Parenting in the Age of Screens, Social Media, & Gaming

Parents will learn why their kids find online experience so important to today’s childhood and young adult experience. Caregivers and parents will learn the signs of too much screen time and glean tips for how to craft a family screen time plan that suits their family’s needs. Understanding the unique issues that adoptive, foster, or kinship families encounter around internet use and social media will help parents set reasonable expectations of new or older children who join the family. Parents will also learn how to handle contact between the child and the birth family to support the child’s growing identity while still keeping the child safe and prioritizing an open relationship of trust.

Parents will leave the support group with a better understanding of the following topics.

• The warning signs for when too much screen time is impacting a child’s health or development.
• The basics of a family screen time plan, including how to accommodate adoptive, foster, or kinship kids who have had different experiences with limits and boundaries than the children already in the home.
• Communication strategies to handle contact with the birth family and support the child’s growing sense of self.

*This curriculum includes a video, facilitator guide, and handouts.