Screen Smart Growing Up In The Digital Age

Join the Screen Smart gang as they recall their extraordinary childhood adventures in the virtual world.Learn about the potential traps and dangers posed by the web and how to stay alert to the dangers that come from traversing an online world. Plus, fun activities contribute to the learning experience!Screen Smart is written by Alan Bay, as well as professors Wonsun Shin (University of Melbourne, Australia) and May O Lwin (Nanyang Technological University, Singapore). Both of the latter authors hold extensive research experience in youth, digital media, parental mediation, and marketing communications. Their academic book, Screen-obsessed: Parenting in the Digital Age, is the first book solely focusing on parental supervision of children's media use. Screen Smart is the child's accompaniment. It aims to educate children and teenagers on Internet safety and the pitfalls of being online.Each chapter focuses on a different theme (screen time management, screen addiction, cyber impersonation and bullying, advertisement awareness) and includes activities to engage and educate readers.The book also includes a Parent's Corner with further information and tips on how parents can effectively guide their offspring living in the multimedia environment. Germaine Tan (Senior Clinical Psychologist, Institute of Mental Health, Singapore) contributes an article.

As a practicing child psychiatrist and mother of three, Jodi Gold has a unique understanding of both the mind-boggling benefits and the serious downsides of technology. Dr. Gold weaves together scientific knowledge and everyday practical advice to help you foster your child's healthy relationship to technology, from birth to the teen years. You'll learn: *How much screen time is too much at different ages. *What your kids and teens are actually doing in all those hours online. *How technology affects social, emotional, and cognitive development. *Which apps and games build smarts and let creativity shine. *How your own media habits influence your children. *What you need to know about privacy concerns, cyberbullying, and other dangers. *Ways to set limits that the whole family can live with. Winner (Second Place)—American Journal of Nursing Book of the Year Award, Child Health Category

For parents who didn't grow up with smartphones but can't let go of them now, expert advice on raising kids in our constantly connected world Most kids get their first smartphone at the same time that they're experiencing major developmental changes. Making mistakes has always been a part of growing up, but how do parents help their kids navigate childhood and adolescence at a time when social media has the potential to magnify the consequences of those mistakes? Rather than spend all their time worrying about the worst-case scenario, readers get a bigger-picture understanding of their kids' digital landscape. Drawing on research and interviews with educators, psychologists, and kids themselves, Raising a Screen-Smart Kid offers practical advice on how parents can help their kids avoid the pitfalls and reap the benefits of the digital age by: using social media to enhance connection with friends and family, instead of following strangers and celebrities, which is a predictor of loneliness and depression finding online support and community for conditions such as depression and eating disorders, while avoiding potential triggers such as #Thinspiration Pinterest boards learning and developing life skills through technology--for example, by problem-solving in online games--while avoiding inappropriate content Written by a public health expert and the creator of the popular blog Rants from Mommyland, this book shows parents how to help their kids navigate friendships, bullying, dating, self-esteem, and more online.

A Harvard-trained psychiatrist and mom of 3 gives parents and educators the tech habits children need to achieve their full potential--and a 6-step plan to put them into action. You may have picked up on some warning signs: The more your 9-year-old son plays video games, the more distracted and irritable he becomes. Or maybe comparing her life to others on social media is leaving your teenaged daughter feeling down. Then there are the questions that are always looming: Should I limit screen time? Should I give my 11-year-old an iPhone? The Tech Solution is a to-the-point resource for parents and educators who want the best approach for raising kids in our digital world. It outlines all you need to know about the short-term and potential long-term consequences of tech use. Dr. Kang simplifies cutting edge neuroscience to reveal a new understanding around how we metabolize experiences with technology that will lay the foundation for lasting success. On top of that, she offers practical advice for tackling specific concerns in the classroom or at home, whether it's possible tech addiction, anxiety, cyberbullying, or loneliness. With her 6-week 6-step plan for rebalancing your family's tech diet, Dr. Kang will help your child build healthy habits and make smart choices that will maximize the benefits of tech and minimize its risks. Use The Tech Solution to help your child avoid the pitfalls of today's digital world and to offer them guidance that will boost their brains and bodies, create meaningful connections, explore creative pursuits, and foster a sense of contribution and empowerment for many years to come.

Screenwise offers a realistic and optimistic perspective on how to thoughtfully guide kids in the digital age. Many parents feel that their kids are addicted, detached, or distracted because of their digital devices. Media expert Devorah Heitner, however, believes that technology offers huge potential to our children-if parents help them. Using the foundation of their own values and experiences, parents and educators can learn about the digital world to help set kids up for a lifetime of success in a world fueled by technology. Screenwise is a guide to understanding more about what it is like for children to grow up with technology, and to recognizing the special challenges-and advantages-that contemporary kids and teens experience thanks to this level of connection. In it, Heitner presents practical parenting "hacks": quick ideas that you can implement today that will help you understand and relate to your digital native. The book will empower parents to recognize that the wisdom that they have gained throughout their lives is a relevant and urgently needed supplement to their kid's digital savvy, and help them develop skills for managing the new challenges of parenting. Based on real-life stories from other parents and Heitner's wealth of knowledge on the subject, Screenwise teaches parents what they need to know in order to raise responsible digital citizens.

Trying to police and protect a child from screen time is unquestionably one of the most confusing and frustrating responsibilities of good parenting. It's a tough job being a 'media monitor' all the time. Technology is at the center of everything we do--TVs, smart phones, computers, and tablets are no longer luxuries, they are necessities for navigating life today. But technology can also be detrimental to growing minds, and parents must master the necessary skills to help their children not only survive in this digital world, but to actually thrive. Kids love smart phones, tablets, computers, TVs, anything that gives them screen time. They come by their dependence honestly--they learn it from us, the 'adults.' We've become a culture of screen addicts, and that's especially challenging for parents. But the solution is not found in constantly policing the time kids are glued to a screen or in protecting what they are being exposed to; it's found in how they are engaging and interacting with that screen. Nicole Dreiske, founder and director of the International Children's Media Center, is one of the most respected pioneers in the understanding and cultivation of new techniques for transforming the way kids view, use and engage in electronic screens. In The Upside of Digital Devices, recipient of The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval, she provides parents with simple, practical instructions as well as a variety of effective tools for creating meaningful moments and critical thinking skills that can mark a turning point in their children's lives and futures.

For parents who didn't grow up with smartphones but can't let go of them now, expert advice on raising kids in our constantly connected world Most kids get their first smartphone at the same time that they're experiencing major developmental changes. Making mistakes has always been a part of growing up, but how do parents help their kids navigate childhood and adolescence at a time when social media has the potential to magnify the consequences of those mistakes? Rather than spend all their time worrying about the worst-case scenario, readers get a bigger-picture understanding of their kids' digital landscape. Drawing on research and interviews with educators, psychologists, and kids themselves, Raising a Screen-Smart Kid offers practical advice on how parents can help their kids avoid the pitfalls and reap the benefits of the digital age by: • using social media to enhance connection with friends and family, instead of following strangers and celebrities, which is a predictor of loneliness and depression • finding online support and community for conditions such as depression and eating disorders, while avoiding potential triggers such as #Thinspiration Pinterest boards • learning and developing life skills through technology--for example, by problem-solving in online games--while avoiding inappropriate content Written by a public health expert and the creator of the popular blog Rants from Mommyland, this book shows parents how to help their kids navigate friendships, bullying, dating, self-esteem, and more online.

Wall Street Journal Best Nonfiction Pick; Publisher's Weekly Best Book of the Year Clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair takes an in-depth look at how the Internet and the digital revolution are profoundly changing childhood and family dynamics, and offers solutions parents can use to successfully shepherd their children through the technological wilderness. As the focus of the family has turned to the glow of the screen—children constantly texting their friends or going online to do homework; parents working online around the clock—everyday life is undergoing a massive transformation. Easy access to the Internet and social media has erased the boundaries that protect children from damaging exposure to excessive marketing and the unsavory aspects of adult culture. Parents often feel they are losing a meaningful connection with their children. Children are feeling lonely and alienated. The digital world is here to stay, but what are families losing with technology's gain? As renowned clinical psychologist Catherine Steiner-Adair explains, families are in crisis as they face this issue, and even more so than they realize. Not only do chronic tech distractions have deep and lasting effects but children also desperately need parents to provide what tech cannot: close, significant interactions with the adults in their lives. Drawing on real-life stories from her clinical work with children and parents and her consulting work with educators and experts across the country, Steiner-Adair offers insights and advice that can help parents achieve greater understanding, authority, and confidence as they engage with the tech revolution unfolding in their living rooms.