Presenter | Mark Yeowell | CEO Language Disorder Australia

Mark is currently the CEO of Language Disorder Australia, based in Brisbane. Over the past 20 years Mark has led four Schools, in England, the United Arab Emirates and Australia. He is currently a doctoral candidate at UNSW, supervised by eminent Finnish Educator, Professor Pasi Sahlberg, and is undertaking research into the experiences of children aged 10 to 13 when they get their first smartphone. Mark frames this event as a rite of passage and as a trigger for ‘digital puberty’. Mark is particularly interested in understanding early social media use and the impact, opportunities, and risk for tweens when they are constantly connected via their smartphone to the internet.  He is also a parent of two teenage sons aged 17 and 18.

Session Information

'Everyone’s got one except me!'… 'I want to be able to keep in contact with my child.' As a parent, deciding to give your child their first smartphone is a big decision and not one to be taken without careful consideration. Owning a smartphone will mark a transition point in your child’s digital life, impact the way in which they interact with technology and require them to manage with increasing independence a whole new set of issues. This phase brings with it new opportunities as well as risks, and the way in which you engage with your child during this stage is of utmost importance. 

This session will provide parents with an overview of some key considerations and include areas such as social media, FOMO, gaming, phones in bedrooms and at mealtimes, face-to-face versus online communication, digital distraction, problematic internet use, wellbeing issues, privacy, risk, opportunities and of course, parenting a digital tween. The aim of the session is to begin to empower parents through greater understanding to support and guide their child as they navigate digital puberty.

Session Date and Time

Venue: Hills Grammar – Details provided to Registrants prior to the event
Date: Thursday 23 March
Time: 6pm – 7.30pm