TPP 128b: Digital Media and Technology Expert Devorah Heitner on Helping Kids Be Screenwise
episode
Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
43 min
2 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 8 hours ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main focus of the episode and who is the guest?
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Hey, it's Debbie. For the month of October, I'll be sharing some of my favorite past episodes relating to all things tech and screens. So every Friday this month, you'll find an episode on your full tilt parenting feed on topics like gaming, internet rabbit holes, and navigating screen time. So if your child's relationship with technology is something you're grappling with, these are for you. Welcome to Tilt Parenting, a podcast featuring interviews and conversations aimed at inspiring, informing, and supporting parents raising differently wired kids. I'm your host, Debbie Rieber, and today's episode is a must-listen to if your child uses technology and screens of any sort. So yeah, pretty much everyone.
My guest this week is Deborah Heitner, an expert on young people's relationship with digital media and technology. Deborah is the author of Screenwise, Helping Kids Thrive and Survive in Their Digital World, and founder of Raising Digital Natives, and her mission is to cultivate a culture of empathy and social emotional literacy. Devorah's work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Time magazine, and Education Week. And she also did a fascinating TEDx talk a few years back called The Challenges of Raising a Digital Native, which I highly recommend you check out. I will link to that TEDx talk in the show notes. Today, Devorah and I talk about kids' relationship with screens, everything from the specific challenges related to screens and technology for differently wired kids to how we as parents can start being effective mentors for our child when it comes to helping them develop healthy screen habits.
I ask Dore the big questions I hear all the time from parents: like, how much time is too much? Time on screens. Does the type of activity our kids do on screen make a difference when it comes to setting limits and much more? I hope you get a lot out of this interview. And now here is my conversation with Deborah. Hi Deborah, welcome to the podcast. Hello. I am really happy to be having this conversation about something that is just such a relevant part of our world for all parents, but I know this is something that comes up a lot in Facebook groups that I'm in and just parents really wanting more information and tools and just how to frame our thinking around screen time and you kind of wrote the book on it, so I'm really excited to talk with you about this today.
Thank you. So your book, I just wanna start with the title of your book, which is Screenwise, which I just love that title. And I just would love to hear from you what Screenwise means, you know, what is loaded into that term.
Well, we wanna think about wisdom in the sense of our lived experience and a lot of parents discount their wisdom of lived experience when they go to try to mentor their digital natives because they think, Well, I didn't grow up with Fortnite or Instagram or Snapchat, so therefore what do I know? And and they're often discounting a lot of lived experience and a lot of good ideas that would be really helpful to their kids. They just need to get creative and think about That wisdom from a different venue. We all know what it's like to be left out of something. We all know what it's like to get distracted and blow a deadline or have to stay up later than we want to. So it's really important that we acknowledge that we have wisdom from our lived experience, even though we didn't grow up with a tiny supercomputer in our hands.
And you know, I actually would like to even take a step back. I'm curious to know how you came to be even doing this work and maybe in answering that you could tell us a little bit about your background and your expertise in all things screen.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the main focus of the episode and who is the guest?
0:00–6:25
2
How does Dr. Devorah Heitner define “Screenwise” and why does it matter for parents?
6:25–12:04
3
What challenges do kids face with screens and how do they differ for neuro‑diverse children?
12:04–17:22
4
How are schools integrating technology and what pitfalls should parents watch for?
17:22–23:46
5
What are effective strategies for setting screen‑time limits and using tech tools responsibly?
23:46–29:01
6
How can parents mentor rather than monitor their kids’ digital habits?
29:01–33:44
7
What practical tips help families balance screen use with health, sleep, and social life?
33:44–38:36
8
Where can listeners learn more about Screenwise and connect with the expert?
38:36–43:09
Speakers
2 identifiedMore from Full-Tilt Parenting: Strategies, Insights, and Connection for Parents Raising Neurodivergent Children
TPP 266a: A Conversation with Poet and Advocate LeDerick Horne
TPP 522: A Whole Child Approach to ADHD with Phil Boucher, M.D.
TPP 091a: A Conversation With Steve Silberman About His Book “Neurotribes”
TPP 521: A Conversation with Dr. Peter Gray About Restoring Childhood
TPP 253a: Advocate and Author Jonathan Mooney on Why Normal Sucks
TPP 520: Dr. Özgür Bolat on Why Rewards Backfire and the Real Science of Motivating Kids