Screen Smarts for Kids
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
i started
the first children’s film festival in
the americas
and i worked with half a million
children over 30 plus years
i watched 1 000 kids films
every year in fact i’m pretty sure i
logged 16 000
viewing hours of children’s media but
about
20 years ago two pediatricians from the
american academy of pediatrics
came to one of my festivals they were
fascinated
by how i spoke to children before the
screening
and one of them said you’re changing
brain chemistry
around screen time well that changed
everything for me so i left my festivals
and i
started an organization to help
schools and parents implement what i had
learned
over 30 plus years
of watching screens with kids and more
importantly
listening to them talk
but here’s what we’re still up against
sixteen hundred hours a year with
screens and now
more needed for remote viewing thousands
of studies
linking screen time with obesity
bullying elevated aggression early porn
exposure
it’s a laundry list of everything we
don’t
want for our kids what i
learned over all my years working with
children’s festivals
is what we all need to do for
and with our children focus
on what to do before the screen
goes on you didn’t send your child to
the playground or to preschool
without some positive guidelines when it
comes to digital devices
to computers tablets smartphones
same rules the same values and courtesy
and kindness and caring
that we use in our families apply
to the way we use digital devices
so what i did was to create a program
that took everything i’d learned and i
brought it to schools
for teachers to train students and i
wrote a book
so parents could use these techniques at
home
in all my programs we prime
children’s minds before they start using
electronic screens
by doing this we are helping children to
be
mindful instead of mindless users
of technology we call it turning on the
mind before
turning on the screen so what do we do
there are two parts to the approach the
kinesthetic
physical part and the intellectual
academic part
you see children need to use their
physical bodies and
energy to learn and here’s why there’s a
lot of research
that shows physical exercise and
activity build brain function so
exercise is brain food you move more
you learn better so i created
a series of fun fast brain body
exercises
and micro movements that teachers and
parents
and kids can do anywhere
we always start with priming the mind
to turbo charge e-learning we tell kids
we’re going to use our energy and our
concentration to keep our minds awake
then we might pick up micro movements
isolation exercises
there’s an exercise called pallet
shell which is like yoga for the fingers
these kinesthetic physical parts of the
program
boost self-regulation and classroom
engagement
in only 30 to 60 seconds parents and
teachers can then go
right back to the lesson they’ve planned
these are
timely simple strategies that turn
remote
or real classrooms into dynamic learning
environments
the second part of the program is
intellectual
we take that elevated energy and focus
and use it to build social emotional and
academic learning
in an inquiry-based child-centered
approach
what we do is teach literacy emotional
intelligence and
higher order thinking through close
analysis of short story based
videos using a technique that we call
pause and question or p and q when we
pause
a video we’ll ask questions like
what do you think that character is
feeling right now
or is there any clue on that screen
that might tell you what the character
is feeling
so during pause and question we are
drilling down
into how children watch and helping them
understand what they’re feeling and
thinking
while they’re using technology when you
put
these two engines together the
kinesthetic brain body
part and the academic social emotional
learning part
you get true accelerated learning
and i know because i feel tested this
curriculum
for nine years with thousands of
children
in some of the most challenged schools
in chicago
i worked in schools where 100 percent of
kids
lived in families with incomes at the
federal poverty line
where 20 of children in a single
classroom are on the autism spectrum
or 40 languages were spoken among the
student body
the results never failed to astonish
in 2014 one principle came to
four sessions of the 12-week program
principles are busy so i asked her what
are you doing here i mean don’t you have
to run the school
she said it’s addictive
seeing how much these children are
learning
in such a short period of time
year after year the results
were so phenomenal that i can now say
we can close the achievement gap
using healthy tech habits to accelerate
learning
you see we’re just building on something
kids already love
they love screens they love media and if
we give them
a chance they love talking and thinking
about the ideas they have while they’re
using digital devices and here’s
why that’s so important first because it
empowers children
and gives them the feeling that what
they’re saying
matters and second because when children
talk about audio visual content and
make critical thinking connections they
are
learning to process that content
and they’re building better media
filters
ms frankie betts who was one of the most
loving and perceptive of the pre-k
teachers with whom we worked
said this program teaches children
to focus and think well
mizbetz inspired me because she echoed
anthropologist margaret mead who said
don’t
teach children what to think teach them
how to think and that is the greatest
gift we can give our children inspiring
them to love thinking and learning
you