At __maternity Care Coalition, we assist mothers through the earliest stages of their children’s development. But what happens when parents are not their child’s only teacher, when children spend hours learning—and developing—in front of a screen?
Lisa Guernsey, Director of the New America Foundation’s Early Education Initiative and mother of two daughters, wants parents to tune-in to how screen time affects childhood development. She researched with cognitive scientists, media analysts and families in their homes.
“I was really trying to understand the world through my children’s eyes,” Guernsey said. “But I was also really trying to get at how we as human beings have come to understand the world through the screen. This thing, the screen, it has some real power over us, it has a hold on us.”
In her TEDx talk, Guernsey emphasizes the importance of interaction on screen, that active learning comes from engagement, not merely watching.
“We know from the brain science that children learn from a conversation—even at younger ages before they even can learn to talk. They learn by having a back and forth interaction with someone.”
Check out Lisa Guernsey’s TEDx Talk by clicking the link below: