Reports reveal new concerns to our children plugging in: Kids may be robbed from learning face-to-face interaction jeopardizing empathy, social skills, communication as well as crucial family time. Research and solutions I shared on the TODAY Show. The unique challenges of parenting plugged-in kids Our children are called the “Net Generation,” and rightly so. After [...]

11 proven and surprising benefits of child-directed (aka unscheduled and spontaneous) play for our stressed-out, over-supervised kids. Okay folks, I’m concerned. Over the last few weeks I’ve been reviewing studies involving children and play. “Shocked” and “disturbed” are the two words that describe how I feel when reading those reports. Every study reaches one sad conclusion: [...]

A special report on the impact of technology on our children and advice for parenting our Generation Text kids in today’s digital world. Reality Check: The average 8 to 18 year old is now plugged in to some kind of digital device an average of 7 1/2 hours a day [Kaiser Family Foundation survey]. The [...]

It was an “interesting” week when it came to parenting stories. Findings from a Ohio State University study revealed how club membership may help reduce risky youth behavior. A new book out offers clues as to the crisis in youth empathy. A disturbing teen anti-semitic game in my own community is spurring outrage in the [...]

On Thursday Jan 21 on NBC’s TODAY I spoke withMeredith Vieira about a newly released report by The Kaiser Family Foundation on 2002 people ages 8 to 18 and their media use. I spent time reviewing the 130 plus page  report and admit that the findings are troubling. It found that kids media use has dramatically increased [...]