I am an integrative child psychiatrist with a special focus on how screen-time detunes the nervous system, causing issues with sleep, mood, focus, and behavior. In fact, technology use is the most underestimated influence of our time; it causes problems whose connections aren’t always obvious, leads to misdiagnosis and overmedication, and wastes resources. I am passionate about helping children and families methodically reverse these changes using screen fast protocols that provide dramatic improvements in functioning and well-being. I speak regularly to parents’ groups, schools, and health providers, and my work has been featured on such outlets as NPR, CNN, NBC Nightly News, Psychology Today, and Good Morning America.
I wrote
Reset Your Child's Brain: A Four-Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades, and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen
I found myself wanting to stand up and applaud while reading this book. The description of what a kid really does on a typical day at school is alone worth the purchase (and will make you laugh... and then heave a deep sigh.) But more importantly, these two teachers outline the pitfalls our digitally-driven world has created in terms of education, deep thinking, social responsibility, and ability to problem solve. As someone who has done a lot of research into the “screens in school” topic, I found this book to be thorough and clear, and written with enough humor to make a tough topic palatable.
Over the past decade, educational instruction has become increasingly digitized as districts rush to dole out laptops and iPads to every student. Yet the most important question, “Is this what is best for students?” is glossed over. Veteran teachers Joe Clement and Matt Miles have seen firsthand how damaging technology overuse and misuse has been to our kids. On a mission to educate and empower parents, they show how screen saturation at home and school has created a wide range of cognitive and social deficits in our young people. They lift the veil on what’s really going on in schools:…
Discussing the negative impacts of screen time (and its close cousin, sedentariness) can feel overwhelming. In contrast, discovering ways to make the brain stronger is empowering. In this startling book, Dr. Ratey explores exercise’s dramatic impact on the brain and shows how it can not only improve cognitive functioning but actually make the brain bigger and more connected. While as a psychiatrist I have long-prescribed exercise to improve depression, anxiety, and sleep, after reading Spark I had a newfound respect and awe for not just the power of exercise but for the plasticity of the brain itself. This book gives new hope to those who have or work with kids with neuropsychiatric conditions or who are struggling, stuck, or otherwise disadvantaged.
Exercise is not only good for the body: it can transform your mind too. This new scientific revolution will teach you how to boost brain cells, protect yourself against mental illness and dementia, and ensure success in exams and the workplace.
We all know that exercise is good for the body. But did you know that it can transform your mind? This new scientific revolution will teach you how to boost brain cells, protect yourself against mental illness and dementia, and ensure success in exams and the workplace.
Follow the SPARK! training regimen and build your brain to its peak…
Written by a pediatric occupational therapist, this book offers unique insight into how screen-based technology acts as a physical restraint which undermines, fragments, and disorganizes various systems, resulting in delays and acting out. Rowan dives deep, and her concepts and explanations have informed my work greatly. Some critical points include her explanations of how video games increase visual distractibility, how not practicing hand-printing affects the ability to read, and how core strength influences the ability to learn.
Children now use an average 8 hours per day of entertainment technology with profound impact on their physical, mental, social and academic development. One third of North American children enter school developmentally delayed, and child obesity is now a national epidemic. One in six children has a diagnosed mental illness, with child aggression and unmanageable behaviour increasingly the norm. One in six children cannot pay attention and require learning assistance. With research now showing causal links between physical, mental, social and academic disorders in children who overuse technology, schools and homes continue to escalate unrestricted use. Virtual Child offers parents,…
This gem of a book presents the argument that parents should consider delaying giving their children smartphones until the child becomes an adult and has attained certain life skills. A mother of four, former nurse, and founder of ScreenStrong, author Melanie Hempe lived through digital addiction in her own family and is passionate about helping other families avoid her “mistakes”. At the same time she is well-versed in the current scientific literature across a broad array of tech-related topics, and she successfully “walks the talk”: her teens abstain from gaming/social media/smartphone use, but they are far from being socially ostracized - a common fear amongst parents.
Parenting in the digital age is no easy task. Yet the answers may be closer and simpler than you think. RN by trade and mother of four, Melanie Hempe offers every parent the real solution to the smartphone dilemma. With scientific research on her side, Hempe offers a fresh perspective and innovative approach on the addictive role smartphones play in the lives of our children. Drawing on her own family's digital struggles and on her work with hundreds of families over the last seven years, Hempe’s advice empowers parents to go far beyond defining the problem to experiencing life-changing results.…
This book will make you a little uneasy; some of the descriptions and scenarios are downright disturbing. Yet the information is necessary to navigate parenting in today’s world. I felt a strange form of validation reading this work, as I’m all too aware of these issues (bullying, kids feeling ignored, sexting, lack of empathy, etc), but when I bring them up, parents often respond that I have a skewed perspective. But as Dr. Steiner Adaire points out, the kids themselves say “parents are clueless” about their kids’ digital lives. Her writing is beautiful, and her advice about helping kids think critically about online behavior is second to none.
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…
Increasing numbers of parents grapple with children who are acting out without obvious reason. Revved up and irritable, many of these children are diagnosed with ADHD, bipolar illness, autism, tics, or other disorders but don’t respond well to treatment. Based on emerging scientific research and extensive clinical experience, Dr. Dunckley argues that the frequent underlying cause is overstimulation of the nervous system from too much screen time, wreaking havoc on brain chemistry, the body clock, stress hormones, and more.
This book offers a simple intervention that can produce a life-changing shift in brain function. Dr. Dunckley provides hope for parents who feel that their child has been misdiagnosed or inappropriately medicated, by presenting an alternative explanation for their child’s difficulties and a concrete plan for treating them.
The Curiosity Cycle is a book for parents and educators who want to teach their children to be active explorers of the world. Learning through curiosity leads to adaptive thinking because your child is continually trying to improve his or her understanding of the world, and new facts and ideas become embedded in the knowledge that your child already has. Curiosity will also enrich your child's life because curiosity-based learning is internally directed and intrinsically motivated.
Our world is rapidly changing, and our children must be able to filter the cacophony of voices in cyberspace to stay true to their…
The Curiosity Cycle: Preparing Your Child for the Ongoing Technological Explosion
Through curiosity, children carve out concepts from the environment that they assemble into models to describe the world. Children then test those models to see how well they predict what they observe, and they use the results from those experiments to form new concepts and models---leading to the next round of the curiosity cycle. However, our children are more than passive observers. They are an embodied part of the world and have brains that are predisposed to see the environment in particular ways. To get the most from their curiosity, children must build models about the intentions of those around…
