Technology

Meet Me in the Metaverse

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

This past fall, our family went on a cruise to the Western Caribbean. Its kid camp offered a variety of kid activities, including game time in the boat’s computer lab. My son learned how to play Roblox, Minecraft and Fortnite with the other kids on the boat. He loved playing, and I loved that everything was on a closed server. There was an additional in-person moderator to keep the kids in check and I was relieved that he was playing with peers he could actually see and interact with.  

Now that we’re back, he wants to keep playing these awesome games but it’s different. Without the security the boat provided, he’s exposed the entire online world.

Once upon a time, the playground was THE place for kids to meet up, hang out, and blow off that excess energy. Now, it’s the metaverse. If you’re not tech or digitally-savvy like me, the online universe is like the wild west; and now my soon-to-be 8-year-old wants to be part of it. What is a parent to do? But first, what the heck is the metaverse (in a non-Zuckerberg sense)?

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Kids These Days: Generation Alpha

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

The new wave of kids born between 2010-2024 is known as Generation Alpha, slated to be the largest, most diverse, and digitally connected generation to date. While the tail end of this generations’ kids are just being born, their reputation precedes them. Remember last year when people were taking to social media about how “rude and disrespectful” this new generation is in Sephora, blaming their millennial parents for their behavior?

But HOLD ON, is Gen Alpha really as bad as they seem or have we become the “Sorry, Boomers” we made fun of in our youth? And is it the parenting or the societal norms that define a generation?

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The Audio-Visual Club: Kids and Audiobooks

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

“I want people to stop saying, ‘I didn’t really read it, I just listened.’ Stop that. If you listened, you read it. There’s no right way to absorb a book.” – Reese Witherspoon

I enjoy reading a physical book. My husband, however, does not. He prefers putting on his headphones and listening on Audible. He told me that he’s “read” three books over the summer. He’s not the only one in my social circle to count listening to an audiobook as reading. Friends will tell me they’ve read a 560-page novel over the weekend (you what?!) and then clarify that they listened to it during their road trip. Even Patti will simultaneously juggle multiple books for her book club and Child(ish) Reads posts, a feat made easier with paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

As audiobooks become more mainstream, it got me thinking about the trickle-down to kids. Is listening to a book the same as reading one? Can children benefit from this type of auditory medium or would it hinder their ability to read? Inquiring minds would like to know.

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Prepping for Healthy Gaming

| Patti Webb

In my Healthy Gamer book review, I shared a bit about my brother’s and my relationship with video games growing up. I’ve also shared about my husband Troy being a serious gamer well into his adulthood. And now that we have two kids who are ready for beginner video games, we’ve had to create a workable plan for having them in our home.

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The OT in Video Gaming

| Mary Stoffel, MOT, OTR/L

I’m just going to come out and say it: Gaming has gotten a bad rap.

Despite its associations with a sedentary lifestyle or as a catalyst for violence and aggression, new research has found that there’s much more to gaming and these negative connotations have no real proof.

That’s a good thing as gaming has evolved with our lifestyle and in its own medium. It is literally at our fingertips whenever we’re bored or want a quick escape from our daily life. And even if we don’t engage in video games, our kids definitely know about them; from YouTube videos and Twitch to classmates talking about it in school. In other words, gaming culture is here to stay and we’re here for it.

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