Jessica E. Flannery, Ph.D. | Source | Chief Parent & Director of Clinical Product Integration at Aura

Practical tips and advice for the back-to-school season based on research.

1. Devices are here to stay and often times requires for school assignments, research, coordination with classmates, or emails (as early as middle school!). This can make it even harder to regulate screen time use.
2. Establish screen-free times &/or zones. Research shows that setting routines around screen time can help promote a healthier relationship with screens and reduce conflict in the home so that device expectations are clear. They may need them during homework time, but a few times that have been shown to have positive impacts on family relationships and sleep are no devices during dinner time and no devices in the 30min to 1hr before bed. If time is hard, another option is certain rooms or activities are screen-free zones (bedroom for sleep, movie or game night with family, dinner table etc).
3. Add guilt-free screen use into your routine. The demands for screen time can also become more pressing from a social perspective now that everyone is reconnected. Knowing that there are set times allotted for screen use can reduce the conflict and angst around when they get to use their phone to connect again or the feeling they'll get in trouble if they aren't responding to you/caught up in their phone.
4. Avoid entertainment-related screen time right before a non-preferred activity. Where you build in that guilt-free screen time can be just as important, if not more important. Going from an activity like gaming, talking to friends, or social media, to a dreaded homework assignment or chores, makes for a really difficult transition and more likely to lead to conflict. For example, I worked with a family where the only time gaming transitioned worked was if the child got to play for 30min right after school and transitioned to playing outside afterward. There is no one right way to do. Know your kid and family structure to anticipate what transitions might be the hardest and avoid sticking entertainment-related screen time right before those difficult transitions.
5. Model the screen usage you want to see. I get it, we're adults and adults should be able to have different rules. The problem is that when we're trying to teach a new behavior, we teach through our actions far more effectively than our words. If we tell our kid no phones, but are constantly stopping conversations for our phones, they are less likely to listen to what we say around devices. If you need to use your device at times you are otherwise trying to model reduced phone usage, simply stating that can help "I'm picking up my phone really fast to write down the grocery list... okay all done. putting my phone away as we chat"
If you have Aura parental controls... setting focus time is great way to ensure that required screen usage for homework and school is allowed during homework time, but all other apps and websites are blocked during that time. This can help them use the necessary tools of screens for school, but avoid the distractions and unintended rabbit holes kids and adults alike can fall into when all screen time apps are available.