S2 EP 4 - From Smartphones to Self-Regulation: A Behavioral Perspective

In this episode of Fostering Futures with CAHELP, guest hosts Amanda Gingerich and Maurica Manibusan sit down with CAHELP behavioral specialists Miya Narvaiz-Ward and Danielle Côté to explore the growing impact of technology, social media, and digital devices on children’s behavior, mental health, and development.

The conversation examines concerns surrounding what some researchers call the "Anxious Generation," including rising rates of anxiety, depression, cyberbullying, emotional dysregulation, and the effects of constant digital connectivity. Miya and Danielle share insights from behavioral science and education while discussing how smartphones, social media platforms, artificial intelligence, and screen exposure can influence developing brains and social relationships.

Together, they discuss the importance of face-to-face interaction, play, empathy, problem-solving skills, sleep, and healthy boundaries around technology use. The conversation emphasizes that technology itself is not the problem, but rather the intensity, frequency, and duration of its use, especially during critical stages of child development.

This episode offers practical strategies for families and educators seeking balance in today’s digital world, while providing hope that increased awareness, education, and intentional habits can help children build healthier relationships with technology and with each other.

Highlights

• Behavioral experts discuss the relationship between social media use and student mental health.
• Exploration of how smartphones and technology affect developing brains.
• Discussion of cyberbullying, anxiety, depression, and digital dependency.
• Insight into the importance of play, empathy, communication, and social interaction.
• Practical guidance for creating healthy technology boundaries at home.
• Hopeful conversation about growing awareness and positive change.

Key Takeaways

• Technology is a powerful tool, but excessive use can negatively impact mental health and development.
• Children’s brains are still developing and are more vulnerable to addictive digital patterns.
• Real-world play and social interaction help build communication, empathy, and problem-solving skills.
• Sleep quality is heavily impacted by nighttime screen exposure.
• Healthy technology habits start with modeling positive behavior as adults.
• Small changes, implemented consistently, can have a meaningful impact on children and families.

Thanks for listening! Follow us on Facebook and Instagram | www.cahelp.org | podcast@cahelp.org

Transcript

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00:00:10 Intro 

The relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child. 

00:00:18 Intro 

Welcome to Fostering Futures with CAHELP, a podcast dedicated to our relentless pursuit of whatever works in the life of a child. 

00:00:26 Intro 

I'm your host, Athena Cordero, inviting you to join me and countless others as we share our unique perspectives and expertise in the world of special education, behavioral health, social emotional well-being, and community. 

00:00:39 Intro 

Follow us on Buzzsprout, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts. 

00:00:45 Amanda Gingerich 

Good morning and welcome back to Fostering Futures. 

00:00:47 Amanda Gingerich 

I'm Amanda Gingerich, filling in for Athena Cordero. 

00:00:50 Amanda Gingerich 

And joining me today is Maurica Manibusan. 

00:00:53 Amanda Gingerich 

We're excited to bring you a powerful conversation featuring 2 incredible women whose insights and expertise are sure to inspire. 

00:01:01 Amanda Gingerich 

Maurica, I'll turn it over to you. 

00:01:03 Maurica Manibusan 

Welcome ladies. 

00:01:04 Maurica Manibusan 

Good morning. 

00:01:05 Maurica Manibusan 

I'm super excited to have you as our guest on our podcast. 

00:01:10 Maurica Manibusan 

And we're going to talk about behavior. 

00:01:11 Maurica Manibusan 

So as we discussed a little earlier prior to the show, behavior is a broad and very complex topic, right? 

00:01:22 Maurica Manibusan 

We only have maybe about 45 minutes so we can chit chat and get to know each other and you can actually offer some helpful insights to our listeners. 

00:01:30 Maurica Manibusan 

My hope is that we'll have the meaningful discussion, we'll bring forward some of the trends that a lot of us are seeing, not just here in California, but across all states and probably even nationally, right? 

00:01:42 Maurica Manibusan 

And so I'm looking at maybe the discussion of maybe the increase in student behavior challenges, ranging from even classroom disruptions to even more emotional outbursts or significant emotional outbursts. 

00:01:55 Maurica Manibusan 

But at the same time, there are growing concerns around student anxiety, mental health needs, and even the influence of technology in the daily lives of students, even our own kids as we've experienced. 

00:02:09 Maurica Manibusan 

And really some have actually begun to refer to today's youth as a part of what they refer to as an anxious generation. 

00:02:16 Maurica Manibusan 

And so I hope this conversation will be an opportunity for all of us to reflect on the patterns, share perspectives, and consider what they may mean for 

00:02:25 Maurica Manibusan 

our work and the students. 

00:02:26 Amanda Gingerich 

So let's get started by welcoming you guys today. 

00:02:29 Amanda Gingerich 

I have Danielle and Miya, who are behavioral experts within CAHELP. 

00:02:33 Amanda Gingerich 

Can you guys introduce yourself and tell us a little about your role and what inspired you to focus on supporting families and children in today's digital world? 

00:02:43 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Well, good morning and thank you for having us this morning. 

00:02:47 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

My name is Miya Narviaz-Ward. 

00:02:48 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I am one of the program specialists here at Desert Mountain SELPA. 

00:02:52 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I have been in the world of education for about 28 years now. 

00:02:56 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And specifically in regards to behavior, it started way back when, I was a preschool teacher. 

00:03:02 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And at that time, autism and ADHD, those were things that really I knew nothing about. 

00:03:08 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

However, being a teacher and specifically on the playground, 

00:03:13 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

there were a lot of fights among children or behaviors that I didn't recognize. 

00:03:20 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And for some reason, the other teachers always seemed to ignore these kids. 

00:03:25 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so these children continued to come to me. 

00:03:29 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so I started to investigate, asked my director at the time, like, what is this? 

00:03:34 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

What's happening? 

00:03:35 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so there took my career started from there. 

00:03:38 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And then from that, I've done like ED programs 

00:03:43 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

special needs programs. 

00:03:44 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But really the big thing with me right now at the moment is I have three daughters. 

00:03:51 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Two are adults, one is much younger. 

00:03:54 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And the social media usage between the two adults and the younger one is completely different. 

00:04:04 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so I'm very interested in behavior as it pertains to social media and its platforms. 

00:04:10 Amanda Gingerich 

Well, thank you for sharing. 

00:04:11 Amanda Gingerich 

And Danielle? 

00:04:12 Danielle Cote 

So I'm Danielle Cote. 

00:04:14 Danielle Cote 

It's an honor to be here with you today. 

00:04:18 Danielle Cote 

And to speak to my career, I came from an isolated area of Canada, a very small town. 

00:04:26 Danielle Cote 

And when I came to California, I was 

00:04:30 Danielle Cote 

introduced to a very urban area in the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

00:04:37 Danielle Cote 

And so my exposure to behavioral problems started early on. 

00:04:43 Danielle Cote 

Eventually that was in the general educational world. 

00:04:47 Danielle Cote 

Later on worked in private school, but also in non-public schools, which are specialized schools where we work with kids from K, so kindergarten, all the way through high school. 

00:05:00 Danielle Cote 

Working specifically with the young lady was a focus of mine in those specialized schools. 

00:05:08 Danielle Cote 

At the time, those schools were populated with young men all the way to the age of 22. 

00:05:14 Danielle Cote 

And so we were talking about extremely severe behavior. 

00:05:18 Danielle Cote 

At the time, most of them lived in group homes and had also lived in psychiatric facilities. 

00:05:25 Danielle Cote 

And so we were talking about behaviors that were of assaultive nature, of self-harm, and that sort of thing. 

00:05:33 Danielle Cote 

And that's where I started to have a passion for behavior. 

00:05:38 Danielle Cote 

Fast forward to my being hired for the county in which we work. 

00:05:45 Danielle Cote 

I've been with this county almost 30 years and then here with our organization specifically for over 20 years. 

00:05:53 Danielle Cote 

I am a program specialist with Miya. 

00:05:55 Danielle Cote 

We're part of a small behavioral team. 

00:05:58 Danielle Cote 

Miya and I actually started to focus a lot of our work on the topic of social media and the effect of technology 

00:06:08 Danielle Cote 

on the brain, and it was actually because of a request from a local school district. 

00:06:14 Danielle Cote 

And so we started to get acquainted to the research and then how the brain is affected, not only of children, but also of adults. 

00:06:26 Danielle Cote 

And interestingly enough, as of March of 2026, the Los Angeles Unified School District has joined hundreds of school districts within the nation in 

00:06:38 Danielle Cote 

a lawsuit that focuses on the mental health of children. 

00:06:45 Danielle Cote 

So specifically, we're talking about anxiety, depression, self-harm, suicidal ideation, cyberbullying, and also adult-related behavior where the children are exposed to those topics that are typically of adult nature and how 

00:07:07 Danielle Cote 

our children are unable, we'll talk about this a little bit later, but because of their development, are unable to manage the exposure to those topics. 

00:07:20 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Well, you know, Danielle, you made some very valid points and there's something I really want people to think about today. 

00:07:26 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

We as parents, as a society, we are protecting our children 

00:07:33 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

from the outside, right? 

00:07:35 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

We're worried about them going out at night, riding their bikes, playing, who are they going to meet? 

00:07:41 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

are they going to get kidnapped? 

00:07:43 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But we give them so much freedom inside our home, we don't know who's on the other side of a phone. 

00:07:51 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So we really need to start paying attention to these platforms, to media and all those things. 

00:07:57 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And I know that's the conversation we're going to have today. 

00:07:59 Danielle Cote 

Absolutely. 

00:08:00 Danielle Cote 

And the dangers are traveling with our children in their pockets, actually, even in their beds at night. 

00:08:08 Danielle Cote 

And that's this constant exposure to the dangers of technology, social media, but also of other people, adults and children alike. 

00:08:22 Amanda Gingerich 

I would also say not just only the phones, but on the headsets. 

00:08:26 Amanda Gingerich 

You have no clue who they're talking to at all these games out there. 

00:08:29 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so you may think that your son or daughter is speaking with a 10-year-old child, but it's really a four-year-old person on the other side of that phone. 

00:08:39 Danielle Cote 

And Amanda, you're making meeting too of the somewhat recent introduction 

00:08:45 Danielle Cote 

of artificial intelligence. 

00:08:47 Danielle Cote 

So platforms like ChatGPT or programs in that it's no longer just a person, but it could just be an artificial intelligence being that is exposing our kids to topics or, you know, behaviors, experiences. 

00:09:08 Danielle Cote 

to which again, they are not prepared to deal with. 

00:09:12 Maurica Manibusan 

Well, since you brought up AI, it just kind of raised the question for me, being that our kids are really so heavily addicted to their smartphones, right? 

00:09:21 Maurica Manibusan 

I mean, really, realistically, that's what it seems like these days, even for me. 

00:09:26 Maurica Manibusan 

But can you imagine the impact AI would be? 

00:09:28 Maurica Manibusan 

So it's also already 

00:09:31 Maurica Manibusan 

I think interfering with children's social development, their ability to make friends, to talk one-to-one, all of that seems to be kind of fading away. 

00:09:41 Maurica Manibusan 

Meanwhile, they're building upon relationships that are digital. 

00:09:45 Maurica Manibusan 

And with the AI, can you only imagine what if you could create a friend in AI and generate exactly what that friend would look like and that's the only friend you have? 

00:09:56 Maurica Manibusan 

and you can control and design. 

00:09:58 Maurica Manibusan 

I mean, it doesn't allow for them to experience the real life and relationships with other people. 

00:10:04 Maurica Manibusan 

What are your thoughts on that? 

00:10:06 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So Danielle and I had this conversation this morning and we were specifically talking about collaboration. 

00:10:13 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

communication, soft skills, having friendships, they're not able to build those things if they're just by themselves with their interface with their phones, right? 

00:10:27 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So I'm gonna put it to you like this, and this is an example. 

00:10:31 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Okay, I'm in my 40s, I'll just be honest. 

00:10:36 Maurica Manibusan 

You're young. 

00:10:38 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I have some children and we tend to have parties at our home, okay? 

00:10:43 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

We dance. 

00:10:44 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

My friends and I, we dance. 

00:10:46 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

My children sit there with their friends on their phones. 

00:10:51 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

They are not communicating, collaborating, dancing, interacting, or engaging. 

00:10:57 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so this is a real life problem that we're having with our students, which goes to another thing, Danielle, we talked about this morning. 

00:11:05 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

A lot of our youth, when they're looking for jobs or careers, 

00:11:10 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

they are not being hired or they're being fired at a much faster rate than someone who's in her 40s, right? 

00:11:18 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Because we have those soft skills. 

00:11:21 Danielle Cote 

I want to make a critical point too that some parents who might be listening and educators might make, which is I use the phone all the time. 

00:11:30 Danielle Cote 

I may be addicted to, or I may use that phone way too much. 

00:11:37 Danielle Cote 

I spend too much time on my phone at work, at home, et cetera. 

00:11:40 Danielle Cote 

and I'm fine. 

00:11:41 Danielle Cote 

However, that is defined. 

00:11:44 Danielle Cote 

The challenge is that for children, their brain is still being formed, developed, and the impact on those brains for those young beings, and the younger they are, the more serious the effect. 

00:12:03 Danielle Cote 

So we're not saying that these platforms and these 

00:12:11 Danielle Cote 

artificial intelligence, et cetera, doesn't affect adults because it does affect adults. 

00:12:16 Danielle Cote 

It affects me, it affects you, but it's way more dangerous for children as they develop their brain. 

00:12:23 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So I like to use, what I like to say is our children, they have strong emotions and weak breaks, right? 

00:12:31 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So their prefrontal cortex, right? 

00:12:34 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

It helps them focus, make decisions, 

00:12:39 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

It just gives them all of these skills that are necessary to plan and to regulate. 

00:12:44 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

It doesn't develop until, what, Danielle, 20, 27-ish. 

00:12:48 Danielle Cote 

In some cases, I heard some research as of last week, which is in some cases, it's not until the age of 27. 

00:12:55 Danielle Cote 

And so that exposure at that age is even more important. 

00:12:59 Danielle Cote 

We want to also make a little disclaimer because this podcast is hopefully listened through the country, North America and elsewhere we know that we're not anti-devices, anti-social media. 

00:13:17 Danielle Cote 

Miya and I this morning were talking about the beauty of the ability to communicate across the world 

00:13:25 Danielle Cote 

friends and families or to be exposed to new experiences and ideas. 

00:13:31 Danielle Cote 

Miya was talking about, getting travel ideas. 

00:13:35 Danielle Cote 

And for me, I use it to redesign my place or to get beauty ideas, things like that. 

00:13:40 Danielle Cote 

So, and I can only remember like way back several years ago when Skype came out 

00:13:49 Danielle Cote 

And my mother had purchased a brand new computer, and I had purchased a new computer too, and I didn't know that I had a camera within the computer, and my mother suddenly said, I can see you. 

00:14:04 Danielle Cote 

And for me, who's lived in a different country, away from my family for many years, it changed my life. 

00:14:11 Danielle Cote 

And so this ability to communicate with others is a beautiful thing. 

00:14:16 Danielle Cote 

So we are supporting the usage of these devices and technology. 

00:14:22 Danielle Cote 

The problem right now is how extreme we go to. 

00:14:26 Danielle Cote 

It's not the usage of, it's the frequency and the intensity and the duration with which we use the devices. 

00:14:36 Maurica Manibusan 

I believe there are a lot of great benefits with technology, but to a certain degree, I mean, there has to be some boundaries that we put into practice so that these things are not 

00:14:49 Maurica Manibusan 

seen in classrooms as defiant behavior or increase in mental health and all of that. 

00:14:56 Maurica Manibusan 

But I believe technology was designed. 

00:14:59 Maurica Manibusan 

So I believe that addiction, you mentioned that earlier, that I think they were designed with that in mind because the idea is to get them to use it over and over. 

00:15:08 Maurica Manibusan 

And I feel like our recent generation, their lives are spent half the time on their phones. 

00:15:15 Maurica Manibusan 

So 

00:15:16 Maurica Manibusan 

I mean, and that's their place. 

00:15:18 Maurica Manibusan 

That's their place of socialization. 

00:15:19 Maurica Manibusan 

That's all they know. 

00:15:20 Maurica Manibusan 

It's different from our generation. 

00:15:22 Amanda Gingerich 

Yeah, because I was outside until the street lights came on. 

00:15:25 Amanda Gingerich 

You knew, okay, street lights are on, come home. 

00:15:28 Amanda Gingerich 

Let's get our routine. 

00:15:29 Amanda Gingerich 

There was no recording a TV. 

00:15:31 Amanda Gingerich 

It was like you go to the bathroom in between the commercials and now everything is on. 

00:15:36 Amanda Gingerich 

social media, you can rewind, you have Netflix, Hulu, and you can watch it all from your devices. 

00:15:41 Amanda Gingerich 

And like you said, they do it in their bedroom laying there. 

00:15:44 Amanda Gingerich 

But also at the same time, I think it's the parents as well that need to have dance parties where you get them off, where you get them off, go to Miya's house. 

00:15:52 Amanda Gingerich 

Yes, we have to go to Miya's to get them off the couch and make them dance. 

00:15:56 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Well, I think this is a perfect segue to go back in time a little bit, right? 

00:16:01 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So we're going to talk about 2010. 

00:16:04 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

This is kind of when 

00:16:05 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

when these devices blew up. 

00:16:09 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And essentially they were accepted by all the teenagers, all the parents, maybe slowly, but at some point everyone started getting a miniature computer in their hand. 

00:16:20 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You can call it correlation or causation. 

00:16:24 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But soon after this, the research suggests all the things that Danielle spoke about. 

00:16:30 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So there's a rise in mental illness, a rise in anxiety, a rise in suicidal ideation, right? 

00:16:37 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Go ahead. 

00:16:37 Amanda Gingerich 

So I have a question based on that is because of social media? 

00:16:41 Amanda Gingerich 

Because when we, for bullying and everything, that was in person. 

00:16:45 Maurica Manibusan 

It was in person. 

00:16:45 Amanda Gingerich 

It wasn't done on cyber for the most part where people are reading it, whether you're standing next to each other, communicate. 

00:16:52 Amanda Gingerich 

Yes. 

00:16:53 Maurica Manibusan 

It's more detrimental, the cyber bullying and pervasive because it's online versus in person. 

00:16:58 Danielle Cote 

It goes back to, again, that frequency, that intensity, duration, but also access. 

00:17:05 Danielle Cote 

And so then, you know, when you're in school and you're, I don't know, it's during passing period, you're in high school and then briefly you're exposed to that bully or in the locker room, et cetera, which was very detrimental. 

00:17:19 Danielle Cote 

I'm sure all of us sitting here have been, you know, victims of 

00:17:23 Danielle Cote 

for sure. 

00:17:24 Danielle Cote 

But now it's constant. 

00:17:26 Danielle Cote 

It follows you on the weekend, at dinner time, et cetera. 

00:17:31 Danielle Cote 

And that's that piece. 

00:17:32 Danielle Cote 

Also, it lives on the website. 

00:17:35 Maurica Manibusan 

It lives on the website. 

00:17:36 Maurica Manibusan 

It's there forever. 

00:17:38 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You get your scrapes, your bumps, your sad, and you move on. 

00:17:42 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But think about this depending on my attitude and the type of person that I am or was. 

00:17:48 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

someone could record something or put a bad picture out there of me and what do I do? 

00:17:53 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Replay it, replay it, replay it. 

00:17:55 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And so I just keep feeling bad about myself. 

00:17:58 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

It's like it's never over. 

00:18:01 Danielle Cote 

The state also has put some structure in school districts. 

00:18:04 Danielle Cote 

So as of July of 2026, each school district in California charter school will be required to establish some what is called cell phone 

00:18:17 Danielle Cote 

free, districts or school. 

00:18:21 Danielle Cote 

The definition is a little bit vague and so each school district will have to adapt to those regulations and will have to come up with specifics as to what that will look like for students with IEPs and on 504 plans. 

00:18:39 Danielle Cote 

it may look a little bit different. 

00:18:41 Danielle Cote 

So if students have been using cell phones, for example, to access music or calming, videos, that sort of thing, there's going to be more permissions. 

00:18:52 Danielle Cote 

But. 

00:18:53 Danielle Cote 

California is joining other states in terms of establishing those laws. 

00:18:58 Danielle Cote 

There are other countries that are a little bit stricter in terms of less access or no access at all. 

00:19:08 Danielle Cote 

They realize the danger. 

00:19:09 Danielle Cote 

And Miya and I were talking about this morning as to those engineers that design these devices that we see as 

00:19:20 Danielle Cote 

making a quotation mark, but as to this addiction, themselves do not send their schools to classrooms where they're exposed consistently to devices. 

00:19:34 Danielle Cote 

Actually, they send their kids to device-free schools. 

00:19:39 Danielle Cote 

Their kids are not allowed to use those devices until they're junior high or high schoolers because the engineers 

00:19:46 Danielle Cote 

realize the danger of those devices. 

00:19:49 Amanda Gingerich 

I think I'd be okay with that as long as they put the pay phones back in the schools. 

00:19:55 Amanda Gingerich 

And then our kids are going to have to learn how to do collect calls again. 

00:19:58 Amanda Gingerich 

But I like that suggestion of waiting until they're older because their brains are more mature. 

00:20:03 Amanda Gingerich 

And I think at the same time, right, let me tell me, 

00:20:08 Amanda Gingerich 

they're growing up and parents then can now start having conversations with their children instead of them being on the phone and it becoming a harmful tool occasionally. 

00:20:17 Danielle Cote 

Yes, and you were talking about harm. 

00:20:20 Danielle Cote 

It makes me think also of parents who might be listening to this podcast thinking, wait a minute. 

00:20:26 Danielle Cote 

And I'm thinking of employees even here who believe in the restriction of access to technology and cell phone thinking, 

00:20:34 Danielle Cote 

What if there is a school shooting? 

00:20:36 Danielle Cote 

What if there's an emergency? 

00:20:39 Danielle Cote 

Yeah, I'm hearing what you're saying, but I won't have access to my kid. 

00:20:44 Danielle Cote 

And so we haven't heard about 

00:20:47 Danielle Cote 

flip phones for a long time and that is actually a way they still exist. 

00:20:52 Danielle Cote 

They may be harder to find and they may, after these laws are put into effect, become more popular because this is a way to maintain data access without the exposure to the danger of smartphones. 

00:21:08 Danielle Cote 

Miya and I were talking, Miya actually herself was talking about the history of that exposure and she was, we were 

00:21:17 Danielle Cote 

we were going back in time to, I think, 2010. 

00:21:20 Danielle Cote 

And what happened at that time is that it was really the advent of smartphones. 

00:21:26 Danielle Cote 

So the flip phone didn't necessarily affect the brain as much as it was a phone. 

00:21:33 Danielle Cote 

But now we're talking smartphone. 

00:21:34 Danielle Cote 

Another factor was the front facing camera. 

00:21:39 Danielle Cote 

So at some point, 

00:21:41 Danielle Cote 

flip phones, I think, if I recall correctly, started to have cameras, but they were facing the opposite way, which is, you utilized it like a camera, to do photography. 

00:21:55 Danielle Cote 

And then the front-facing camera occurred. 

00:21:59 Danielle Cote 

And then we're going to talk about mental health in a second. 

00:22:02 Danielle Cote 

And then young ladies and young men who now 

00:22:06 Danielle Cote 

started to take pictures of themselves, started to have the ability to be viewed by others. 

00:22:14 Danielle Cote 

And I think Miya, you wanted to. 

00:22:16 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Oh, no, I agree with you. 

00:22:17 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And it's just with the rise of all this, you made a very good point. 

00:22:22 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Front facing cameras taking pictures of ourselves. 

00:22:26 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I put it on the internet. 

00:22:27 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Now people are judging me. 

00:22:29 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Maybe they love me, they think I'm beautiful. 

00:22:31 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Maybe they hate me, they think I'm ugly. 

00:22:33 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But that goes back to something that's reinforcing, Daniel, if people like me and those hits of dopamine and the reason why social media and or cell phones or platforms can be so addicting. 

00:22:46 Danielle Cote 

Yeah, you're talking about dopamine and I think that one of the focus of this conversation is really to understand the root cause and to provide some actionable strategies. 

00:22:58 Danielle Cote 

The important piece is for all of us to understand that dopamine, so if we cut it into the word dope, it's really kind of like the effect is on a drug. 

00:23:10 Danielle Cote 

The effect resemble the effect that drugs has on us and that it's not necessarily a choice, kind of like when somebody is addicted to a substance like alcohol or drugs. 

00:23:24 Danielle Cote 

It's not your choice tomorrow to just stop using. 

00:23:27 Danielle Cote 

It's really that it changes the brain where you need more and more and more. 

00:23:34 Danielle Cote 

And the MT is up as you are using the device and you're exposed to what feels good. 

00:23:43 Danielle Cote 

So we talked prior to this conversation about the 

00:23:49 Danielle Cote 

behavior being communication and communication being behavior. 

00:23:52 Danielle Cote 

And when you are exposed to certain people or devices, it affects your behavior. 

00:24:01 Danielle Cote 

But how do you change this need to have this dopamine? 

00:24:05 Danielle Cote 

You need it. 

00:24:07 Danielle Cote 

It's like you're feeling hungry or thirsty or you want a substance. 

00:24:11 Danielle Cote 

So 

00:24:13 Danielle Cote 

And it is really not to say, let's stop using the cell phone, but it's really to be exposed to other experiences. 

00:24:21 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I think, Danielle, cell phones are great. 

00:24:23 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

We can use them as a tool. 

00:24:24 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I don't think they need to be with a two-year-old and an iPad for six hours a day, or the kids need them in the morning and the night. 

00:24:32 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So we've talked a lot about those things, but I think for the sake of our conversation for now, we probably need to give some parent 

00:24:39 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

tips as into how to help them. 

00:24:43 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

What can we do? 

00:24:44 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And one of the things we talk about all the time is play. 

00:24:47 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

There is a book by Stuart Brown, Dr. 

00:24:49 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Stuart Brown. 

00:24:50 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

It's labeled play and essentially bring those that free play back. 

00:24:55 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

If you look at Montessori, Maria Montessori, you know, from the beginning of time, you learn through play. 

00:25:02 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You collaborate, have empathy, self-regulate through play. 

00:25:05 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So that's one of the things parents can bring back. 

00:25:08 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Or if you don't 

00:25:09 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

know how to get rid of the device. 

00:25:12 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Maybe you use the device with your child, right? 

00:25:16 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Let's talk about whatever this is, the conversation, the picture, build that language, have that time. 

00:25:25 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

One of the things that we often say is have a place in the evenings where everyone stores their phones. 

00:25:32 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Okay. 

00:25:32 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, whatever model, put your device in this area for the night. 

00:25:40 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Those are just a few things. 

00:25:41 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I see you over there. 

00:25:42 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You're like, there is so much to say. 

00:25:45 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

There's so much to say. 

00:25:46 Danielle Cote 

Yeah. 

00:25:46 Danielle Cote 

And you know, I know some of our listeners might be thinking, well, my children or I play with them. 

00:25:54 Danielle Cote 

You know, I play video games. 

00:25:55 Danielle Cote 

That's play. 

00:25:56 Danielle Cote 

It is a form of play. 

00:25:58 Danielle Cote 

What's important to remember is the isolation in your bedroom versus the interaction with others. 

00:26:06 Danielle Cote 

What helps the brain develop in children and in adults too, but in children, it's really this exposure to human beings live. 

00:26:15 Danielle Cote 

So you're interacting with them. 

00:26:17 Danielle Cote 

So again, we're not saying that video games played with others is wrong or bad, but the more experiences you have in person in terms of play 

00:26:28 Danielle Cote 

talk to develop your language skills. 

00:26:32 Danielle Cote 

Earlier we were talking about what's called executive functioning. 

00:26:36 Danielle Cote 

So the computer of our brain, so the ability to control impulse, to structure your work, to pay attention, to work with others, to also resolve conflicts. 

00:26:51 Danielle Cote 

We're wondering why our kids are not able to resolve conflicts. 

00:26:54 Danielle Cote 

We're doing it for them. 

00:26:56 Danielle Cote 

So the ability to 

00:26:59 Danielle Cote 

our interaction with others in person helps with that. 

00:27:04 Maurica Manibusan 

I actually see that show up in the workplace, that lack of being able to problem solve on their own. 

00:27:13 Maurica Manibusan 

I mean, the phones, since their introduction, I mean, it's easy access, it's expediency to information, it's those instant hits. 

00:27:22 Maurica Manibusan 

But they don't really teach you everything about problem solving, how to resolve things face to face with individuals. 

00:27:30 Maurica Manibusan 

I feel how to handle anxiety or stress, or I mean, it's just like when we were little, right? 

00:27:35 Maurica Manibusan 

You fall down, your parents tell you get up and shake it off and run around, right? 

00:27:40 Maurica Manibusan 

And like Amanda mentioned, we stayed out till the evening. 

00:27:43 Maurica Manibusan 

We played till the lights went out and whatever happened. 

00:27:46 Maurica Manibusan 

but now there have been, but we work through it. 

00:27:48 Maurica Manibusan 

And so the reason I mention it in the workforce is I think kids or the young adults that enter the workforce are troubled. 

00:27:55 Maurica Manibusan 

Like they don't have that ability to work through those problems. 

00:27:59 Maurica Manibusan 

And I feel sometimes the problem solving skills are lacking a little bit. 

00:28:02 Maurica Manibusan 

And that's not to say for everyone, but it is something I have seen 

00:28:08 Maurica Manibusan 

for me at least. 

00:28:09 Danielle Cote 

Maurica, you're completely right. 

00:28:11 Danielle Cote 

And you and I have been being here for many years. 

00:28:13 Danielle Cote 

I personally have seen my job change from, maybe a classroom coach all the way to being a mediator. 

00:28:24 Danielle Cote 

And so as a BCBA, 

00:28:29 Danielle Cote 

board certified behavior I was. 

00:28:31 Danielle Cote 

I utilize a lot of those skills to work with adults actually who have conflicts with specifically school districts and charter schools versus families. 

00:28:42 Danielle Cote 

where there is a great effect on the child, but it's this inability to resolve conflicts. 

00:28:48 Danielle Cote 

And briefly, I wanted to talk about empathy or lack of empathy. 

00:28:53 Danielle Cote 

We wonder often why adults, but also children, lack empathy. 

00:28:59 Danielle Cote 

In order for someone to be able to empathize for another being, whether it's another adult or even an animal, is this skill to be able to recognize our own emotions first. 

00:29:14 Danielle Cote 

Since we are interacting with machines or people we don't know, we don't get to develop those skills. 

00:29:21 Danielle Cote 

That could be practiced through that play, and we are calling it play in general, but play is interaction with others and having fun in an unstructured manner. 

00:29:32 Danielle Cote 

That's very important, the piece about being unstructured. 

00:29:36 Danielle Cote 

Everything that's superstructured where kids don't get to practice the skills and resolve conflicts on their own 

00:29:43 Danielle Cote 

is that experiences. 

00:29:45 Danielle Cote 

So yes. 

00:29:46 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I think if we can offer one thing is go back to the basics. 

00:29:51 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Go back to the board games, to the family dinners, talk to the kids, talk to your relatives, right? 

00:29:59 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Take the time to build a relationship with people to collaborate. 

00:30:04 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Understand and practice empathy or problem solving. 

00:30:07 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Think about when we played those board games, wait your turn. 

00:30:11 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

How are we going to strategize this, right? 

00:30:13 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Our children don't have those skills anymore because they're by themselves alone in a bedroom with a device. 

00:30:20 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Amanda. 

00:30:21 Amanda Gingerich 

So what you were saying on that, go back to the basics. 

00:30:23 Amanda Gingerich 

I have a 14 year old son and he went out, he's like, I'm going to go for a jog, mom. 

00:30:27 Amanda Gingerich 

I'm like, okay, fine. 

00:30:28 Amanda Gingerich 

Cause you know, I have him on like 365. 

00:30:30 Amanda Gingerich 

He knows that I'm tracking him. 

00:30:32 Amanda Gingerich 

Well, next thing you know, he stopped and he's at the park down the street and I'm like, 

00:30:36 Amanda Gingerich 

You've been gone for like 45 minutes. 

00:30:39 Amanda Gingerich 

Text him, what are you doing? 

00:30:40 Amanda Gingerich 

Get home now. 

00:30:41 Amanda Gingerich 

No response. 

00:30:41 Amanda Gingerich 

So I call him. 

00:30:43 Amanda Gingerich 

I call him and he doesn't answer. 

00:30:45 Amanda Gingerich 

And I'm looking at my husband. 

00:30:46 Amanda Gingerich 

I was like, he's gonna be in so much trouble. 

00:30:47 Amanda Gingerich 

What is he doing? 

00:30:49 Amanda Gingerich 

And he's at the park. 

00:30:49 Amanda Gingerich 

He's now been standing there for the last 15 minutes. 

00:30:52 Amanda Gingerich 

And so he calls me. 

00:30:53 Amanda Gingerich 

He's like, what, mom? 

00:30:54 Amanda Gingerich 

I'm just at the park playing with whoever he's playing with. 

00:30:57 Amanda Gingerich 

And I said, did you call me and tell me that you were gonna go do this? 

00:31:00 Amanda Gingerich 

He's like, well, I figured you saw me. 

00:31:02 Amanda Gingerich 

Okay, great. 

00:31:03 Amanda Gingerich 

What about your communication? 

00:31:05 Amanda Gingerich 

Where are you? 

00:31:06 Amanda Gingerich 

Who are you with? 

00:31:07 Amanda Gingerich 

When are you going to be home? 

00:31:08 Amanda Gingerich 

Because when I had no phone, I had to communicate all that. 

00:31:11 Amanda Gingerich 

So it's a lack of communication where they're just thinking, well, you're trapped. 

00:31:15 Amanda Gingerich 

You know what I'm doing? 

00:31:16 Maurica Manibusan 

And that's one good thing I can see is the GPS. 

00:31:19 Maurica Manibusan 

There's some great features going back to what we talked about earlier. 

00:31:23 Maurica Manibusan 

That's one great benefit, that ability to track your child. 

00:31:26 Maurica Manibusan 

But I think because kids take that for granted and they know those things exist, there's no 

00:31:31 Maurica Manibusan 

structured way of them saying, hey, mom, I'm not here. 

00:31:35 Maurica Manibusan 

I'm here for 20 minutes. 

00:31:36 Maurica Manibusan 

Don't worry about me because they are dependent on the device to kind of like fill that need. 

00:31:42 Maurica Manibusan 

Mom's fine. 

00:31:43 Maurica Manibusan 

She has me on find my son out there. 

00:31:47 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But you specifically said something so important. 

00:31:50 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You were out till all hours of the night riding your bike, probably undisturbed, right? 

00:31:56 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I don't know how often you checked in, but if we checked in, it was we borrowed a neighbor's phone. 

00:32:02 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So there was a lot of, I don't know if trust is the right word or we're more scared now as parents for our children. 

00:32:13 Maurica Manibusan 

I definitely agree. 

00:32:14 Maurica Manibusan 

I think fear plays into that. 

00:32:16 Maurica Manibusan 

Going back to what you talked about in 2010, I think way early in 1990s, maybe the 80s, 

00:32:22 Maurica Manibusan 

You mentioned kidnapping and there was this rise and I think people got scared and parents didn't want to let their children out of sight. 

00:32:30 Maurica Manibusan 

So there became this whole thing of overprotection. 

00:32:33 Maurica Manibusan 

So parents were freaked out and they wanted to overly protect their child. 

00:32:37 Maurica Manibusan 

What used to be what we were so accustomed, run out the street and run to the neighbors and go. 

00:32:42 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Independence. 

00:32:43 Maurica Manibusan 

Right. 

00:32:43 Maurica Manibusan 

It takes away independence. 

00:32:45 Maurica Manibusan 

And so during that time, I think there's that heightened fear that my kid would get kidnapped. 

00:32:50 Maurica Manibusan 

But 

00:32:52 Maurica Manibusan 

going forward, now it's this, well, they have access to the phone, not realizing that level of under protection is just as scary. 

00:33:00 Amanda Gingerich 

So scary. 

00:33:02 Danielle Cote 

Absolutely, and I want to 

00:33:04 Danielle Cote 

to refer to what you just referred to in terms of this fear. 

00:33:10 Danielle Cote 

If we go back in time to and we're looking at today's society statistically, our society is way safer than it ever was. 

00:33:19 Danielle Cote 

However, the constant re-exposure to, let's say, videos that shows crime and if we're thinking even of 9-11 where we've been exposed to the same images about 100, 1000 times, 

00:33:34 Danielle Cote 

This was a horrible time within the country. 

00:33:39 Danielle Cote 

However, if we're aligning that with kids being exposed to violent images, videos, et cetera, and then parents watching that, of course, my child, the perception is that they're at risk. 

00:33:55 Danielle Cote 

circling back to just the extremes again, is that we need to keep kids safe in school and in the home setting, in the community, but just putting some structures so that these safety measures are in place, but at the same time, not going to the other extreme where we're watching too much. 

00:34:16 Danielle Cote 

And then quick tips too, within the home, sleep, not being exposed to media within your bed, ability 

00:34:24 Danielle Cote 

to get deep sleep so we were able to pay attention in school. 

00:34:29 Danielle Cote 

We're able to be patient with others. 

00:34:31 Danielle Cote 

Without proper sleep and deep sleep, those cannot be accessed back to the brain again functioning properly. 

00:34:39 Maurica Manibusan 

And that also helps with temper tantrums throughout the day. 

00:34:41 Maurica Manibusan 

Yes. 

00:34:42 Danielle Cote 

100%. 

00:34:42 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I have this good analogy. 

00:34:44 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Do you all go to amusement parks? 

00:34:46 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Have you been there around, I don't know, 12 to 2 o'clock-ish? 

00:34:52 Maurica Manibusan 

Been a minute since I've been there. 

00:34:53 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Well, observation here, I frequent them. 

00:34:56 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Around that time... 

00:34:57 Maurica Manibusan 

You're brave. 

00:34:59 Maurica Manibusan 

You're brave. 

00:34:59 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You start to hear a lot of children having temper tantrums. 

00:35:05 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Why? 

00:35:06 Amanda Gingerich 

Because they're tired. 

00:35:06 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

They're tired. 

00:35:07 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

They're exhausted. 

00:35:08 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

They've been up all day. 

00:35:09 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Around that same time, the parks also start to have less occupants. 

00:35:16 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So they go to their hotel rooms so that they can rest their children. 

00:35:20 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So it goes back to napping and sleep the whole thing. 

00:35:23 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I told Danielle earlier, I said, our beds, they're recharging stations for us. 

00:35:30 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

They're just big recharging stations, you know. 

00:35:32 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But something about the blue light, if we're watching the TVs and the screens in the evenings, that blue light is coming into our eyes and therefore our bodies are not making melatonin to put us to sleep. 

00:35:45 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So we have to be really careful. 

00:35:46 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So my suggestion for anyone is 45 minutes before bedtime, cut the blue lights. 

00:35:55 Maurica Manibusan 

I'm so guilty of this. 

00:35:57 Maurica Manibusan 

You talk about the blue light and I rationalize that my age factors into why I can't get to bed or. 

00:36:05 Maurica Manibusan 

Talking about this is like, no, you know, brings it to the forefront. 

00:36:08 Maurica Manibusan 

I do the late night scrolling. 

00:36:11 Maurica Manibusan 

Oftentimes I wait for my notifications. 

00:36:14 Maurica Manibusan 

So all these interruptions throughout the night keeps me from sleeping and to include my Netflix. 

00:36:20 Maurica Manibusan 

But absolutely, absolutely, you're absolutely right. 

00:36:23 Maurica Manibusan 

Sleep deprivation is huge. 

00:36:26 Maurica Manibusan 

And so it does factor into 

00:36:29 Maurica Manibusan 

how we respond or react the next day. 

00:36:31 Maurica Manibusan 

And it's in the dopamine, the phone, it's that need to constantly pick it up and I can't turn it off. 

00:36:37 Maurica Manibusan 

But I agree, I think there has to be that 45 minute window. 

00:36:41 Maurica Manibusan 

I think there was a suggestion, one of my friends said, just cut off the phone, take the charger and hide it from your children. 

00:36:48 Maurica Manibusan 

I'm like, man, if there's a will, there's a way. 

00:36:50 Maurica Manibusan 

Yes, absolutely. 

00:36:51 Amanda Gingerich 

Who's gonna hide the charger from you? 

00:36:54 Maurica Manibusan 

My husband can't for sure. 

00:36:56 Danielle Cote 

Yes, and this rule about 45 minutes, some researchers go all the way to three hours, not just for media and technology, but also eating and being exposed. 

00:37:06 Danielle Cote 

If we're thinking about the five senses, so 

00:37:10 Danielle Cote 

being exposed to too many images, too many videos, different colors, different sounds, etc. 

00:37:17 Danielle Cote 

As much as we want to be partially AI and robots and all that, we're not. 

00:37:23 Danielle Cote 

We're human beings, we're animals. 

00:37:25 Danielle Cote 

And so if we're thinking of ourselves thousands of years ago, that's what we still are. 

00:37:31 Danielle Cote 

And so the impact to our body of all this extra stimulation is 

00:37:38 Danielle Cote 

affecting adults and children alike to a very, very serious level. 

00:37:43 Danielle Cote 

It's actually altering our physical body and then what's going on in the brain and that's very, very detrimental. 

00:37:50 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So Danielle, I know we have to wrap it up soon and I've been so happy to be here. 

00:37:55 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

There's so much I've wanted to say, but we just can't at the moment. 

00:37:58 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But a tip because I had to purchase them myself. 

00:38:01 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I have a hard time sleeping. 

00:38:03 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I did have to purchase the blue white glasses to help me because I do work late at night on my computer, which I should not be doing. 

00:38:12 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So you may want to look into the blue white glasses. 

00:38:16 Amanda Gingerich 

She's up there on her phone googling. 

00:38:18 Amanda Gingerich 

She's ordering that *** on Amazon. 

00:38:20 Amanda Gingerich 

I'll be doing that. 

00:38:22 Amanda Gingerich 

So we want to thank you both for joining us. 

00:38:24 Amanda Gingerich 

We would love to have you guys back. 

00:38:26 Amanda Gingerich 

I'm sure everybody listening would love to continue this conversation. 

00:38:29 Amanda Gingerich 

It's really interesting. 

00:38:31 Amanda Gingerich 

But I do have a question for you. 

00:38:33 Amanda Gingerich 

If there's one message you want parents and educators to walk away with, what would that be? 

00:38:39 Danielle Cote 

You want to go ahead, Miya. 

00:38:40 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Well, as a parent and educator, I would like to say whatever you want from your children, you need to do the same thing. 

00:38:53 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

If you want your children to pay attention to you, make sure when they are speaking to you, you're not distracted by your phone, by the likes, or the opinion that you are having a conversation, you are engaged with them. 

00:39:06 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And just go back to the basics. 

00:39:08 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Remember your childhood and try to bring that into their childhood. 

00:39:12 Danielle Cote 

I think for me the message would be to educators. 

00:39:16 Danielle Cote 

There's a concept called mirror neurons. 

00:39:19 Danielle Cote 

And it's this concept that you bring an energy to a setting, whether it's a classroom, whether it's outdoors with the kids, et cetera. 

00:39:29 Danielle Cote 

And that the energy you bring yourself, it's similar to what Miya just talked about in terms of modeling. 

00:39:35 Danielle Cote 

It's really creating these environments that are serene, that are supportive of kids learning 

00:39:42 Danielle Cote 

but also for us adult, supportive in terms of our being able to be the best that we can be in those settings to be able to help the kids. 

00:39:52 Danielle Cote 

So creating this environment and then being healthy ourselves, not always easy, but just focusing on 

00:40:01 Danielle Cote 

are being calm and eating well and just being there also for that interaction. 

00:40:07 Danielle Cote 

It matters. 

00:40:09 Danielle Cote 

Schools are not just designed to teach curriculum from top down, but it's really this interaction that you have with the kids that will create change in the world. 

00:40:22 Maurica Manibusan 

Your kids spend half their day at school 

00:40:25 Maurica Manibusan 

And so if you're providing these good teaching and good habits, they carry a long way even in the school environment. 

00:40:32 Maurica Manibusan 

That's how I feel. 

00:40:32 Maurica Manibusan 

But thank you so much for sharing that message to our listeners. 

00:40:37 Maurica Manibusan 

Now, Amanda lied, okay? 

00:40:39 Maurica Manibusan 

That's not the last question. 

00:40:41 Maurica Manibusan 

Sorry, guys, sorry. 

00:40:45 Maurica Manibusan 

Unbeknownst to Amanda, I had two more. 

00:40:48 Maurica Manibusan 

So I do want to ask you, with today's generation and you see the impacts and the effects with technology, the decrease in free play and the mental health rise in suicidal rates, what gives you hope when it comes to this particular generation of kids? 

00:41:06 Maurica Manibusan 

Because it's different. 

00:41:07 Maurica Manibusan 

What gives you hope? 

00:41:09 Danielle Cote 

I see the younger generation in terms of 

00:41:13 Danielle Cote 

classes, courses that we offer here within our organization and the openness that the younger generation, so I'm talking about educators right now, have towards finding a new way, a new norm, a new norm, because if I'm thinking of college students or new educators, 

00:41:35 Danielle Cote 

They are so stressed out. 

00:41:37 Danielle Cote 

They report to you that they need accommodations, that sort of thing. 

00:41:42 Danielle Cote 

They are experiencing anxiety day in and day out, and they want this to cease. 

00:41:47 Danielle Cote 

And what gives me hope is their interest in approaching us, in working with us, in creating these new ways so that they, first it's a survival thing. 

00:42:00 Danielle Cote 

They want to lead a happy and stress, not completely stress-free life, not possible, but certainly a serene life and thrive and all that. 

00:42:11 Danielle Cote 

And they know that right now it's not happening. 

00:42:14 Danielle Cote 

So that's that hope, that openness and flexibility that 

00:42:17 Danielle Cote 

generation has towards finding those new ways. 

00:42:21 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

You, Miya, what gives me hope is that a change is coming. 

00:42:25 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

What gives me hope is this podcast, the fact that you all are interested, the fact that people are going to listen. 

00:42:32 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

What gives me hope is the books on the anxious generation 

00:42:38 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

and play. 

00:42:39 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

What also gives me hope is society itself, because we sort of cited countries like the EU, like Malaysia, unfortunately the lawsuit. 

00:42:53 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

But what I'm saying is society is waking up and we are taking a stance. 

00:42:59 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And it's much easier to have the pendulum swing the other way if we're doing it collectively. 

00:43:06 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So one person 

00:43:08 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

is hard to make a change, but society, if we're doing it together, we can make a change. 

00:43:13 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And it gives me hope that people want to make that change and that they are listening and they're doing something about it. 

00:43:19 Maurica Manibusan 

I'm totally looking forward to this new awakening for sure. 

00:43:23 Maurica Manibusan 

Because as a parent who have experienced it, I've seen it. 

00:43:26 Maurica Manibusan 

And so I agree. 

00:43:27 Maurica Manibusan 

I share in that whole new hope to close out a little bit, where can families, I know you mentioned a couple of tips and we kind of drop tips here and there and then we go into deep 

00:43:37 Maurica Manibusan 

discussion, but I like to circle back one more time and say, where can families and schools really start if they start to feel overwhelmed with this whole digital world? 

00:43:47 Danielle Cote 

So I think something really fun is that Jonathan Hyde, the researcher we were talking about a few minutes ago, I'm excited to 

00:43:57 Danielle Cote 

be exposed to his new work. 

00:43:58 Danielle Cote 

It's called The Amazing Generation. 

00:44:01 Danielle Cote 

So we were talking about hope. 

00:44:03 Danielle Cote 

And so it's kind of a cartoonish based book that gives concrete strategy. 

00:44:08 Danielle Cote 

So very accessible. 

00:44:10 Danielle Cote 

You can find it wherever we find books these days without naming it. 

00:44:17 Maurica Manibusan 

Particular vendor. 

00:44:19 Danielle Cote 

So I think so that's one way of starting. 

00:44:22 Danielle Cote 

Also, Jonathan Hyde himself and other researchers, if you go on YouTube, so free access, there's talking about being here at a podcast today, has many, many podcasts in relation to those topics. 

00:44:39 Danielle Cote 

And of course, using things like AI in a positive manner, you can get summaries of this work, getting the basic research. 

00:44:50 Danielle Cote 

You can ask, what are concrete solutions I can use in my home or in my classroom? 

00:44:55 Danielle Cote 

Give me 5 tips, that sort of thing, that I can use today. 

00:44:59 Danielle Cote 

This is my situation. 

00:45:00 Danielle Cote 

So I think that's very actionable, very workable for families. 

00:45:05 Danielle Cote 

And another thing I would say would be don't start to 

00:45:09 Danielle Cote 

If the hope is to stop the usage of cell phones and devices in your home by the end of this week, that's not going to happen. 

00:45:17 Danielle Cote 

Thinking of the dopamine, that's actually going to create something very dangerous. 

00:45:23 Danielle Cote 

The kids are, even yourself, are going to have failed withdrawal and then it's going to get worse. 

00:45:30 Danielle Cote 

So try small things, not everything will work, and then do it in small increments to see what can be done 

00:45:38 Danielle Cote 

And then go out in nature too. 

00:45:41 Danielle Cote 

Nature is like wonderful for the brain. 

00:45:43 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Well, I'm going to give a plug for our organization. 

00:45:48 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

Yeah, Those things like our podcast here, like our CACs here. 

00:45:58 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

like our family engagements, like our various teams and trainings, we're here for you. 

00:46:05 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And there's a lot of resources on our website. 

00:46:08 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

And actually, Danielle, specifically for you and I, if you look us up in the behavior area, we do have various resources for educators and parents alike. 

00:46:19 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

So really, I'm a little bit biased. 

00:46:21 Miya Narviaz-Ward 

I want them to come our way. 

00:46:23 Maurica Manibusan 

We want you to come our way. 

00:46:25 Maurica Manibusan 

We definitely, and that's the whole purpose of bringing you here. 

00:46:28 Maurica Manibusan 

We have several experts in our organization and I feel like it's not really known to our community. 

00:46:35 Maurica Manibusan 

And so it is a privilege and an honor to actually speak to you both and have you have this conversation. 

00:46:41 Maurica Manibusan 

And Amanda and I sit in and actually absorb what you're saying. 

00:46:45 Maurica Manibusan 

And we're really not, we're just adding here and there. 

00:46:48 Maurica Manibusan 

You guys have taken the floor and we really appreciate that. 

00:46:53 Maurica Manibusan 

So hopefully we'll get another opportunity because like I said in the beginning, circling back, it is a broad topic and there's more to it in depth wise. 

00:47:03 Maurica Manibusan 

there's a lot of content we can talk about because like in our area, we're primarily focused with special education and this topic affects all kids. 

00:47:12 Maurica Manibusan 

We're not just talking about 

00:47:14 Maurica Manibusan 

special education kids, because that's our primary focus. 

00:47:16 Maurica Manibusan 

It's for all kids. 

00:47:17 Maurica Manibusan 

Looks a little different with our kiddos with unique needs, but this is across the board. 

00:47:23 Amanda Gingerich 

This topic, someone's in everybody's house, whether you have children or not. 

00:47:27 Amanda Gingerich 

I'm going to do a shout out though for dropping the plug, but if you guys are interested in finding the resources, you're going to go to cahelp.org, and it's spelled C-A-H-E-L-P.org. 

00:47:40 Amanda Gingerich 

And thank you everyone for joining us today. 

00:47:44 Outro 

Before we wrap up, we want to remind you that if you or someone is facing a crisis, help is available. 

00:47:52 Outro 

You are not alone. 

00:47:54 Outro 

If it's an emergency, please call 911. 

00:47:58 Outro 

For immediate support, you can reach out to the crisis and suicide hotline by dialing 988. 

00:48:05 Outro 

Remember, taking the first step to ask for help is a sign of strength. 

00:48:10 Outro 

Stay safe, take care of yourself, 

00:48:13 Outro 

take care of each other. 

00:48:15 Outro 

Until next time, be well. 

00:48:18 Outro 

See you next time.