July 2021 Edition
In this edition: How should you discuss current events with your kids? How is Bramble helping parents to manage their children's screen time?
Hello everyone!
We hope that you’ve been keeping safe and healthy. Here’s an update to round up the month of July.
Let’s talk about current events 📰
This month, with the volatile COVID-19 situation and the tragic events in the news, even those of us lucky enough to be directly unaffected may still feel worried and tired. Parents have the additional challenge of processing these incidents with their kids, helping them frame and understand the world around them.
To help you out, we put together these tips on how talk to your kids about scary situations in the news. Click on the image below to check the post out in full!
Of course, complex issues also stir up complex feelings. Here’s a reminder to you, too, parents: mixed feelings are okay! It doesn’t mean any of your emotions are more or less valid than the others. We turned this into a wallpaper, just in case you need an extra reminder 😉
Cycle 10: Screen time 👾🎮📵
Goals and hypotheses
Parents struggling to monitor their children’s device usage or children’s screen time is a tale as old as Bramble! 😰
That’s why after months of experimenting with conversations about schoolwork, it only seemed appropriate to develop another conversation structure dedicated just to screen time. Our goals were two-fold:
To help parents understand the ‘why’ behind their kids’ difficulty in putting down that device (Hint: it’s not just stubbornness or disobedience!)
To help families create a realistic schedule for screen time, which regarded both the parent’s concerns and the child’s need for fun and enjoyment
Here’s what we did to achieve those goals!
We let children choose from very specific reasons for what might make it hard to put their devices down and why they enjoy screen time.
Kids might usually fear expressing these reasons, as they’re afraid of getting scolded.
They may also lack the vocabulary to put their exact sentiments into words.
Our hope was to provide children with the license and the ability to say what they need when it comes to screen time.
We asked parents about the root of their concern when it comes to their kids’ screen time. We hypothesised that most parents’ frustrations would fall into the 3 categories of:
Priorities 📚: “I’m okay with some screen time, but it should only come after homework is done!”
Health 👓: “I’m worried that this behaviour will turn into addiction or deteriorate their eyesight.”
Character building 🌳: “Being able to pause or stop is a matter of self-discipline and independence.”
We suggested very specific solutions, catered to both the children’s and the parents’ needs
We gave users “fill in the blanks” questions to add detail to their plans
For example: many parents want their kids to do “other things” besides just using their devices all the time. To take this one step further, we would then require parents to list 3 alternative activities they would plan with or for their kids, to turn that wish into an actual plan! 🧞♀️💭➡️📝
Results
After a round of Beta testing with 8 families, our Screen Time conversation structure proved to be relatively effective in helping parents address this topic with their children. Why “relatively”?
What went well 🏆
Several parents gave us feedback that their Bramble Screen Time conversations were more calm and productive than the typical conversations (or arguments) they might have with their kids about device usage. 😌 There was less nagging and scolding, and more opportunity for active listening. Parents found the specific solutions suggested helpful and were willing to take them up!
We also received positive confirmation that kids enjoyed using Bramble to address this topic — both in our survey results, and from hearing the delight and assurance in their voices as they saw their innermost feelings reflected back to them in the app.
What we can improve on 🏃🏻
Some parents expressed some uncertainty about whether the solution they created with Bramble would actually work in the days to come. One parent also expressed disappointment that our solutions didn’t offer enough variety or novelty.
This sentiment was echoed by our team upon watching the Beta experiment videos – we agree that there is still room for improvement in how our app facilitates the solution-building process.
While we feel confident in these 2 key pieces of information (why the child desires screen time & why the parent feels concerned about it), our task now is to see how much we can innovate based on this understanding!
Next steps 🥾
As we prepare for our Soft Launch in August, we’re doing some major renovation work in the app! 🛠🏠 We’re sprucing up our interface to ensure that users have a seamless and engaging journey from the moment they download the app, to after they complete their first conversation.
We’re also continuing to develop conversation structures for more topics: daily routines, managing stress, and handling emotional outbursts.
That’s it for this edition! Wishing everyone a wonderful weekend ahead. 😊