EARLY YEARS: Digital media expert offers common sense strategies when it comes to kids and the online world

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) - Author and speaker Erin Walsh has spent years researching how media impact child development. She’s also a mom.

“There’s nothing like screen time to bring us on a collision course between what we thought we’d do as parents and the messy reality of the tricky tradeoffs of trying to get through the day,” says Walsh, who’s also the co-founder of Spark & Stitch Institute.

Walsh is using her years of research to help parents lose feelings of guilt and fear, and develop common sense strategies for their kids in the digital world.

“I think the messaging around this sort of unwritten rule that the best parent would have zero screen time is not only unrealistic; it can actually get in the way of what kids need from us,” she says.

In her new book, “It’s Their World: Teens, Screens, and the Science of Adolescence,” Walsh stresses extremes don’t work.

“We can acknowledge the harms, but we want to remember that screens have a lot of possibility and value and benefit and our kids have a lot of digital strengths,” says Walsh.

When it come to digital devices, she says kids need connection, coaching, and consistent boundaries.

“Having fun with screens with our kids, choosing age-appropriate content, so that we can enjoy it alongside them or integrate it into family life,” says Walsh.

Instead of counting minutes of screen time, Walsh suggests parents just enjoy the time with their kids.

“My reminder to parents in this book is that teens don’t need us to be perfect, they just need us to be present,” says Walsh.