Parenting Tech-Use For "Littles"

Autumn McKay is a childhood educator, author and parent, she has navigated the challenges of screen time management with her own kids and faced the very familiar scenario of dealing with tech tantrums and the “10 more minutes” meltdowns. In short, she's one of us! She's in the trenches. In this episode we talk about steps to take in early child development to foster lifelong success. Listen today!

You know that zombie trance that your kids get when watching Cocomelon or other fast paced “kid shows”? Do you ever experience the epic meltdowns that come with the phrase “turn it off”? Well - I’ve got great news. You can avoid these by using kid podcasts to buy yourself 30 minutes for dinner prep/making the needed phone calls/car rides instead! Andi Smiley, the host of The Friendly Podcast Guide @friendlypodcastguide, is awesome!! She created a podcast that helps moms find podcasts for themselves and for their kids. No more zombies!! Build strong imagination muscles by exposing your kids to some of the great kid podcasts out there.

Dr. John S. Hutton is a pioneer in the realm of brain development. His JAMA published MRI research showed the results of screen overuse in the brains of young children: disorganized white matter. This is concerning for a variety of reasons. Today we discuss the best ways to start healthy brain growth and development with babies and toddlers….hint….it’s easier than you think ..and it doesn’t involve screens!!

Those baby days can be rough - everything we see in the media tells you “these are the moments you live for” yet…it’s so lonely. If you have enjoyed other pursuits or had a fast paced career you might find yourself wondering what comes next?Typically - we reach to our device to reconnect with our friends and look for help with the millionth question you have that day. This can get tricky… we can find ourselves spending way more time online than we intended and spiraling down the hole of social media. Alex Fales, found herself struggling with all of the new mom things and was unsatisfied with her relationship with tech so she founded Mindful With Media @mindfulwithmedia. In this episode we talk about screen habit pitfalls and some relatively easy practices you can put in place to design the relationship with tech that you want to have. You are going to want to listen to this one!!

"“Technologies change, children’s developmental needs do not.” ~Screen Aware Action Tool Kit

TechWise Littles is an organization on a mission to help create confident, tech wise parents raise healthy, tech wise littles from birth. Co-creators, Kay De Veer and Jennifer Strube, have decades of experience in education and are mothers of littles themselves. Their content is relevant, engaging and readily applicable in your own home. In this episode we talk about how to put boundaries around screens, enjoy video chatting with full benefits and put the safest, healthiest screen habits into place with your littles!

You don’t drop off kids at the mall, park or bowling alley without accompanying them the first few times and then laying out groundwork for how to keep themselves safe. The internet is a PLACE. It needs the same amount of teaching and monitoring that we give to offline spaces. In fact, knowing that predators go where kids are and online they can hide behind fake personas - it can be argued that online gaming needs MORE safety building! This is where Protect Me from Kidas comes in. Protect Me is the first of its kind monitoring platform for online PC gaming. The best part is that the reports that are provided to parents provide conversation starters - you get to ask your child age appropriate questions and have a discussion around various areas of concern. The next steps are then also provided to give support. Enjoy learning more about this platform by listening to this week’s episode!

Patricia Parker is the founder of Tools for Children, an organization whose mission is to help parents reduce passive screen time by encouraging creative play and opportunity. Originally from the Washington DC area, she holds a BS from LaSalle University and was deeply entrenched in corporate America before starting her family. Tools For Children provides actionable suggestions for families of all ages and stages.

Susan Linn is a psychologist, and award-winning ventriloquist, and a world-renowned expert on creative play and the impact of tech, media, and commercial marketing on children. She was founding director of the children’s advocacy group Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (now called Fairplay), and is currently Lecturer on Psychiatry at Harvard Medical school. On this episode we discuss her newly published book, Who’s Raising the Kids? Big Tech, Big Business, and the Lives of Children, reminisce about her time spent working with Mr. Rogers, and dive into understanding why our kids are targeted by big tech.

Carly Tulloch and Katie Sterbenz are pediatric speech language pathologists and the founders of Wee Talkers, a developmentally based program for speech and language development. Through courses, memberships, and social media, they share parent-friendly tips that families can put into use during their daily routines to help their toddlers talk and communicate more. In this episode we explore the role of tech in the increasing rates of speech therapy referrals as well as what an overuse of screen time can look like with behavioral issues.

Kailan Carr is a former teacher with a Masters in Literacy. She founded Quiet Book Queen & Crafts in Between to help parents and grandparents provide screen-free activities for their little ones in an easier, more cost effective way. She loves to encourage independent play, share easy and engaging activities, and help you create memory-making moments to connect as a family. Kailan believes in promoting play in a screen-free way. Sound like fun? Listen to this episode to learn how to start today!

The American Academy of Pediatrics gives some pretty strong guidelines for technology and littles. To review: 0-18 months : no screen time except for video chatting with loved ones 18 months - 2 years: minimal screen time and only with an adult 2-5 : no more than 1 hour per day of screen media entertainment WHY such strong restrictions? WHAT should we be doing with our babies and littles to give them the best path of growth? HOW do we pull all of these things together while working, caregiving and maintaining a home? Learn all of these things and some healthy screen habits that you can put in place in your own life by listening to this season of the Healthy Screen Habits Podcast! I am taking a deep dive into Tech, Tots, and Littles to find out the very best parenting practices as well as some of the research that drove these guidelines. New episodes drop Wednesdays on any of the podcasting platforms.

Allana Robinson is a Parenting Coach and CEO of Uncommon Sense Parenting. She supports parents of toddlers, preschoolers, and kindergarteners in understanding WHY their children are misbehaving and how to fix it without yelling, shaming, or time-outs. In this episode we talk about how bridging outdoor activity with online interest can help regulate your child’s mood.

Dr. Carol Westby has travelled the globe studying speech development, play and more. She has started noticing some alarming trends. In this episode we explore the effect of screen overuse on language development and parent/child attachment. Dr. Westby also shares the best thing you can do to help your child grow healthy communication skills.

Dr. Sarah Coyne researches media, aggression, and child development. In this episode she explores how technology affects toddlers and tantrums. We also talk about long term mental health effects of using technology to distract ourselves from deep feelings.