Nicholas Kardaras – Tech Addiction & Digital Health in Children, Adolescents & Young Adults: Level 1 Certification for Clinicians & Educators

Outline

The Origins of Screen Culture

• The origins of “Indoor Children”
• Difference between passive TV viewing and immersive/interactive modern screen experiences

Neurological Impacts of Technology Overuse

• The role of dopamine in addiction
• The dopaminergic effects of screens on the brain
• A view of screens as “digital drugs”
• Brain imaging research and the effects on the frontal cortex
• Hormonal impacts of tech overuse

Clinical Research: Technology Overuse Impact On:

• Depression and social media
• ADHD and screen-time
• Anxiety and screen-time
• Thought disorders and video games as well as “sensory overload”
• Increased aggression and video games
• Limitations of the research and potential risks

Assessments and Observational Tools

• Assessment tools
• The difference between “overuse” and “addiction”
• A comparison with substance addiction assessment

Treatment Interventions for Tech Overuse

• Not all tech addiction is the same
• Specific digital usage problem, stressors, triggers
• Underlying and co-morbid issues
• Residential vs. outpatient treatment: Pros and cons
• How to implement a “Digital Detox”
• Importance of nature, meditation and exercise

Technology in the Classroom: Pedagogical Impacts of Screen Time

• Research on educational outcomes of classroom technology
• Phones in the classroom and standardized test scores
• Screens in the classroom and impact on reading and comprehension
• Comparisons of “Low Tech” schools and one-to-one screen schools
• Ed Tech: a $60 billion annual industry
• The Los Angeles “iPad Fiasco” and the Amplify initiative by Rupert Murdoch

Working with Families and the Family Dynamic

• Validate that the issues harming families are indeed real
• Address dysfunction contributing to the problem
• Family psychoeducation
• ”Family Intervention Plan”: The solution needs to be a collective one

”Mindful Digital Usage”: How to Reintegrate Back into Healthy Tech Usage

• Individualized digital “re-entry” plan: Hands-on activity
• Help the child to identify healthier “Digital Vegetables” vs. “Digital Candy”
• Measure progress and what to do if there is a setback

Case Study Review

• Learn interventions and strategies to handle:
  • Mood-dysregulated 13 year old male, Dx Intermittent Explosive Disorder (IED)
  • Violent adolescent male, Dx ADHD and conduct disorder, video gamer, school refusal, assaults parents
  • Suicidal adolescent female, Dx depression, disordered eating and self-injurious behavior, social media platforms 8-10 hrs a day
  • Twenty-five-year-old graduate student, very politically-interested, stays up all night “hyper-link” surfing, hears voices, paranoid
  • Social-media obsessed mom, neglects young children, marriage is suffering, children acting out