In this episode Melanie speaks with Tom Kersting, our featured author of our book of the month, Disconnected: How to Reconnect our Digitally Distracted Kids. Tom began his career as a School Counselor and Therapist almost twenty-five years ago. He is a nationally known speaker, author, TV personality, and he has a private practice located in Ridgewood, New Jersey.

Melanie and Tom explore the first part of his book where he discusses "Acquired ADHD" and other warning signs resulting from overexposure electronic screen exposure. They discuss how the overuse of technology has negatively impacted adolescents' ability to develop social relationships, create positive self-esteem, and a true sense of self. Melanie and Tom discuss how more screen exposure (with virtual classes) will create a stress response in kids that will likely result in increased anxiety, school phobia, and school avoidance. They give parents positive practical tips to help reduce family stress and increase family connection.

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Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
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ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

Dr. Victoria Dunckley, author of our April Book of the Month (BOTM) pick "Reset Your Child's Brain" joins the entire ScreenStrong Team and members from our community to answer YOUR questions about screens and teens, tips for getting through the screen reset, how to troubleshoot difficult transitions, and so much more!

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

 Melissa is an occupational therapist who specializes in sensory integration and processing. Her focus has moved from helping children with developmental delays to helping children and young people with screen and media addictions. This career trajectory made it clear to Melissa that the two problems were increasingly connected. Dependence on screens presents new challenges to sensory integration because children are no longer experiencing the world through physical experience the way they did a generation ago. Melanie and Melissa discuss how screen addiction affects children not only mentally and emotionally, but physically and socially as well. We all know that screen use changes the structure of kids’ brains—Melissa explains exactly how this happens and the negative effects she sees in real-life children in her practice.

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

In this second episode featuring Dr. Victoria Dunckley, Melanie and Victoria discuss the goals and outcomes highlighted in the second half of the integrative psychiatrist’s book, Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen Time. Victoria provides practical advice to parents on how to prepare for the reset, including how to engage a reluctant spouse, tips for the single parent, and what to expect from your child once you implement the reset plan. She also dispels some of the parental myths connected with screen and tech use, such as loss of friendships and preparing kids for adulthood by allowing technology use at an early age. Victoria describes the reset as a grieving process that creates a shift in your child’s thinking and allows your child’s brain to become stronger, more connected, and resilient. “A better developed brain is what manages and governs self-discipline in every area of life, including technology use.”
 
BOTM: Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen Time. 

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

Anne Marie McDonald is Vice President of PR & Strategy for Gabb Wireless, the company that provides talk and text phones without access to internet or social media to help kids and teens stay safely connected without temptation or distraction. In this episode, Melanie talks to the working mother of four about the dangers of typical smartphones for children and teenagers, and how Anne Marie became passionate about helping kids thrive without them, both within and beyond her own family.  Anne Marie only began working for Gabb after witnessing the benefits of a smartphone-free lifestyle for her own oldest teen, so she has a wealth of experience and advice for real parents facing the same challenges in their homes. She describes how even with a Gabb phone, parents are responsible for teaching their kids the lessons they need to absorb about phone safety and staying protected.

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

Smith Alley, a brave and inspiring 17-year-old, shares his story of a five year battle with pornography addiction as well as his struggles with social media. Determined to be more than a “success story,” he founded his company, Protecht Strong, to help families safely set up technology limits in their home. 

Melanie and Smith discuss what it means to prepare our children for the real world and that preparing doesn’t have to mean giving them a phone. Smith challenges parents to ask themselves, “Am I getting this device or giving them access because I want to be their friend or because I’m trying to be their parent?” before handing them a smartphone or other device. 

This episode is one that invokes reflection on how you are communicating with your children about difficult and hidden issues. It is one that challenges you to consider where your “blind spots” are in your relationship with your children. 

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

Not only is Tessa Stuckey a licensed professional therapist and author of For the Sake of Our Youth: A Therapist’s Perspective on Raising Your Family in Today’s Culture, she’s also raising four boys of her own. Tessa became a therapist with the goal of helping support children through the emotionally confusing teenage years, but what she found was worse than the dating drama and adolescent angst she expected: instead, she found prevalent suicidal ideation and other surprisingly dark problems, despite a general lack of deep-seated trauma. In her conversation with Melanie, Tessa dives into how technology is the main contributor to the problems she sees teens facing today, and how we as parents can help them develop the resiliency and connection to make it to the other side as healthy, balanced adults.

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

In today’s episode, Melanie talks with Tracy Markle, MA, LPC, who is the Founder/Owner of Collegiate Coaching Services & Founder/Co-Director at Digital Media Treatment and Education Center in Colorado. Melanie and Tracy begin their discussion identifying protective factors as well as risk factors to consider when establishing limits of media use within your family. Tracy explains the Self-Determination Theory of Motivation, and how she uses this theory in her work with her clients. She also gives advice for the parents of middle-school aged children to high-school aged teenagers in addressing addictive media use in their daily lives. This is a must listen for any parent, whether you have a young child not yet introduced to screen-related games, or you are the parent who is wondering if you are doing enough with your family limits, and for the parent that needs guidance in steps to take to initiate change.

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

In this first of two episodes featuring Dr. Victoria Dunckley, Melanie and Victoria discuss the premise of the integrative psychiatrist’s book Reset Your Child’s Brain: A Four Week Plan to End Meltdowns, Raise Grades and Boost Social Skills by Reversing the Effects of Electronic Screen Time. Victoria explains how she came to be passionate about screen time through her early work with troubled children and adolescents, and then digs into the first part of her book, which covers what she calls “electronic screen syndrome” and how it negatively affects young people. She brings her hands-on experience and medical expertise to bear on the issue in a frank conversation with Melanie. In the upcoming Part 2, Victoria will delve into her practical advice on how to implement the four week plan and what to expect when resetting your child’s brain.

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin

Olivia Bruner, author of our March Book of the Month (BOTM) pick "Playstation Nation" joins the entire ScreenStrong Team and members from our community to answer YOUR questions about video games and kids, how the industry has changed, connecting with your older teen, and so much more!

Support the show

Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review if you enjoy the episode. Your feedback helps us bring you more of the content you love. Stay Strong!

• Get your copy of the BRAND NEW Adventures of Super Brain book!
• Start your ScreenStrong Journey today!
• Check out our Kids' Brains & Screens products.
• Want to help spread the ScreenStrong message to your community? Consider becoming a ScreenStrong Ambassador!

ScreenStrong Tech Recommendations

• Canopy—Device Filter (use code STRONG for discount)

Production Team:

• Host: Melanie Hempe
• Producer & Audio Editor: Olivia Kernekin