The Research Behind the Campaign
Why do everyday screen-free moments matter?
Wait Without Screens is not an anti-screen campaign. Digital media can have benefits for children, and not all screen experiences are the same.
The campaign is based on a simpler idea: when we automatically fill everyday waits with a device, children may miss opportunities to interact with us, play, notice the world around them, use their imaginations, and practice managing small moments of frustration or boredom.
Research in child development helps us understand why those ordinary experiences matter.
Relationships Build Developing Brains
Some of the most valuable moments between adults and young children are remarkably simple.
Responsive, back-and-forth interactions—called “serve and return” interactions—help shape developing brain architecture and support early language, social, and emotional development.
A wait at a restaurant, doctor's office, checkout line, or sibling's activity can sometimes become an opportunity for exactly this kind of interaction: noticing something together, asking a question, telling a story, or simply talking.
(Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University, 2024)
The Wait Without Screens connection:
Waiting time can sometimes become connecting time.
Play Builds Important Skills
Play isn't just entertainment. The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that developmentally appropriate play supports social-emotional, cognitive, language, self-regulation, and executive-function skills. Its clinical report on play was reaffirmed in 2025.
Play doesn't always require toys or planned activities. Children can pretend, invent games, make up stories, move their bodies, and find their own ways to engage with the world around them.
(Yogman et al., 2018)
The Wait Without Screens connection:
An ordinary wait can leave room for play and imagination.
Self-Regulation Develops Over Time
Young children are still developing the skills that help them manage emotions, control impulses, shift attention, and cope when they cannot immediately have what they want.
One longitudinal study of children ages 3–5 found that frequent use of mobile devices to calm children was, over time, associated with greater emotional reactivity in some children. The researchers cautioned that frequent use of a device to manage distress may displace opportunities to develop other regulation strategies. This was an observational study, so it does not establish that devices caused those outcomes.
(Radesky et al., 2023)
The Wait Without Screens connection:
Children need manageable opportunities to experience waiting—not as a test, but as part of gradually learning how to handle it.
Screens Aren't Simply “Good” or “Bad”
The American Academy of Pediatrics' current guidance emphasizes that children's digital experiences cannot be understood through screen-time limits alone. Content, context, the individual child, caregiver involvement, and what media use may be replacing all matter. High-quality educational media can support learning, while heavier solo and noneducational use has been associated with developmental concerns.
That nuance is important to this campaign.
Wait Without Screens does not ask families to eliminate screens. It asks adults to notice the moments when a screen has become the automatic answer to waiting—and occasionally choose something else.
(Munzer et al., 2026)
The Idea Is Small. The Opportunities Are Big.
Sometimes we can talk.
Sometimes we can play.
Sometimes we can notice.
Sometimes we can wonder.
And sometimes, children can simply wait.
Not because screens are inherently bad—but because not every wait needs one.
References
Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. (2024). A Guide to Serve & Return. Harvard University.
Center on the Developing Child: A Guide to Serve & Return
Munzer, T., Parga-Belinkie, J., Milkovich, L. M., et al. (2026). Digital ecosystems, children, and adolescents: Policy statement. Pediatrics, 157(2), e2025075320.
American Academy of Pediatrics: Digital Ecosystems, Children, and Adolescents
Radesky, J. S., Kaciroti, N., Weeks, H. M., Schaller, A., & Miller, A. L. (2023). Longitudinal associations between use of mobile devices for calming and emotional reactivity and executive functioning in children aged 3 to 5 years. JAMA Pediatrics, 177(1), 62–70.
JAMA Pediatrics: Mobile Devices for Calming and Emotional Reactivity
Yogman, M., Garner, A., Hutchinson, J., Hirsh-Pasek, K., & Golinkoff, R. M. (2018). The power of play: A pediatric role in enhancing development in young children. Pediatrics, 142(3), e20182058.