By Diana Brement,
JTNews Columnist
Don Shifrin, M.D. was a tad nonchalant when I spoke to him about winning the American Academy of Pediatrics Holroyd-Sherry Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions in the field of children, adolescents and the media.
It’s clear, however, that he is extremely passionate about his area of expertise that he’s developed in his years as a pediatrician and clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington.
“There wasn’t much research in those days,” he says, when the award was established. Now there’s a lot on the media’s impact on kids, most showing that it’s “significant and life changing.”
Parents don’t need to be told that kids today are using one form of media or another almost constantly. “It’s the one thing they do more than sleep,” says Don, and in the case of teenagers, maybe even more than that.
“This has both positive and negative effects…. The research is pretty young,” generally pointing to a positive effect in learning games and a “somewhat negative” impact on time.
“All media teaches something,” he says. The question is, what do we want kids to learn? A good example is the Baby Einstein company. The company, which was bought by Disney a few years ago for quite a bit of money, claimed that kids watching their videos would become a genius of Einstein or Mozart proportions. Of course it isn’t true, and the company was finally forced — through legal action — to retract those claims.
“Einstein never did watch “˜Baby Einstein,'” quips Don. “These are just distractions.”
The question remains if they are better than other “distractions,” such as playing with blocks. The academy has developed a curmudgeonly reputation for cajoling parents about limiting television and computer time for young kids.
Don says it’s better to teach parents how to set limits, but even when pediatricians talk to parents about media limits (many don’t), parents think they’re being unrealistic.
“We talk about the nag factor,” says Don of his peers. “Our job is to point out to parents that there is a downside to this kind of thing,” just like they point out that babies should sleep on their backs or kids should use seat belts. “We set the bar high,” because “the optimal health of the child” is the concern.
Teens have different issues, of course, with their near-constant reliance on screens. As a parent himself, Don knows it’s hard to talk to them about overuse and abuse of phones, mp3 players or computers. They don’t just roll their eyes, they do “the whole Exorcist thing,” (spinning their heads around, vomiting pea soup). Parents need to know that they have control, especially of phones. Many are “not aware that they can eliminate texting,” or picture mail, he says.
Don has served on the AAP’s council on communications and media for over two decades. In that role he has met with the movie ratings board and worked with Microsoft on Internet safety software. He has testified before the Federal Trade Commission and has voiced, for the past 11 years, the AAP’s one-minute educational radio spots on WBBM Chicago. You can hear these pieces at aap.org. Go to the “Parenting Corner” and click on the logo.
Don is the current chair of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle’s Maimonides Society and says he and his wife, Bobbi Chamberlin, have a “mixed marriage” — she belongs to Temple De Hirsch Sinai and he belongs to Herzl-Ner Tamid.
| | |
Daniel Kranseler’s mom Lisa says the acting bug bit her son when he was just 5. His older sister Julie cast him in a play she wrote as a Bat Mitzvah project.
“He loved that,” says Lisa, proving himself “a little ham.”
Daniel, now 12, just wrapped up a three-week run in the chorus of the 5th Avenue Theatre’s production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which played in Seattle from Oct. 10 to Nov. 1.
It was very demanding, says Daniel. Kids began rehearsing in August, more than a month before regular rehearsals began.
“It was…hard work,” he says, but “awesome…fun,” and “worth it in the end.” He also learned a lot about the inner workings of professional theater and “gained a lot of people skills.”
The show starred Anthony Federov, best known for placing fourth on season four of the “American Idol” reality show. Federov was “really nice,” Daniel says. He willingly signed autographs and keeps in touch with the kids from the cast through e-mail and Facebook.
This was Daniel’s fourth production this year (amateur and professional). Now he’s preparing for a role in Youth Theater Northwest’s mainstage conservatory program and will be dancing in the Emerald Ballet Theater’s Nutcracker. All this while keeping up his grades in the Spanish immersion program at Tillicum Middle School in Bellevue, playing piano in the school jazz band, and getting ready for his Bar Mitzvah at Temple B’nai Torah in June! (I’m tired just thinking about it.)
Daniel’s parents are Kenny and Lisa, who is the executive director of the Washington State Jewish Historical Society. His older brother Andrew is a junior at Newport High School, and his aforementioned sister is a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania. Lisa notes that B’nai Torah members Jenna Oratz and Andy Burnstein were also in the Joseph cast.