Age of Learnings is proud to partner with Boston Children’s Hospital—ranked the #1 children’s hospital in the nation by U.S. News & World Report and the primary pediatric teaching affiliate of Harvard Medical School—and join supporters including Sesame Workshop, Walt Disney Television, Facebook, Instagram, Noggin, Optum, and Roblox to help advance the important work of their new Digital Wellness Lab.
This first-of-its-kind research and innovation incubator, led by Boston Children’s Hospital pediatrician and Harvard professor Dr. Michael Rich, is bringing together science-based solutions and information about the effects of digital technology on our brains, bodies, and behaviors.
The Digital Wellness Lab and its partners are creating the system necessary to produce and sustain a continuous stream of science-based information focused on the digital wellness of individuals and society. Their work will focus on
- Researching how the interactive media technologies we use and the way we use them affect human development and our physical, mental and social health.
- Educating and empowering supporters, from children and parents to tech innovators, content producers to clinicians, educators to policymakers, with evidence-based guidance, living strategies, tools, and best practices for media and technology use that promote wellness and healthy human development.
- Understanding, characterizing, preventing and treating media use-related disorders, developing clinical protocols to recognize and respond to problematic interactive media use, tools for educators, and strategies for parents caring for children in a digital age.
- Innovating in synergy with technology developers, content creators and educators to shape a digital environment that supports the wellness of children, adolescents and adults.
The Digital Wellness Lab released its comprehensive and authoritative 2021 Family Digital Wellness Guide today. This research-based resource was created to address parents’ and caregivers’ concerns, to clarify confusion, and to empower families to be actively involved in their children’s digital lives at every stage of development. The Digital Wellness Lab conducted a pulse survey to measure how the pandemic lockdown year has affected kids’, parents’ and families’ digital behaviors and wellness. The results of this national survey, also launched in a report today, will serve to guide the Lab’s efforts in its inaugural year.
We look forward to our ongoing collaboration with and support of the Digital Wellness Lab and the important work they are doing.