Help kids use screens as a tool for learning, creativity, and growth.
Explore science-backed tips, tools, and expert guidance on digital literacy and wellbeing.
Teaching communication skills to our kids today means thinking twofold: traditional and digital. Raised among screens, apps, and the online world — including its communities and multitude of communication methods — means communication skills now firmly include: * Asynchronous communication * Text, email, and other digital notes * Communication with fewer nonverbal cues The way...
Digital literacy is our ability to navigate digital spaces in an effective and informed way. For kids, that’s mainly about knowing what content is for them and what’s not, and where to go for help if something weird happens. It includes recognizing what’s appropriate, what’s not,...
Over the past decade, researchers have discovered that playing video games can actually boost IQ. Consider the large 2022 study that followed nearly 10,000 U.S. children aged 9–10 and measured their cognitive abilities two years later. After controlling for genetics and socioeconomic factors, researchers found that kids...
Friendship doesn’t look the same as it did a generation ago. For today’s kids, social connection flows fluidly between offline and online spaces. A friend might be someone they sit next to at school. A friend might be someone they build with in Minecraft. Or that friend might...
"Emotional parenting" might sound like a new trend, but it’s deeply rooted in what developmental science has long supported: children thrive when they feel seen, heard, and guided. While the phrase itself isn’t a formal parenting style, the skills it describes, such as validation, co-regulation, and...
Summer can feel like a season of endless possibility. It can also be filled with too many moments of, “I’m bored!” When used with intention, screen time activities can be a great way to support kids in the summer, to help them curb their summer boredom, build skills, and...
Parents often carry guilt about screen time, particularly when it is used as a temporary distraction tool. But as digital parents, screens are not just a single-use tool, or a “special occasion” treat, or a “threat” to the global health and well-being of our children. If you want to be...
Empathy is a skill that grows through practice. Kids develop this skill by interacting with many different kinds of people, such as those from diverse backgrounds, with varied perspectives, and in various roles. One way to encounter new people, perspectives, and roles is through books, movies, and TV shows, as...
Screens are often seen as “less than.” A less valuable use of our time. Facilitating less valuable relationships. Even less valuable learning. For whatever reason, screen-based activities are often treated as both separate from and “less than” everything else. If it happens on a screen, it is somehow less “real...