Growing Up Healthy in a World of Digital Media

Growing Up Healthy in a World of Digital Media
A guide for parents and caregivers of children and adolescents

Here is an honest and clear digest of resources and practices to avoid the worst effects of screen technology on the young. The book will give strength to those who must make up the rules for guiding children and teens in the use of technologies. These have been touted as a great thing but have proven over time to cause behavior disorders, depression, and addiction.  How do we cope?  Growing up Healthy offers many ideas to help do just that - grow up healthy!

This new guide explains the dangers and risks to children and adolescents inherent in the new media:

• impairment of brain development
• communications stress
• the threat of addiction loss of privacy
• sites that are unsuitable for young people
• cyberbullying and health impairment due to continuous radiation from wireless devices.

This book fills a gap, describing the critical developmental phases in childhood, which have a bearing on the introduction of media technology. Acknowledging that not everybody will be able to follow the same approach; it shows how we can think through step by step what is best for the well-being of the young person in our care. Growing Up Healthy illustrates the legal regulations, the safety measures, and possible actions needed to prevent dangers or to address them appropriately while providing an educational standpoint which represents an appropriate balance between the needs of children and adolescents, and the restrictions which are required as precautionary measures to safeguard against the inherent dangers.

“It is a paradox of our digital future: brain development needs time and skillful play, work, and action within the real world throughout the first 15 to 16 years. The result is the faculty of self-control and self-thinking, which is fundamental for media competence. The authors of this book, all specialists, offer practical advice for age-appropriate brain stimulation, encouraging teachers and parents to find ways to protect their children from the unnecessary and damaging too early use of electronic devices. They advise helping children develop their unique creativity and to learn how to learn out of own initiative.”

— Dr. Michaela Glöckler, Pediatrician

Waldorf Publications
ISBN: 978-1-943582-35-8
7 x 9 perfect bound
Full color
157 pages