Screen time is most meaningful when adults and children share the experience together. With questions, guidance, and explanations, adults can help children think about and understand what they are seeing.
Documentation
On your REACH Screen Time application, you will upload documentation of meeting the educational screen time best practice along with a schedule showing the amount of screen time offered, examples of family engagement related to screen time, and including healthy screen time in your written policy.
| REACH Application Documentation | Go NAPSACC Best Practice |
| A written description of how one of your teachers engages with children around screen media to expand on children’s interests or classroom themes. -Name of the video, app, or other screen media used. -How the teacher talked with children about what they were seeing in the screen media. (for example: “they asked questions like…”, “they pointed things out like…”, etc.) -How this activity expanded on children’s interests or other classroom themes -Which NC FELD Domain(s) was/were supported by this activity: Approaches to Play and Learning; Emotional and Social Development; Language Development and Communication; Health and Physical Development; Cognitive Development (construction of knowledge; creative expression; social connections; mathematical thinking and expression; scientific exploration and knowledge) | ST7 When screen time is offered, teachers always talk with children about what they are seeing and learning. ST4 When television or videos are shown to children, this programming is always educational and commercial free. |
*Screen time includes any time spent watching shows or videos or playing games or doing other activities on a screen. Screens can include televisions; desktop, laptop, or tablet computers; or smart phones. Screen time does not include teachers using e-books or tablet computers to read children stories, using Smart Boards for interactive instruction, or real time, interactive instruction or family engagement through Zoom or other videoconferencing programs.
Tips for your documentation:
- Complete each portion of the question: identify the screen media; provide the description; and mark the related NC FELD domain.
- Make sure that the video, app, or screen media named in this example is educational and developmentally appropriate for young children.
- Make your description as detailed as you can. “Paint the picture” of this interaction around screen media so that reviewers can see that your facility is meeting the best practice.
- Example must be from the past 12 months.
Example documentation:
Coming soon…
REACH Recognition 
2 thoughts on “Educational Screen Time”