sex parent as the child increasingly tries to covet the opposite-sex parent. For boys, this conflict is called the Oedipal Complex and for girls, it is the Electra Complex. Don’t be surprised when your son tries to take over mom’s attention and your daughter openly battles for dad’s attention. Working through this conflict is entirely normal.

  • Erik Erikson coined this developmental phase Initiative vs. Guilt. In other words, he hypothesized that children ages 3-6 years are starting to launch on their own while still remaining strongly attached to caregivers. Just as toddlers frequently demonstrate separation anxiety, so do preschoolers. It’s perfectly healthy for your preschooler to be emotionally needy and clingy sometimes as well as start to strike out independently. Be encouraging, cuddly, and patient as your children take their two steps forward and one step back. They’re still experimenting.
  • In regard to perspective-taking, preschool children advance from egocentricity (inability to see a situation from another’s perspective) to theory of mind (ability to understand and predict the behavior and feelings of others).

Social learning research has demonstrated that children are more likely to evaluate and regulate their own behavior if they have had lots of playing time with a warm, mutually responsive parent. In contrast, kids who have spent less time with parents will comply due to parent request rather than an eagerness to comply or cooperate (Schaffer, 512-513). That means lots of playtime with parents to build a mutually warm attachment will result in your child having more of conscience outside of your supervision.

Physical and pretend play helps build a theory of mind, social skills, and emotional self-control, as well as creativity and resiliency.

There is evidence that solitary play, as opposed to playing with others, has a significant negative correlation with overall social skills (Newton and Jenvey, 761-73).

Just as too much screen time can cause delay, appropriate technology use can promote individual and cooperative play in children.

  • Children are now school age and interact with a larger variety of people. Caretakers still have a lot of influence over whom children spend time with outside of school. Remain choosy and vigilant. The quality of peer interaction makes a difference.
  • Preschool children’s pretend play is primarily fantasy practice of cultural roles. They spend a lot of time building upon memorized social scripts, progressively becoming increasingly independent (Cole). Preschool is a time of playing house and practicing gender roles. One of the greatest joys of my career is watching how fathers have become more nurturing caregivers while mothers have an increasing choice in areas of achieved excellence. Raising emotionally literate boys and girls means encouraging compassion, nurturance, hard work, and an open mind. You’ll know what kind of job you’re doing by listening to and watching your child act out your parenting role in fantasy play. I encourage you to make the necessary adjustments in your own parenting behaviors as you go, inching closer and closer to your parenting ideal.
    • Social curiosity increasingly develops as preschool children are now able to use social comparison to assess success and failure, as well as individual performance. They are motivated to identify with others, such as parents, caretakers, siblings, and peers, and learn through modeling and operant conditioning continues (reward and punishment).
    • Based on the theory of Kohlberg, kids this age choose “the right” for self-gratification and in order to avoid punishment (Kohlberg). Don’t be surprised if they use mild aggression or unfair fighting techniques to get their way with family and peers. This is part of the learning process. It’s important that parents don’t retaliate with toxic parenting reactions like belittling, ridiculing, teasing, mocking, or discounting your child. Responding with patience, understanding, and emotional neutrality is key to preserving a positive, hard-earned attachment. Inquiring about their strategy and validating their feelings will help your child learn from the experience rather than avoid you or internalize shame. If they feel your acceptance and celebration of failures that lead to important new learning and skills, they will be more transparent and come to you when they run into challenges.
    • During this developmental phase, little ones learn how to hold a grudge. We see aggression move from simply trying to get ahold of an object to knowingly being aggressive toward a person who’s done them wrong (Cole).

Watch out, parents! Around three-years-old kids start to experiment with name-calling, and tantrums blossom from physical outbursts to verbal ones! I’ve always counseled that the tantrums of three-year-olds are far more impressive (and embarrassing) than the tantrums of two-year-olds. With burgeoning developmental ability comes more impressive tantrums. Wait until you see what your adolescents will be capable of! I celebrate a child’s ability to brilliantly manipulate others while supporting parents on how to stay a step ahead.

BLOGPRESCHOOLWhat Awesome GKIS Parents Provide

  • Children are better adjusted and become increasingly autonomous when parents set standards and provide guidance that is warm, encouraging, and praising without being overly critical of occasional missteps. A sense of humor is EVERYTHING! Enjoy it, mistakes and all.

Theorists call this authoritative parenting, and evidence demonstrates it is better than permissive (i.e., uninvolved) or authoritarian (i.e., overly controlling) styles.

  • Children from stimulating home environments not only achieve better in school, but they also demonstrate a stronger willingness to seek out and master challenges for personal satisfaction.

In order to feel confident providing GetKidsInternetSafe screen media guidelines, I felt it important to provide a crash course review of developmental progression and needs during this developmental phase as they relate to technology use. By reflecting on the stimulation and environmental enrichment your child needs to successfully meet developmental milestones, I hope you feel more confident in your family’s technology decisions as well. If you know other caregivers who may like a brush-up, do me a favor and pass it on! To get the free article download “The Top Ten Mistakes Parents Make With Internet Safety (and How to Recover!)“, click here. I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetKidsInternetSafe. Onward to More Awesome Parenting, Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D. Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty GetKidsInternetSafe.com

Works Cited

Brown, Timothy T., and Terry L. Jernigan. “Brain Development During the Preschool Years.” Neuropsychology Review 22.4 (2012): 313-33. Web.

Christakis, D. A., F. J. Zimmerman, D. L. Digiuseppe, and C. A. Mccarty. “Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children.” Pediatrics 113.4 (2004): 708-13. Web.

Cole, Michael, and Sheila Cole. The Development of Children. New York, NY: Scientific American, 1993. Print. Chonchaiya, Weerasak, and Chandhita Pruksananonda. “Television Viewing Associates with Delayed Language Development.” Acta Paediatrica 97.7 (2008): 977-82. Web.

Erikson, Erik H. Childhood and Society. New York: Norton, 1964. Print. Freud, S. “An Outline of Psychoanalysis.” The Standard Edition of the Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth, 1940. Vol 23. Print.

Hong, S. “Reduced Orbitofrontal Cortical Thickness in Male Adolescents with Internet Addiction.” 9.11 (2013). Print. Kohlberg, Lawrence. The Psychology of Moral Development: The Nature and Validity of Moral Stages. San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1984. Print.

Lenroot, Rhoshel K., and Jay N. Giedd. “Brain Development in Children and Adolescents: Insights from Anatomical Magnetic Resonance Imaging.” Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews 30.6 (2006): 718-29. Web.

Newton, Emma, and Vicki Jenvey. “Play and Theory of Mind: Associations with Social Competence in Young Children.” Early Child Development and Care 181.6 (2011): 761-73. Web.

Piaget, Jean. The Child’s Conception of Number. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1952. Print. Shaffer, David R. Developmental Psychology: Childhood and Adolescence. 9th ed. Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole, 1989. Print

Walker, Lawrence J., Karl H. Hennig, and Tobias Krettenauer. “Parent and Peer Contexts for Children’s Moral Reasoning Development.” Child Development 71.4 (2000): 1033-048. Web. Photo Credit First Day of Preschool by Andrew Dawes, CC by-SA

2.0   Some excellent points made!

6 Awesome GKIS Habits for Preschoolers

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2 of a 3-Part Series  Sensible GetKidsInternetSafe Screen Media Guidelines for Children Ages 3 to 6 Years

Now that last week’s article helped you set the stage for smart GetKidsInternetSafe parenting, the following tips will help you create safe use habits. It’s all about filtering, monitoring, participating, and healthy balance.

6 AWESOME GKIS HABITS:

  • Children should not be allowed to view unfiltered content unmonitored.

    Exposure to violent or sexualized images is harmful to children in ways that parents can’t imagine. It is our responsibility as parents to protect them just as we do with other environmental hazards. There is no replacement for supervision, although a child browser may be helpful.

  • Co-viewing and co-media engagement are excellent learning opportunities.

    Technology can provide an adaptive scaffold for your children’s learning and initiative. And, as an awesome parent, you can provide an adaptive scaffold for learning technology.

  • Observe your children’s use of the media for a probationary period before your mind is made up.

    Don’t forget to let your kids know “you’re just trying it out.” And don’t be afraid to make adaptations or discontinue use if you see something you don’t like (e.g., frustration, fatigue, or over-stimulation). Even if they have you convinced that disappointment is permanently disabling, it isn’t. Learning to cope with an unexpected change of plans is a critical life lesson. Remember, your GKIS plan is a living agreement. That means it changes as your family’s needs change.

  • An enriching, sensible balance between active play, interactive engagement with others, and time-limited, age-appropriate technology use is essential for healthy development.

    Say no to violent content, background television, and mature themes.
    Media material that includes slower-paced narratives with less intensity and novelty is better for the young brain.

    Opt for interactive and problem-solving games when possible.

    Don’t cave when your kids say “but everybody else is doing it.”

    Good parenting needs to start within your home and once you cave to pester power it’s a slippery slope. Kids learn quickly what will make you cave and will escalate to impressive heights when challenged. Don’t let them control the parenting playbook.

  • Children 3 to 6 years old still have immature judgment and are incapable of complex reasoning. Therefore it’s still too soon for them to own a smart phone or open their own social media accounts.

     

  • No more than 2 hours/day of screen media on weekdays.

How does it feel to be on the road to mastery rather than burying your head and crossing your fingers? Believe me, you are giving your kids a warm and brilliant start in a landscape fraught with peril! Thanks for being incredible.

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com

So cute AND a great lesson. Enjoy!

7 Set-the-Stage GKIS Tips.

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  1 of a 3-Part Series  Sensible GetKidsInternetSafe (GKIS) Screen Media Guidelines for Children Ages 3 to 6 Years

Preschool is a good time for children to start to develop technology skills, digital literacy, and digital citizenship. From my three-pillar experience as a mother, clinical psychologist, and university professor, I believe these guidelines will help get your family started on the right path to awesome parenting in the digital age. Of course, these are simply suggestions. As a parent, you can use your judgment and alter these guidelines to best fit your children and family.

Congratulations for going the extra mile to be an awesome parent right from the beginning, rather than waiting until your children have been exposed to damaging material or have developed dangerous habits. As little ones, they will readily accept your guidance, and your thought-thru, safe guidelines will smoothly become a way of life. If you wait to change things after bad habits have formed, kids often resist and become sneaky, resentful, and defiant. Take a second to give yourself a heart-full-of-self-love pat on the back for taking the extra time and going the extra mile for your little ones.

SET THE STAGE:

  • Fine-tune your technology skills, use patterns, and opinions about technology before your babies ever lay eyes on a media screen. This will allow you to be confident from the start that you have a well thought-out plan and already serve as a good role model.*

For example, recognize that by posting your children’s pictures on social media you are creating their digital footprint thatis permanent on the world wide web. Consider what you think is appropriate to post, and with what privacy settings, particularly given your child’s inability to provide informed consent. Baby pictures are one thing, but as your children mature so does their digital footprint. I personally choose to post with strict privacy settings on social media and tend not to include my grown kids’ images on public forums like www.GetKidsInternetSafe.com. Each parent must determine his/her own comfort level.

  • Become your child’s go-to expert by maintaining a fun and supportive dialogue about technology. Then, put it in writing!

As you gain knowledge from your discussions and research, create a GetKidsInternetSafe Family Agreement during a weekly family fun night.* Commit to a weekly 10-minute check-in to keep everybody compliant and incorporate improvements as you go. If kids are raised with sensible guidelines and consistent (but chill) follow-thru, they adapt easily and are more likely to adopt positive viewpoints and values.

  • Become an educated buyer and do your research BEFORE you purchase devices or software. Be cautious of unverifiable claims, especially by marketers promoting a product.

If by using the software your child is incentivized to BUY MORE, do yourself a favor and don’t buy it. Avoid manipulative neuromarketing techniques that target your fears and your children’s wants as much as possible.Consider initial and upgrade costs and safety and durability issues prior to making a purchase.

  • Consider how technology will interact with your child (burgeoning developmental abilities, unique strengths and vulnerabilities, and moods).

Parents often think kids will seek out what they need for health, as if they are pre-programmed to know (Hesketh). They aren’t and need your active guidance!

Just as there’s research of academic and prosocial benefits to appropriate screen media programming, there is also mounting research evidence of social, language, and reading delays due to TOO MUCH screen media use.

There’s also concern that screen media demonstrates brain stimulation patterns typically seen in addiction, perhaps setting the stage for attention and addiction issues later (Christakis, Sigman). Think of your child’s current as well as future development as you make your selections.

The soon-to-be-posted GetKidsInternetSafe crash developmental psychology course for 3 to 6 year-olds will help with this, so keep an eye out for it!

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  • Stage your home and set sensible rules for smart technology use.

Place screens in family traffic areas, enforce a night-time docking station, no screen time before bed time, take breaks – 15 minute break after 45 minutes of screen viewing, and definitely no screens in the bedrooms.*

MOTIVATOR: Excessive screen media use by children has been linked to increased risk for obesity, increased sensitivity to stress, irritability, depression, impulsivity, aggression, decreased attention, motor problems, and sleep problems (Cristakis, Robinson, Schmidt, Swing).

  • Install protective software.

To prevent risk of viruses and hacking, install anti-virus, anti-spyware, and anti-spam security programs and a personal firewall. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, google it (e.g., “What is a firewall?”) I’ll have articles coming up on www. GetKidsInternetSafe.com with detailed instructions as well. Until then, there are excellent articles out there with reviews and recommendations. I say GO FOR IT!

Also install filtering and monitoring programs on any devices your child will be using.

IMPORTANT: Be honest with your child about your actions from the get-go.* Raising kids with a respectful and honest transparency about your efforts to keep them safe will go a long way in developing a cooperative and trusting alliance. If they know from the beginning that you are forever monitoring, they won’t feel stalked or ambushed later and be less likely to sneak. I tell my kids that I may check their media at any time for any reason (even though I don’t invade their privacy other than an occasional spot-check). If I see anything that concerns me, they are the first to know. Parents get into terrible violation of trust situations when they sneak peeks and hold secrets.

  • Provide age-appropriate devices and content and let your children experiment.

It’s best to provide warm support rather than micromanaging. Encourage mastery of technology basics (e.g., tech vocabulary and problem solving, essential commands, and how to use the browser), as well as fine motor skills (e.g., keyboarding, screen touch, and the mouse).

Don’t over do it, start out slow. There is little persuasive evidence that screen time will dramatically accelerate academic skills. Your kids will have plenty of time to develop those at school and with home reading and arithmetic activities integrated into the everyday. Be conservative and limit the screen media use. Face-to-face interaction and running in wide open spaces remains far superior for healthy development than hours of screen time.

I hope today’s article inspires you to proactively GetKidsInternetSafe in your home. GKIS articles are designed to give you the most essential technology and parenting information in a quick and easy-to-read format; and hopefully motivate you to think deeply, plan, reassess, and repair your technology plan along the way. Stay connected to GKIS and being your family’s expert will be easy! Please help me out and pass this information on to any friends or family you know with young children. Also, I would love for you to be generous with any genius stage-setting ideas you have stumbled upon in the comments section after this article.

To get the free article download “Three Things You Can Do to Get Your Kids Internet Safe,” click here.

I’m the mom psychologist who will help you GetYourKidsInternetSafe.

Onward to More Awesome Parenting,

Tracy S. Bennett, Ph.D.
Mom, Clinical Psychologist, CSUCI Adjunct Faculty
GetKidsInternetSafe.com

Works Cited

Christakis, D. A., F. J. Zimmerman, D. L. Digiuseppe, and C. A. McCarty. “Early Television Exposure and Subsequent Attentional Problems in Children.” Pediatrics 113.4 (2004): 708-13. Web.

Hesketh, Kylie D., Trina Hinkley, and Karen J. Campbell. “Children′s Physical Activity and Screen Time: Qualitative Comparison of Views of Parents of Infants and Preschool Children.” International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 9.1 (2012): 152. Web.

Robinson, T. N. “Reducing Childrens Television Viewing to Prevent Obesity: A Randomized Controlled.” JAMA 282 (1999): 1561-567. Web.

Schmidt, Marie Evans, Jess Haines, Ashley O’Brien, Julia McDonald, Sarah Price, Bettylou Sherry, and Elsie M. Taveras. “Systematic Review of Effective Strategies for Reducing Screen Time Among Young Children.” Obesity (2012). Web.

Sigman, A. “Time for a View on Screen Time.” Archives of Disease in Childhood 97.11 (2012): 935-42. Web.

Swing, E. L., D. A. Gentile, C. A. Anderson, and D. A. Walsh. “Television and Video Game Exposure and the Development of Attention Problems.” Pediatrics 126.2 (2010): 214-21. Web.

LOVING THESE TECHNOLOGY STATION IDEAS: http://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=kids%20work%20stations

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