By NATHAN DEAL | October 5, 2024 | Full Story
After helping Mesa County Valley School District 51 implement its new cellphone policy, the Western Colorado Community Foundation (WCCF) is turning its attention to parental phone use.
The WCCF at the start of this month launched its Heads Up Parenting initiative, an awareness campaign for parents of children aged 0-3. At the heart of the campaign is information about how much time some parents of small children spend on their phones, as well as the developmental impact that has on their kids.
“The idea is to have those public education campaigns that raise awareness of, ‘Hey, distracted parenting really does have an impact on my kid,’ ” said WCCF Grants and Community Outreach Director Tedi Gillespie. “These are critical years. You can’t regain them. Once the kid’s three, four, five, they already either have that foundation or they’re kind of lacking it.”
Gillespie noted statistics compiled by entities such as the American Academy of Pediatrics — such as 80% of a kid’s social, emotional and cognitive development happening in their first three years.
Per the campaign’s website, wc-cf.org/headsup, the average Millennial working parent spends 4 hours and 37 minutes per day with their phone, and phone use can lower parental communication with their child by as much as 39%.
In order to raise awareness, the WCCF is pushing the campaign on social media platforms like Facebook and TikTok, though Gillespie said the most effective outreach will come via pamphlets and other materials being given to parents at providers like pediatricians, primary care doctors and social service providers.
The foundation has also begun rolling out Heads Up Parenting billboards in Mesa County, with more billboards promoting the campaign to come each month through February. The WCCF also plans to roll out promotional materials at Mesa Mall.
These materials include tips on how parents can lower their screen time around their kids, including turning off non-human notifications, establishing device-free zones, using screen time limits and replacing screen time with playtime.
“I just think we all are realizing that we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know what this has been doing over the long term for our kids’ development, and now, we’re starting to know, so we want to spread the word,” Gillespie said.
“We started diving into the research and seeing that it’s not just babies cooing and eying and everything else, it’s really where they’re gaining those skills. In the realm of pediatrics, they call it things like ‘catch and serve’ with all of those eye-to-eye activities like patty cake. It’s about developing attachment with the baby, and the baby is developing their idea of what attachment is.”
The initiative is being rolled out with a Mesa County focus. With enough success, Gillespie said, the Heads Up Parenting campaign will spread across the Western Slope to tackle the issue on a wider scale.
Gillespie said Mesa County has the state’s attention for efforts focusing on healthier technology usage. Gillespie, along with WCCF Program Officer Sarah Fuller, met with Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser during his recent visit to Grand Junction High School to celebrate the school district’s new cellphone policy that separates students from their phones during class, a policy that has been met with largely positive reception, even from students.
“We’ve been talking with the Attorney General’s office and they’re really honing in on and looking at Mesa County as a great example. Even though other districts in the state have been doing cell phone policies, they’re really looking at how Mesa County did it with community partners and support,” Gillespie said. “They’re actively looking at, ‘How can we share best practices with school districts that are thinking about this? The ones that aren’t thinking about this, what are they doing to address this?’ The AG has really honed in on youth mental health and wellness. I think they’re trying to pull out every tool in the toolbox to address these things.”
A billboard in Grand Junction promotes the Western Colorado Community Foundation’s new Heads Up Parenting campaign, an awareness campaign focused on promoting healthier phone usage by parents of children aged 0-3.
NATHAN DEAL/ The Daily Sentinel
