The Intentional
Tech Coalition CONCORD
Free event · Tuesday, November 17 in Concord

Your Child’s Brain in a Screen-Saturated World

An evening with neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath

Raising kids in a fast-changing, tech-driven world can feel overwhelming. Neuroscientist Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath will give you clear, research-backed insight into how your child’s brain grows and learns. You’ll leave with practical strategies to support them at home and at school, from kindergarten through high school. A 90-minute presentation followed by a 30-minute live Q&A. Bring your questions.

What you’ll take home

  • How your child’s brain grows and learnsWhat actually builds attention, memory, and deep understanding, and what gets in the way.
  • Practical ways to support your childConcrete strategies for your child’s learning and well-being, at home and at school, including around technology.
  • Good stress vs. bad stressWhy some challenge helps kids grow, and how to tell when it has tipped into harm.

For parents, caregivers, and educators of kids in kindergarten through high school. All are welcome at either (or both) events!

Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath
Jared Cooney Horvath, PhD, MEdNeuroscientist, Harvard educator, and author of the New York Times bestseller The Digital Delusion. Testified before the U.S. Senate on how screens affect children’s learning.
Hear him in his own words
Watch · U.S. SenateJan 2026 testimony on screens and kids’ learning Watch · TEDx Youth“Your Brain, Your Life” Watch · AEI conversation“Are Schools Caught in a Digital Delusion?” More videosInterviews and keynotes: TV, radio, podcasts

One talk, two nights. Open to families from every town; pick the night that works for you.

Nov17Tue
In Concord · In partnership with the Intentional Tech Coalition

Tuesday, November 17

7:00 to 9:00 PM · Auditorium at Ellen Garrison Building at Concord Middle School, 923 Old Marlboro Road

Register for Concord

Childcare for ages 5 to 12 may be offered if there's enough interest. Let us know by Nov 10

Nov16Mon
In Wellesley · Presented by Wellesley Mothers Forum

Monday, November 16

7:00 to 9:00 PM · Hardy Elementary School, 293 Weston Road, Wellesley

Register for Wellesley

Each evening is a 90-minute presentation followed by a 30-minute live Q&A. Presented by Turning Life On and the Lexington Education Foundation. Hosted by Wellesley Mothers Forum, the Intentional Tech Coalition, and Lex Kids Be Kids, with community partners Beyond Screens Wellesley and Open Door Education.

Learn more about the event →
Resources & Events

Resources & Events

The tools we've written ourselves, and the books and websites that come up again and again when families ask where to start. We keep this list short on purpose: everything here is something we've actually read, used, and would hand to a neighbor.

Evidence-informed

We favor work grounded in research, and we say so when something is one perspective among several rather than settled science.

Practical for real families

Ideas a busy household can actually use, without assuming any particular family circumstance, schedule, or budget.

Judgment-free

Nothing on this list shames families for the choices they've already made. We're all figuring this out as we go.

Tools & materials we've made

Written by the coalition for Concord families. Most of these were handed out at our October 15 event, Navigating Tech at Home and School. Free to read, print, and share.

For school

Speak up for your child

Use these on your own child’s behalf. Pick the asks that fit your family, adapt the sample messages, and send them to your child’s teacher or principal. You don’t need to be part of the coalition to use them.

Step-by-step guide · Grades K-8

Safety Guardrails on School Devices

How to use Aspen's internet consent form to ask for the protections you want for your child, and send one of three email templates. Adapted from Turning Life On's Your Consent Counts.

Read it → Two-page handout · Grades K-5

Elementary School Suggested Asks

Five asks you can make for your child, each with the research behind it and a short sample message to send their teacher or principal.

Read it → Two-page handout · Grades 6-8

Middle School Suggested Asks

Seven asks you can make for your child, from allowed-sites-only internet to phones locked away, each with a sample message to send.

Read it → Two-page handout · Grades 9-12

High School Suggested Asks

Four asks you can make for your teen, from AI only in reviewed tools to phones stored bell to bell, each with a sample message to send.

Read it →
One-pager

2026-27 School Priorities

The coalition's three priorities for the year, Safety, Efficacy, and Alignment, and what we're asking the district to do under each.

Read it → Working document

Working Glossary: Educational Technology Terms

Shared language for talking about technology in Concord's schools, from EdTech and screen time to AI, student data safety, and evidence standards.

Read it →

For home

Two-page handout

Thinking about Intentional Tech for Families

Four questions to ask before a new game or a first phone, examples of shared family values, and five small steps to try.

Read it → Comparison guide

Comparing Kids' Watches, Phones & Parental Controls

Kids' smartwatches, flip phones, and basic phones side by side, plus the main parental control apps, with suggestions by age.

Read it →

Websites & organizations

Groups doing wonderful work in this space. Rather than repeat what they do well, we point families their way.

Fairplay
Nonprofit · Children and families

Campaigns, research, and the Screen Time Action Network, working to free childhood from Big Tech's harms.

Distraction-Free Schools Policy Project
Massachusetts-based coalition

Model legislation and weekly advocacy calls on phones, social media, and school technology.

Schools Beyond Screens
National coalition

Evidence-based classroom-tech advocacy, with a deep resource library.

Smartphone Free Childhood US
Parent network

Helps families delay smartphones and organize locally, with a parent-group locator.

Center for Humane Technology
Nonprofit

The nonprofit behind The Social Dilemma, on how persuasive design competes for our attention.

Everyschool
Educator resources

Digital-wellness tools for educators, including the EdTech Triangle for deciding when classroom tech helps.

Away for the Day
School toolkit

Free tools to help middle schools keep phones away during the school day.

Phone-Free Schools Movement
Parent and admin resources

Resources and a national community for families pursuing phone-free school days.

Pencils over Pixels
Opt-out campaign

A campaign for a clear opt-out from 1:1 school-issued devices, with supporting research.

Dr. Jean Twenge
Researcher

The research hub of the psychologist whose work shapes much of this field.

Social Awakening
Talks and education

Max Stossel's organization: talks and guidance for schools and families on social media.

Tech-Wise Arlington: Smartphone alternatives
Parent group · Device guide

Sixteen phones, watches, and other smartphone alternatives compared by cost, features, and common problems.

Books

Longer reads for when you want the full picture, from child development to how persuasive design works.

10 Rules for Raising Kids in a High-Tech World
Jean M. Twenge · 2025

Ten practical, evidence-grounded family rules, from delaying social media to phone-free bedrooms and dinners.

The Amazing Generation
Jonathan Haidt with Catherine Price · 2026

A companion handbook for tweens themselves, turning the research into encouraging, practical guidance.

The Anxious Generation
Jonathan Haidt · 2024

The book that brought this conversation mainstream: a play-based childhood giving way to a phone-based one. (Causal strength debated.)

The Digital Delusion
Jared Cooney Horvath · 2026

A neuroscientist on why classroom tech so often undermines learning, with practical steps for families and schools.

Dopamine Kids
Michaeleen Doucleff · 2026

From the author of Hunt, Gather, Parent: a five-step approach to easing screens' pull on kids' attention and mood.

Dopamine Nation
Anna Lembke · 2021

A Stanford psychiatrist on how constant digital stimulation reshapes the brain's reward system, and how to find balance.

Read something we should know about?

If a book, article, or other resource inspired you or changed how you think about tech, we'd love to hear about it.

Send a recommendation