A family guide from birth through third grade
Welcome! This website helps families use technology intentionally to strengthen young children’s language, reading, and writing. Early childhood professionals can serve as media mentors by sharing research in plain language, modeling co-use and conversation, recommending accessible and culturally responsive resources, and helping each family create realistic routines that respect its values, languages, abilities, and access to devices.
Find your child’s guide
01
In brief
Five findings families can use today.
Young children learn language best through responsive back-and-forth interaction. Digital media is most useful when a caring adult co-views, asks questions, follows the child’s interests, and connects on-screen words and ideas to everyday experiences. [1–4]
Well-designed digital books and literacy apps can support vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge, and comprehension. Unrelated animations, games, sounds, and hotspots can pull attention away from the story and reduce learning. [1–4]
Technology supports literacy when children record a retelling, photograph a sign, compose a message, or create a digital book. These experiences should extend play, talk, drawing, writing, and reading. [1–4]
Infants and toddlers often have difficulty applying something seen on a screen to a real situation. An adult can repeat the word, point to the real object, act out the idea, and revisit it away from the device. [1–4]
Language grows during conversation, shared reading, play, movement, sleep, and relationships. A family media plan keeps screens from crowding out those essentials while making room for intentional digital learning. [1–4]
02
Keep in mind
Digital books, audio, captions, adjustable text, home-language content, and assistive features give children more ways to enter a story and show what they know. Cameras and recorders help children revisit experiences, dictate stories, practice new words, and share learning. [2, 3]
Fast rewards, ads, autoplay, and unrelated animations can distract from meaning; extended use may replace conversation, sleep, movement, and print reading. Preview content, disable distractions, stay nearby, and end with an off-screen activity. [1, 3, 4]
03
Technology
Choose an age to see a practical family guideline.
Infants
For babies younger than about 18 months, prioritize talking, singing, print books, floor play, and face-to-face interaction. Video chats with a responsive adult are the clearest exception; occasional media should be brief, high-quality, and shared with an adult. [1, 4, 5]
Toddlers
For ages 18–24 months, introduce only high-quality content and always use it together. For ages 2–3, keep sedentary screen time to no more than 1 hour a day—and less is better—while protecting sleep, play, conversation, and exploration. [1, 4, 5]
Preschoolers
For ages 3–5, aim for no more than about 1 hour of high-quality entertainment media a day. Use a shared screen in a common space, turn off autoplay and background media, and favor stories and creation tools that lead to talk, movement, drawing, or pretend play. [1, 4, 5]
Kindergartners
A practical family limit is about 1 hour of recreational media on most days, adjusted for the child and family. Separate schoolwork from entertainment and choose media that supports phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, storytelling, or creative expression. [1, 4, 5]
Grades 1–3
Many families use a consistent limit of roughly 1–2 hours of entertainment media, apart from school assignments. Protect sleep, meals, physical activity, print reading, homework, and relationships; keep devices out of bedrooms at night; and teach privacy and critical thinking. [1, 4, 5]
These are family guidance ranges for recreational media, not rigid medical prescriptions. Individualize plans for a child’s learning, communication, and accessibility needs.
04
Technology and literacy development
Every idea begins together and continues beyond the screen.
During a brief video call, ask a familiar adult to sing a rhyme or read a board book the child also has at home. Pause for sounds, gestures, or words; then point to the matching picture or object and repeat the key word after the call.
Take a few photos of familiar people, pets, and objects. Swipe slowly together, name each item, imitate its sound, and wait for a response; later, find the real item and say the same word again.
Let the child photograph safe objects that begin with a target sound and place the pictures in a digital album. Help the child dictate a caption, trace or type the first letter, and reread the book together.
Share a high-quality e-book or short video and pause before an important event. Ask what might happen and why; afterward, act out the story or draw the beginning, middle, and end.
After reading, have the child arrange three drawings for beginning, middle, and end and record a short retell. Listen together and add character names, sequence words, and one important detail.
Choose a phonics pattern such as -at or -ing. Use a supervised camera or notes app to collect words from packages, signs, and books, then read and sort the list and build one silly sentence.
The child can make a one-minute audio or slide review that names the title, summarizes without spoiling the ending, describes a favorite part, and supports an opinion with evidence. Share it only with trusted people.
Start with a child-safe database or trusted site to answer a real question. Identify the author, date, evidence, and purpose; compare the claim with a second source, take notes in the child’s own words, and add a source line.
05
Great apps for young children
Match the app to a clear skill: rhyming, letter sounds, decoding, vocabulary, comprehension, or storytelling.
Prefer meaningful choices, creation, useful feedback, and a just-right level over unrelated rewards.
Choose calm apps without ads, manipulative purchases, open chat, or unnecessary data collection.
Choose apps that invite pausing, talking, turn-taking, and transfer to books, play, and writing.
Free and ad-free, with read-aloud books and practice in phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, comprehension, writing, and spelling. Pair one short activity with magnetic letters or a print book.
Visit app siteFree games connected to educational programs, including literacy-rich experiences. Play a word or story game together, then ask the child to explain the strategy or retell what happened.
Visit app siteSystematic phonics, songs, games, and decodable stories build letter-sound relationships. Have the child blend aloud and reread the matching story without audio.
Visit app site06
Sources