Children's digital media can now be characterized as an environment or space in which children interact with others (e.g., via videochat), learn new concepts (e.g., via educational content), or play and explore (e.g., through games and browsers). As such, it is important for caregivers, researchers, and policymakers to evaluate digital design in…

Ellen Wartella, PhD, a leading scholar of the role of media in children's development, responds to questions about the role of media in the lives of very young children. She discusses how technology is having an impact on parents and children and provides some context for how parents and caregivers can make informed decisions about using media…

This book brings together a group of extraordinary educators and scholars who offer important insights about what we can do to defend childhood from societal challenges. The authors explain new findings from neuroscience and psychology, as well as emerging knowledge about the impact on child development of cultural and linguistic diversity,…

Social and economic changes affect children indirectly, through the modifications they engender in parental behavior. No-fault divorce laws, for example, made divorce easier and led to a substantial increase in the number of separated families. In contrast to social and economic change, technological change can impact children directly without…

The author invited some of his friends to give their views regarding key trends that will impact the early childhood world in the coming years. Chip Donohue, Director of Distance Learning, Erikson Institute, Chicago, Illinois, observed that the rapid pace of technology development and deployment has already changed, and will continue to change,…

Traditionally, we think of play as children's work, and this work is often considered trivial and meaningless. However, when the definition of play is explored, its multiple meanings encourage us to understand play as an important vehicle for the propulsion of society. Play has become a hot topic in households and classrooms and for political…

This article describes a developmental systems approach to applied developmental science (ADS), which provides a framework to design and evaluate technology-rich programs that promote positive development by emphasizing the strengths and assets of young people instead of focusing on diminishing or preventing risk-taking behaviors. Until now, most…

Concern about children and the Internet is the latest in a ritual cycle of moral panics surrounding new technologies. Such panics often focus on children and are related to adult anxieties surrounding the transgression of boundaries including those between adult/child, private/public, and work/leisure. They are also founded on technological…