The Nancy Fairfax Churchill Fellowship to enhance school and family awareness of young children's developmental needs in online environments

This fellowship examined recent research, policy and practice to identify the positive and negative influences of technology use on children’s and adolescents’ cognitive, emotional and social development. I met with the leading USA researchers, policy makers and practitioners who are investigating the impact of numerous forms of digital communication technology: 1) On different age groups of children such as the impact of technology use on the brain development in early childhood 2) On different aspects of child development, e.g. emotional wellbeing, sleep, social interactions, exercise, posture, learning 3) To determine the most effective practices and policies to enhance positive developmental outcomes and minimise harmful effects. The findings from my fellowship meetings are organised using a developmental perspective (from birth to age 2, pre-school: 3-5 years, primary school: 5-11 years, and adolescence: 12- 18 years) and addresses children’s and young people’s strengths, needs and risks. My fellowship meetings confirmed that most American children, like Australian children are growing up in homes, schools and communities with ready access to a variety of mobile devices, most with access to the Internet. Researchers at the University of Michigan and others found that new technologies and games are frequently marketed at children and young people, and that adolescents are the most pervasive users of social media platforms (ABS, 2016; Piwek & Joinson, 2016; Radesky, Schumacher, & Zuckerman, 2015; Villanti et al., 2017). Researchers concurred that these technologies have advanced so rapidly that research into their impact on children’s development, health and wellbeing has not been able to keep up, and that evidence to reduce negative and enhance positive attributes of digital device use, particularly for young children, is currently limited (Holloway et al 2013). There was also much agreement that research is urgently needed to understand how to promote healthy digital device use for children of all ages, to provide parents, schools and practitioners with evidence-based guidelines that can reduce negative outcomes. My report offers a range of recommendations.