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The Canadian Pediatrics Society does not recommend screen time for kids under the age of 2 and sets guidelines for screen time after that age.
Yet, their study also highlights that nearly all kids under 2 in Canada are already exposed to screens.
Therefore, it is counter-intuitive to skip this fact and offer no solutions for the realities of the information age.
• 12 years of experience in UX (user experience) research in the field of education and health.
• 10 years of experience making games.
• Parent of a lovely little girl.
• Developed in Québec/Canada.
We went through many of the references and studies on the effects of screen time and digital media on the development of preschool children, and two things stood out:
Those studies are often old, made with outdated types of media referencing e-books (pre-tablets) and even CD-ROM content.
While their results showed no benefits on what was available in the past, they offered many guidelines as to what could be beneficial in the future.
As a foundation, we eliminated many of the issues found in modern experiences, which is why minitechno is free of ads, subscriptions, additional in-app purchases, additional account requirements, internet connectivity requirements and tracking.
Then, when designing each activity, we used those studies to focus on three pillars. Let's go through them, taking our Techno ABC activity as an example.
What had no positive value (or even adverse value) with the tested experiences, and what are their proposed guidelines for future experiences?
Our Techno ABC has no music, no overwhelming animations and no obligatory interactive elements; the focus is on the text and illustration. We also offer an additional visibility option in the settings if the parents want to further limit the colours and elements on the screen.
What is the result of poor or lack of education for the parents, and how can we support them?
Our info section has clear guidelines for all our activities with recommendations for younger and older children. We clearly state in the app that our Techno ABC should be read by the parent at a young age and adjust the screen brightness to the ambient level. All of this information is provided in the app with an arrow inviting parents at the first launch to consult our guidelines.
What child development skills are at a disadvantage with digital experiences, and where can we compensate?
This cannot be replicated with screens, although we do add arrows to introduce the concept of digital navigation. We can compensate with another skill and add a switch to our Techno ABC to instantly change from French to English and provide an introduction to another language that has proven benefits to the development of kids at a very young age. Books are static, but modern devices aren't.
The limited screen time recommendation is based on studies that highlighted issues in the past but also reference solutions that we applied today with the three pillars for minitechno.
Two external entities were used from early development to the release of our application:
A group of over 1000 users, parents, teachers and educators on the technofou Instagram Channel that served as our oversight board during development.
The Google Teachers Approved program, where teachers and specialists reviewed and rated our application before release.
This publicly available conversation on shows exchanges with over 1000 individuals from diverse backgrounds monitoring the development of minitechno and offering feedback and their point of view in real-time. From simple on-the-fly votes to extensive forms collecting the feedback of other parents and professionals, many features were influenced by all the data collected with this group.
After review by an external team of teachers and specialists, our application was deemed appropriate for ages 5 and under with positive value for learning language arts & music, ease-of-use, creativity and critical thinking. This program is voluntary and rates applications designed for kids on a framework designed by experts. Each update requires a revaluation.
You can view our Google Teachers Approved rating on the app's Google Play page after each reevaluation. Please visit the info section in our app for all our recommendations and to reach us if you experience any issues or have feedback to share.