MyDigitalFamily announced today a second edition of its acclaimed guidebook, “Kids, Parents & Technology: A Guide for Young Families”. This book offers the first and only child- and family-centered total approach to home consumption of all digital media written by a distinguished and credible expert. It is unique in providing a positive and hopeful orientation to technology to parents, grandparents, librarians, educators, and other child care professionals, and although it covers safety, it treats the subjects as a family issue. The author has been termed by some the “Dr. Spock of kids and technology,” referring to the famed pediatrician who guided generations of parents raise kids.
“Technology is evolving faster than our ability to use it in healthy ways. After over a decade of increasing and chaotic media use by kids, there is little evidence of clear benefits from recent studies by the Pew and Kaiser Family Foundations and increasing evidence of harm not prevented by the piecemeal, unfocussed approach of most parents. It is the Wild West out there. Kids are consuming junk media as they do junk food,” according to Dr. Eitan Schwarz, the author and a Chicago child psychiatrist on the faculty of Northwestern University with almost forty years of experience treating kids and families.
“Parents can and must learn how to make healthy media consumption part of normal family life beginning in early childhood. The only reason to have technology at home is to improve family life and child development. Otherwise, kids are at risk for harm. The time is now for all parents to take this matter seriously and make theirs a healthy digital family. Things are moving fast, and parents have no time to waste,” according to Dr. S. “Being a parent today requires planning and organizing healthy media lives for kids. All parents must now become confident and take charge — here they have the guidance they need.”
The book also includes a section for therapists about using digital media, including MP3, social networking sites, and the Internet, in play therapy, based on the author’s research and thoughtful essays about future applications of technology in early childhood.
“Self-publishing is a fortunate adventure that happily brings more opportunities than hazards…and has made it possible to bring out this transformed version quickly… While the First Edition contained pretty much all of my basic innovations, it was, after all, an instruction ‘manual’, a bit rough around the edges. Nevertheless, it has been acclaimed by my colleagues, librarians, and – best of all – parents.” With improved appearance, editing, and formatting, the manual has blossomed into a more refined book, now termed ‘guide’. Also, one new feature is a simple, step by step method for parents to actually make a portal for the young child using only a word processor. As before, updated endnotes are kept online
MyDigitalFamily Launches Second Edition of Trailblazing Technology Guide for Families and Children
MyDigitalFamily announced today a second edition of its acclaimed guidebook, “Kids, Parents & Technology: A Guide for Young Families”. This book offers the first and only child- and family-centered total approach to home consumption of all digital media written by a distinguished and credible expert. It is unique in providing a positive and hopeful orientation to technology to parents, grandparents, librarians, educators, and other child care professionals, and although it covers safety, it treats the subjects as a family issue. The author has been termed by some the “Dr. Spock of kids and technology,” referring to the famed pediatrician who guided generations of parents raise kids.
“Technology is evolving faster than our ability to use it in healthy ways. After over a decade of increasing and chaotic media use by kids, there is little evidence of clear benefits from recent studies by the Pew and Kaiser Family Foundations and increasing evidence of harm not prevented by the piecemeal, unfocussed approach of most parents. It is the Wild West out there. Kids are consuming junk media as they do junk food,” according to Dr. Eitan Schwarz, the author and a Chicago child psychiatrist on the faculty of Northwestern University with almost forty years of experience treating kids and families.
“Parents can and must learn how to make healthy media consumption part of normal family life beginning in early childhood. The only reason to have technology at home is to improve family life and child development. Otherwise, kids are at risk for harm. The time is now for all parents to take this matter seriously and make theirs a healthy digital family. Things are moving fast, and parents have no time to waste,” according to Dr. S. “Being a parent today requires planning and organizing healthy media lives for kids. All parents must now become confident and take charge — here they have the guidance they need.”
The book also includes a section for therapists about using digital media, including MP3, social networking sites, and the Internet, in play therapy, based on the author’s research and thoughtful essays about future applications of technology in early childhood.
“Self-publishing is a fortunate adventure that happily brings more opportunities than hazards…and has made it possible to bring out this transformed version quickly… While the First Edition contained pretty much all of my basic innovations, it was, after all, an instruction ‘manual’, a bit rough around the edges. Nevertheless, it has been acclaimed by my colleagues, librarians, and – best of all – parents.” With improved appearance, editing, and formatting, the manual has blossomed into a more refined book, now termed ‘guide’. Also, one new feature is a simple, step by step method for parents to actually make a portal for the young child using only a word processor. As before, updated endnotes are kept online