For many parents and caregivers, the stunning advances of modern digital and wireless technologies have forever changed the familiar media that shaped our youth.

Board games have been supplanted by single- and multi-player video games; the landline telephone is being replaced by the cell phone and instant messaging technologies; and, of course, the Internet offers up seemingly endless resources for socializing, entertaining, and educating children and adults of all ages and stages.

The term media has typically referred to newspapers, magazines, billboards, radio, film, and television. With new digital technologies, media now refers to an ever-increasing array of wired and wireless devices and applications.

Young children’s homes and lives are media rich. Most young children (up to 6 years) live in homes with access to at least three televisions, radio, VCR/DVD, CD/tape player, cable or satellite service, and/or a computer with Internet access. Most young children have a radio, CD/tape player, TV, and/or VCR/DVD player in their bedroom. In a typical day, most young children listen to music and watch TV and/or videos/DVDs.

Even the youngest children are active users of media—expressing preferences for media use and initiating media-based activities. Most young children (ages 0 to 3) have turned on the TV by themselves, asked for a particular TV show or channel, and/or changed channels with the remote control. By the time they are a little older (ages 4 to 6), most children have also put in videos/DVDs by themselves, used a computer on a parent’s lap, and many older children (ages 4 to 6) have even turned on the computer and/or used it all by themselves. The undeniable truth is that our children, from the earliest ages, are immersed in and actively using increasingly diverse media.

Given that children develop so dramatically in the early years, this trend has some concerned that this sort of media use could have an especially significant impact. Research shows that, depending on a variety of factors such as the content of the media program, the length of exposure, and the context for its viewing, media exposure and use can have positive and negative effects on individuals’ learning, behavior, and health.

Effects of media on child development
We know that young children can benefit from developmentally appropriate media use. While leading researchers admit they are just beginning to understand the full extent and nature of the issue emerging research strongly suggests that—when used appropriately—media can benefit children.

For instance, children’s television programs with academic and pro-social messages have been linked to better preparation for and performance in school and increases in altruistic behavior. Educational software programs targeted to 3 to 6 year old children have been associated with improvements in a wide range of academic skills, including learning to read and write.

More recently, even electronic gaming has come to the attention of serious researchers, who recognize the value of the broad range of physical and cognitive skills required to play them successfully.

In short, the media landscape is indeed changing. While it is absolutely appropriate for parents and child advocates to raise questions about the exposure of young children to media, especially given how prominent media are in their young lives, there are many reasons to believe that media, used appropriately, can help parents guide their children through critical learning and developmental milestones.

How then can parents work to ensure that they harness the best of media for their children? What do they need to know and do?

It seems entirely likely that computers, the Internet, video games, interactive toys, and other digital media will soon join television on equal footing as primary media in our children’s lives Together with our children, we need to become more conscious of the media in our lives, their meanings for us, and how they affect us.

Developing a family media use strategy

In developing a family media use strategy, parents and caregivers should:

• Identify your current family media practices • Consider the unique stages and needs of your children • Educate yourself about the children’s media landscape • Select media for your family with purpose • Encourage active, creative, and open-ended use of media • Teach your children media literacy skills

• Identify your current family media practices

While many homes with young children could be considered media rich, the media preferences and uses of individual family members won’t necessarily be the same. To determine your family’s preference, you should also ask yourself the following:

• How does each person in the family currently use media?
• Where in the house are media (such as TVs and computers) located?
• Does one parent prefer to watch television, while the other is online?
• Do older children in your family prefer to use media in different ways than younger children?
• Who in the house makes decisions about which media are selected, what programs are watched, what computer will be purchased?
• What kinds of media do family members use in settings outside the house (such as school, friends’ houses, childcare, work, etc.)?
• What aspects of media use do family members enjoy?
• What would they like to be able to do with media?

• Consider the unique stages and needs of your children

You need to consider the unique stage and needs of your children. Each child is unique and grows at his/her own pace while progressing along general developmental stages. What is appropriate for your child is not necessarily going to be the same as what is appropriate for his or her peers and friends.
 
Indeed, the existing research, literature and guidelines agree that media activities within a child’s cognitive, physical, emotional, or social ability range are less likely to be frustrating or under- or overwhelming and that those experiences therefore are more likely to result in positive outcomes.

Teachers and school guidance counselors can make an important contribution to the family media use plan by communicating to parents which developmental cues to look for in children to help guide media selections.

Media can contribute to your child’s development, especially when such media are selected and used in ways that clearly support a child’s interests and abilities at a particular time. Thus, it is important to know your children as well as you can so that you can make decisions—or help them make decisions—that are appropriate to who they are at a particular time. For instance, do your young children appear easily distracted or upset by loud sounds or bright lights? What attracts their attention? What frustrates them? What sparks their curiosity? How do they like to play? Are your children attracted to more structured and sequenced activities? How well do your children understand and follow rules in games? How do your children react when they have difficulty operating, say, an interactive toy? Do your children show interest in using the computer? Here again, teachers can be helpful in offering their own observations about an individual child’s development status based upon classroom interactions.

• Educate yourself about the children’s media landscape

Every few months, go online or pay a visit to the local toy or electronics store and just browse. Stay abreast of trends in educational software and websites by looking at product reviews and parenting tips in parenting and electronics magazines, websites, and newsletters. There are hundreds of software and game titles beyond those on the best-seller list that may spark your child’s interests. Indeed, it seems as if nearly every day there are new media products and services becoming available.

• Select media for your family with purpose

On any given day, not every type of media will be right for every child: We may find certain media content inappropriate for our children or too advanced for them to understand and certain media devices (such as computers and games systems) too confusing or frustrating to use.

Indeed, one of the hardest things parents do is select or help select media for their child’s use. Asking the following questions may help guide your thinking about whether and how particular media can support your child’s growth and development:

• Does it match your child’s physical skill and comprehension level?
• More specifically, is the medium appropriate for your particular child?
• Does it provide information and learning experiences that are meaningful, relevant, and respectful of whom she is along with the people and cultures that surround her?
• Is the medium user directed (active or interactive) so that your child canuse it in various ways, direct its use, and use it for imaginative play?
• Does it respond to your child or provide feedback?
• Does the medium engage your child, or does it seem to be confusing or frustrating?

While some types of media are more amendable to offering users choices and control— and are inherently more interactive—it is how media are used that ultimately determines their value.

As a parent, you can help your children to use media actively to create picture books, digital photo albums, home movies, and websites. Encourage your children to pursue their curiosities and interests across a range of media, such as newspapers, television, the Internet, CD-ROMs, and radio.

Ask your children questions about their experience of the media:

• What did they think of a new media experience?
• How did they feel?
• Were their first impressions accurate?
• Is this new experience worth repeating or recommending?

• Teach your children media literacy skills

Media literacy has many definitions. At its core, however, media literacy involves the ability to access, understand, analyze, evaluate and create messages in a wide range of media. Media literacy can help parents and children think more deeply about the media and the ways they can be used. Developing media literacy is a process of education.

Scholars, media industry members, parents, teachers, and others have worked to create resources and courses to help people become media literate. Of course, in order to encourage media literacy among children, the adults in their lives need information and strategies for selecting and using media that can help them guide themselves and their children.

Luckily, such resources do exist and are available from media literacy, child development, parenting, and progressive media organizations. In addition, there are many resources created especially for children.

Of course, because society and technology continue to change, keeping up with new developments is an important aspect of media literacy. Children need media literacy skills so they can become savvy consumers and producers of media. Indeed, the need for these skills increases in importance as children grow older and become more independent, if for no other reason than the fact that many children spend time in a variety of settings outside the home on a regular basis (such as at friends’ or other relatives’ houses, school, childcare, etc.) where they are likely exposed to media content and messages that have not been pre-screened or approved by you.

Media literacy skills often take the form of questioning:

• What did you like (or dislike) about the show/movie/game or website?
• Did it seem real to you?
• Why or why not?
• What did you learn?
• If you wrote the script/made the toy/programmed the game, what would you make different? Why?
• How were problems solved in the program or game?
• Was that realistic?
• Why or why not?
• How would you have solved the problem?
• Can you direct it to do things that are different from this main purpose?
• If it is intended to be used by only one person, can it be used by two or more people, or vice versa?

It is never too early to begin to teach your children about media literacy and to help them develop independent critical media selection, viewing, and playing skills. Given the dramatic changes in the children’s media landscape, it is important for parents and caregivers to begin to consider more broadly the influence of their family media practices on their young children.

Consistently employed, such a strategy will help ensure that parents and their children become savvier consumers of media—understanding how to better select media and media content and harness them in developmentally appropriate ways.