Building Healthy Media Habits with the Family Math — Play & Learn App

Navigating media and technology can be a challenging topic for families with young children in our digital world. At PBS SoCal, we embrace a developmentally appropriate approach to media and leveraging it as a safe and effective learning tool for young children. In addition to considering screen time, we recommend taking into account the content (what’s on screen), the context (when and why it’s being used) and the needs of every child for media use.

Our Family Math — Play & Learn app has been thoughtfully designed to foster healthy media habits and social emotional learning practices for young learners. Learn more about our recommendations for digital media use and ways your family can joyfully implement them together.

Best practices for screen time

• Co-view and co-play: Watch and play with your child as much as possible, looking for ways to interact with the media together. This can look like asking questions and describing what is happening on screen. Learn more about our Family Math — Play & Learn app’s co-view and co-play features.
• Establish family guidelines:
  
  • Manage access to devices and content; turn off autoplay where you can.
  • Turn off screens at least an hour before bedtime to avoid sleep disruption.
  • Strive for screen-free mealtimes.
  • Limit your own screen time when with your child.
  • Avoid screens as a way to comfort your child or regulate their emotions.
• Select high-quality content. A few factors to consider:
  
  • Is there a learning goal or story as part of the screen experience?
  • Is there lots of extra interactivity that doesn’t relate to learning? A lot of content is designed to “keep eyeballs on screens.” The best media inspires your child to go and do something off-screen!
  • Is my child actively involved? Are they really thinking about participating in the content? Kids will enjoy rewatching content. But try to periodically offer them something new, and more challenging.
  • Is the content social? Does this experience encourage my child to talk about or respond? Does this experience encourage my child to interact with me?

Try it on the App

With the Family Math — Play & Learn app, we strive to foster conversation and reflection around families’ digital media use. Some unique features built into our learning experiences include:

• Co-view and co-play tips: Co-viewing and co-playing is about a shared learning experience between adults and children. Throughout the app, you'll see information buttons offering learning objectives, conversation prompts and additional activities for co-viewing and co-playing.
  

  

• Screen break timer: Grown-ups have the option to set a timer that limits the user's screen time up to 60 minutes at a time. When the timer goes off, little ones are encouraged to stretch, drink some water, try to go potty or simply put down their screen for 5 minutes. This feature models for children (and their adults) things they can do during a screen break. The timer includes a visual cue to help little ones understand that a break is coming.
  

  

• Brain breaks: Short videos can be found throughout our themed collections to encourage users to wiggle, stretch, take deep breaths or go on fun math missions. These breaks give families an opportunity to reflect on their use of screen time and offers ways to extend their digital experiences into real-world applications.
  

  

Download the Family Math — Play & Learn app, now available on the Apple Store and Google Play, to start building your family's healthy media habits today.