Amber Saracino (Doctoral Student Educational Leadership emphasis Behavioral Health) & Raina Cunzio (Doctoral Student Educational Leadership emphasis Special Education).

 College: Grand Canyon University Doctoral students in Educational Leadership.

 Title: Disconnect & Connect: 10 Practical Steps for Educators & Parents to Get Kids to Buy into Logging Out 

 Date: October 19th 2018th, New York Association of School Psychologist Conference (NYASP 2018)

Technology continues to be an integral part of our lives, however, it is no secret that overuse of screen time is wreaking havoc on students ability to socially interact and is negatively impacting the mental and physical health of our youth (Scott, Valley, & Simecka, 2017). During this presentation, an open discussion and brief literature review occurred, the focus was on the emerging trends regarding the present-day reality that children face with the use of digital media. For example, the literature indicates that technology addiction has a similar brain pattern to those addicted to alcohol and cocaine (Scott et al., 2017). The detrimental impact on children and adolescents from continual connectivity was discussed. This overview also included the positive and negative implications of technology on youths social-emotional health (Smahelova, Cermak, Smahel, & Juhova, 2017). 

The majority of the presentation focused on reviewing a practical guide for educators and parents. This guide provided 10 evidenced based/practical steps that can be used to develop the Individual Technology Reduction Plan (ITRP). The goal of the ITRP is to collaboratively reduce students overuse/dependence on technology. In addition, the development and implementation of the ITRP was reviewed. An emphasis was placed on the child needing to be a co-creator of mediation strategies to increase buy-in, follow through and goal attainment (Smahelova et al., 2017). A variety of resources, applications, and literature was provided for students, educators and parents to decrease youths dependence on technology.