The Impact of Screen Time on the Development of Children

Steve Adubato goes on-location to the Turrell Fund Day for Children in Shelburne, Vermont to talk to Mark Sustic, Executive Director, Young Tradition Vermont & Turrell Fund Trustee, about the impact of screen-time on the development of young children and how technology and media should be experienced in an interactive way with an adult.

7/30/19 #2237

Excerpt:

"Hi, I'm Steve Adubato. We are coming to you from Shelburne, Vermont. Why? Well this is part of our Right From the Start NJ initiative. We're here in Vermont. You can hear what's going on behind us. There's a conference. This conference is the Turrell Fund Day for Children. The theme is on the importance of love in early childhood. That is the theme that comes from Fred Rogers. There's a documentary that you should check out about Fred Rogers. You know, he's been talked about a lot here. His connection to children, his impact on children at PBS, and so lots of the conversations we're having are with people who understand these issues very well. And we're joined by Mark Sustic, who's Executive Director, Young Tradition Vermont, and also a trustee of the Turrell Fund. Good to see you Mark. Thank you for having me. Tell folks who may hear what's going on around us in another room, why this conference is so important when it comes to early childhood? Well, there's a variety of purposes for the conference. One is, it's our one opportunity a year to have the Turrell Fund represented in Vermont. As you may know, the Turrell Fund supports programs, activities for young children and their families in New Jersey, as well as Vermont. And New Jersey, it is in fact Right From the Start NJ? Yeah. Exactly. You'll see our website. Yeah. So it's an opportunity to bring us up here. To bring the Turrell Fund up here. Although I'm a Vermont trustee, I'm already here. But not a lot of the trustees and the staff for the Turrell Fund get a chance to come to Vermont. And this is a chance to do that It's also a chance to be seen and heard, to focus on some topics that we might all be interested in. We have our philanthropic partners from Vermont here. And so, it's just kind of a convention of philanthropists. Service providers who get funded by the foundation, and it's also a chance for folks to find out about the Turrell Fund and what we're interested in, and why maybe there will be some funding opportunities for them. So it's interesting. I mentioned Fred Rogers, and in 1968, Fred Rogers broke very important ground in public broadcasting, and in children's media overall. And so I mentioned him, Mark, because you have said that that's what Fred Rogers did. That's what children's programming should be? Yeah. But you've also said that today media is different? Oh yeah. And you've said that screen time is an issue. I'll give you a quote from you. You'll talk..."