Promoting Social Engagement and Preventing Digital Harms in Early Childhood

These meetings are a follow-on action to an in-person meetup on July 18, 2023, at the World Association for Infant Mental Health World Congress, held in Dublin, Ireland. Research presented at the conference added to existing evidence that screen exposure is associated with a host of negative outcomes for babies and toddlers including:

Language delay
Structural brain changes
Deficits in executive functioning
Autism-like symptoms and other delays in social and emotional development
Disruption of parent-child attachment and early relational health

In this meeting, we invite you to help find ways to increase understanding in this critically important area. We will explore how we can join forces to raise global awareness about what young children need for optimal growth and development.

Your hosts are child development researchers and child advocates committed to raising worldwide awareness that young children need face-to-face, full-sensory, hands-on interaction with their parents, other people, and the real world—a process easily disrupted by digital device usage. We want all parents to have the science-based information they need to make the best decisions for helping their children thrive.

If you have questions or would like to attend a meeting or join the Alliance, please email info@durablehuman.com

Your hosts:

Karen Frankel Heffler, M.D., Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine Department — **Karen Frankel Heffler, M.D.**, Department of Psychiatry, Drexel University College of Medicine

Lori Frome, M. Ed., Early Interventionist and child development researcher — **Lori Frome, M. Ed.**, Early Interventionist and child development researcher

Jenifer Joy Madden, Certified Digital Wellness Educator and member of Screen Time Action Network