Screen time and homework can be a real problem. Our children often need screens to do their homework and then are automatically vulnerable to distraction when they need concentration the most. Famous research out of Stanford showed that when people multitask they feel as if they are doing better and better at the different tasks but actually they are doing worse and worse on all of them.
I am starting to have talks now with my kids about how are they going to manage homework—both being organized around it and staying focused. Staying focused is so important because their brains are developing these critical functions during these teen years. When I interviewed Dimitri Christakis, MD at Seattle Children’s Hospital, for Screenagers, he said that successfully building executive function skills are measured not just by staying on tasks we find interesting, but by actually learning how to stay on tasks that we find challenging or tedious.
For this week's Tech Talk Tuesday I have some conversation starters about how we can work with our kids to find ways to help them get organized and manage homework.
Photo by Mark Bowden/iStock / Getty Images
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
Screen time and homework can be a real problem. Our children often need screens to do their homework and then are automatically vulnerable to distraction when they need concentration the most. Famous research out of Stanford showed that when people multitask they feel as if they are doing better and better at the different tasks but actually they are doing worse and worse on all of them.
I am starting to have talks now with my kids about how are they going to manage homework—both being organized around it and staying focused. Staying focused is so important because their brains are developing these critical functions during these teen years. When I interviewed Dimitri Christakis, MD at Seattle Children’s Hospital, for Screenagers, he said that successfully building executive function skills are measured not just by staying on tasks we find interesting, but by actually learning how to stay on tasks that we find challenging or tedious.
For this week's Tech Talk Tuesday I have some conversation starters about how we can work with our kids to find ways to help them get organized and manage homework.
Photo by Mark Bowden/iStock / Getty Images
As well as our weekly blog, we publish videos like this one every week on the Screenagers YouTube channel
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