Smart Screens
Smart Screen Time
At Trail Wind we encourage creative, educational and active time over screen time. We are having a summer challenge to SAVOR YOUR SUMMER that allows students to track their active and reading time to earn prizes when they return to school in August. Contact natalieh.chandler@boiseschools.org if you’d like more info.
Check out a nation wide smart phone pledge to keep our children children as long as possible.
We’ve also put together links to some of the research on this topic. Let’s grow these brains and bodies!
Dear Trail Wind families,
We enjoy working with your children at school each day. Our goal is to help them develop, academically, socially and emotionally. Youth anxiety has increased rapidly in recent years with strong research linking a large part of this increase to the use of smartphones in younger children. An article in The Atlantic stated “The environment in which kids grow up today is hostile to human development” and calls on us to “end the phone-based childhood now.” We’ve also seen first hand the impact of combining developing impulse control with early introduction of smartphones. Below, I listed several sources if you’d like to look more into the research.
When to purchase a phone is a personal/family decision. For those wanting more support holding off on a smartphone for your child, we wanted to let you know about the Wait Until 8th Pledge – a parent run program encouraging families to wait to give smartphones to children until after 8th grade. It allows like-minded parents to work together to support students. This pledge only targets smartphones and still maintains the validity of watches with tracking or phones used just for family communication, without any social media apps. TAKE THE PLEDGE NOW
We believe there are benefits to mental and social health when smartphone usage is delayed. If you have any ideas, concerns or questions, please reach out to Natalie Chandler natalieh.chandler@boiseschools.org
The Today Show- Effects of screens on childhood development
age specific screen time guidelines
Encouragment for a smart phone free childhood
Explaination of the wait until 8th pledge