The case for letting your kids use screens

If they have any at all, kids should have their screen time limited.

That's the model most parents have been following, scared by news that technology makes kids lazy, moody and disinterested in the world around them.

But Sara DeWitt, vice president of PBS Kids Digital, says that there are lots of benefits to allowing your young children to play with devices.

My goal is that a child will be so excited about something that they saw or played with on a screen that they then want to take that outside and look for other things like this in the world.- Sara DeWitt

DeWitt spoke to 180 host Jim Brown about how parents can use devices to improve their child's learning. This interview has been condensed for clarity and length.

What do you think when you hear parents expressing concern about their children using screens?

Generally, it seems like they are overwhelmed by a panic. They are so worried that this is somehow harming their kids, but the truth is they don't know exactly how it is harming their kids, they can't really define it. They just feel like 'I've heard this is bad and therefore i need to avoid it'. I generally just want parents to relax about it a little bit and to think  more about the content of what's on these tools as opposed to just 'what is technology doing?'.

The isolation that you hear people worried about with screens, that typical picture of someone using a tablet, sitting alone with headphones on, not interacting with anyone else. How do you fix that?

This is where it's amazing how connected all of our screens are. At PBS Kids we did a series of trials where kids were playing a game on a tablet, so they were by themselves, and we have to be honest about this, there are moments when parents really just need some uninterrupted time like to get dinner ready or to take a shower, so that might be a time when they give a tablet to a three year old. Now because the screens are connected by Wi-Fi, what can happen then is the parent can get a text message on their own phone. So in our case, the message would say 'your child just matched 5 rhyming words, now ask him to play this game with you: Can you think of a word that rhymes with cat? Can you think of a word that rhymes with moon?'. And parents got so excited about this, this was so empowering to have an idea of something to play with at the dinner table and a conversation started with their kids.

And the truth is, kids this young, they feel like it's magic that their parents knew what they were playing on the tablet and then they want to talk to their parents about it. This age group loves to play games wit their parents. What we saw was that this was actually fostering more conversation between kids and parents and helping the parents recognize ways that they can talk to kids about their learning.

Are there things that children can get from screens that they can't get anywhere else?

There are definitely things screens can do that show kids things that they don't see in their regular world. There are things you can show on television or through an interactive that won't be something that a child sees right outside their door. So I think there's so much interesting that can happen in terms of geography and culture. And also scientific explanations, kind of letting a child play with wheels and gears in a virtual space that helps them understand how they work when they might not have all of those things around them. So there are ways to introduce kids to new concepts through screens that I think can be more effective than just talking about it or just reading about it in a book.

But when you put multiple types of activities together, when a child plays a digital game and then takes that game into the real world and does something hands on, then the learning gains are greater than if the child just played the game and in some cases greater than if the child just did the activity as well. Something about doing these things in multiple spaces kind of helps it solidify for the child.

It's good to know there are educational activities, but aren't there also endless ways for children to waste time?

I'm not recommending that kids just play with media all the time. There needs to be a good balance. We like to talk about coming up with your 'media diet. A parent thinking through what are all of the activities a child is going to be doing in a given day, and make sure there is a good variety. Is there some time to play outside? Is there some time to look at books? And then when you have media time really think carefully about what content your child is going to be interested in and might spark some additional curiosity on their part.

To hear the full interview, click on the 'play' button above.