We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, Preborn
Dr. Jessica Peck: We would like to take a moment to thank our sponsor, PreBorn. When a mother meets her baby on ultrasound and hears their heartbeat, it's a divine connection. And the majority of the time she will choose life. But they can't do it without our help. Preborn needs us, the pro life community, to come alongside them. One ultrasound is just $28. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword BABY or visit preborn.com/AFR hello
: and welcome to the Dr. Nursemama show, prescrib hope for healthy Families here on American Family Radio. Here's your host, professor, pediatric nurse practitioner, and mom of four, Dr. Jessica Peck.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, hey there, friends, and welcome to my favorite time of day. On my favorite day of the week, it is fry. Yay. We are just speeding through the month of May here and we're going to talk about this week's healthy habit in just a minute. We're actually starting a big section on technology. You don't want to miss it. But before that, I have a really special treat for you.
AFR welcomes Pastor Joseph Parker to talk about Ten Commandments Project
One of my favorite guests here on AFR on my favorite day, which is fantastic. We have Pastor Joseph Parker. Now, he is the host of Hour of Intercession. He is a mighty man of faith. He is a prayer warrior, and he is a favorite guest of the show. I know because I hear that from my listeners and from my, from my husband and my father in law who love to hear him pray, as do I. And Pastor Joseph, thank you so much for joining us today and telling us about the Ten Commandments Challenge. This is one of my favorite favorite things that you do every year. Take it away and tell us what it is and how to get involved.
Pastor Joseph Parker: Well, thank you, Jessica, for the opportunity to be with you all again today.
The Ten Commandments Project is a youth discipleship project
And, yes, we, the Ten Commandments Project, actually an ongoing project, the speech challenge in particular, though, changes from year to year. would mention that it's a youth discipleship project. And I would say from the outset, right off hand, I want to challenge every single listener to pray about getting involved with it for this reason. You know, sometimes when believers listen to a project like this, they may think, well, that doesn't apply to me because I don't have young children in the home. Well, actually, every believer should try to be responsible for helping to do discipleship in our culture because children need a lot of help and everybody has a sphere of influence. So as we share about the Ten Commandments Project, I'd encourage every listener prayerfully ask God how you can get involved because actually There really is a way. But there are basically three different parts of the Ten Commandments project. One is very simply, if a young person, it could be a child, a grandchild, a nephew, a niece, or just someone in your church community. And always of course in cooperation with, the parent, if that happens to not be your child. But if they'll memorize the Ten Commandments in short form. And like in the article itself, we have a short form of the Ten Commandments that they can use as a study guide. But if they memorize them, recite them to dad or mom or to this responsible individual, what happens of course is we'll mail them a free Ten Commandments T shirt with the Ten Commandments on the back. And it's a great witnessing tool as well as a beautiful T shirt. But the goal of course is planting the word in the hearts and the minds of our children more so than them getting the shirt. But that's the first part. Second part has to do with encouraging a church or ministry to do a four week community outreach, sharing in the community, similar to vacation Bible school, teaching the meaning behind the Ten Commandments as well as allowing youth to earn their T shirts. Memorize the Ten Commandments and earn them, but teaching them the meaning of the Ten Commandments in their community as well. A way to touch your community around your church or in the neighborhood where you live. And then thirdly is the Speech Challenge, which we do each year. And of course it's where we select, one of the commandments. And this year it is the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself any graven images. And with that we're encouraging the young people to either write a speech or they can get dad or mom's help or anyone, or even if someone just needs help and they say, well, can you all help us? We'll help you with the speech too. Because we simply want the young person to be able to share the speech and record it and get it to us. We suggest it to be three to five minutes. but we will receive, we do receive any link basically. But we encourage you use your cell phone or another recording device recorded. You can send the recording to FAQ fa.net or to J. Parker fa.net with Ten Commandments Project Speech Challenge 2026 on the subject line. And if you have any questions, just call, call the station 662 5036-extension 381. And last year I believe we had 57 speeches that we received. All of them were powerful, all of them were Beautiful. And it's, it's so beautiful to see how the Holy Spirit wonderfully uses a seven year old sharing truth that the world needs to hear. But that's in essence the project.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Pastor Joseph, I love this so much. And I know that there are a lot of grandparents who are listening who might, they might have their grandpa, their grandchildren with them this summer. They might be hosting a cousin camp. There are all kinds of opportunities where they can get their kids together to do it. And one of the things I love is the providence of God, Pastor Joseph, because every Friday here on this show, on the Dr. Nurse Mama show, we talk about a healthy habit for families. And I believe that it is absolutely no coincidence that today's healthy habit is reading out loud. We're starting a series in the summer. We're all talking about technology habits, but the first one is kind of anti technology and reading out Loud. And I would love for you just to share a few thoughts because I know that you have them, you and I share them. About the power of children reading aloud the Word of God. Not adults reading aloud the Word of God to children, which is also so important, but children reading aloud the Word
Pastor Joseph Parker: of God, well, you know, that's, it's an, it's a fun topic to actually talk about, but also a very vitally important topic too, because, you know, Jessica is so good for us to understand and remember this. The Word of God is Jesus and Jesus is the Word. So when you're reading the Word of God, you're spending time directly in the presence of Jesus, you're spending time with him, you're interacting with him. So when a child reads the Word of God, they're spending time with Jesus. Now, as you just alluded to, one of the reasons why it's so good for parents to have the child read is because it's wonderful to hear dad and mom. But when the child reads, they have to engage. Whereas if they listen to dad or mom read, they might listen, they might doze, they might daydream, they might go in another world. But when they're reading, they have to engage and the Holy Spirit will work on them. And so when the child reads, keep in mind, just like I like to encourage a goal of reading at least three chapters a day, which some people think that's a lot. It's really not just a very basic spiritual meal, but three chapters a day, having them to read aloud is a good thing. And Jessica, it's so good for us as believers to read, pursue making this kind of discipleship Project a fun one, because it is. It very easily can be. Whereas the devil wants to make us to think of it as a burden. But having the child to read is good because, number one, you are pouring the eternal word in the heart and mind of the child. But also, the fact is, children ask wonderful questions. And when you let them read and then allow them to stop and ask whatever questions they have, they will have them. And it allows the Holy Spirit to work on them more and more. And the fact is, parents and grandparents like to hear the sound of their children's voices. Well, understand this. Nobody likes to hear your child's voice more than God does when they're reading the word of God. So having them to read the Word as a habit is a good thing. Plus, come up with an incentive, you know, just like some sort of prize, some sort of reward is a wise thing. Because, like, well, you know, when some parents say, well, that sounds like you're bribing them. Well, not really. That's the wrong way to look at it. You're giving them reward for doing something they need to be doing anyway. And help children to come to fall in love more so with the word of God, because they need to. And the fact is, children will tend to fall in love with something, and too often they become addicted to all sorts of darkness and toxic things on the Internet that are bad for them. God's word is pure light. There's nothing better for a child or an adult than the word of God and consuming the word of God. So starting that habit of having a child read three chapters aloud to you daily is such a good thing for a parent, a grandparent, or persons that work with young people in most any context.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Pastor Joseph, I'm telling you, I have a whole parcel of nieces and nephews, and I am really going to do my best to get them engaged in this challenge. One of the other things I love about it is I love that kid. It helps kids to make a speech, to speak out loud, because one of the detriments of technology is that we're losing the power of speech. There is more communication that goes on with texting, with even voice text that isn't synchronous, isn't happening at the same time, or even using emojis, and to help children be confident in their speech and to speak out loud, the word of God. I think that also puts a confidence in their soul. And they're already used to saying that out loud, to saying God's word out loud. It makes it such A natural overflow to tell their friends, if they have a friend who's struggling or worried, they can say something like, cast your cares upon the Lord because he cares for you. And that's a natural overflow of what they're already doing at home. Don't you see it that way too?
Pastor Joseph Parker: Very much so. Very much so. I would mention, too, that, like, we want to get as many of them on a broadcast as we can, because, like, for example, once they do the speech, our goal is to get the child and a parent on to talk about their journey of doing it, because it's always an adventure and they have things to share that will bless many other people. So now, to be honest, it seems that for one reason or another, we get a minority of the participants on broadcast, but will get as many on broadcast as, are wanting to, along with a parent. So that's just another side of the project as well.
I would ask Pastor Joseph to pray over families battling technology today
Dr. Jessica Peck: Well, Pastor Joseph, as parents face these, challenges that come with technology today, there's a lot of fear, there's a lot of anxiety. And as we close our time together, I would love to ask you, Pastor Joseph, to just pray over those families who are battling technology and, and seeking for wisdom and courage and strength to lead their children in this area of digital discipleship would lift those families up.
Pastor Joseph Parker: Okay, Father, thank you, Lord, for all those that are part of our listening family. And, Lord, thank you for families in the body of Christ throughout our culture. Father, flood the church. Flood our families with mercy and grace. Lord. Flood us with a fresh anointing that would stir us to make planting your word in the hearts of our children the priority you would have us to make it. Help us to know, Lord, that your word is the most powerful weapon in the universe. And help us to be wise enough to teach and train our children to really engage that wonderful weapon called the word of God, and which is also Jesus. Help them to know that they're helping their child. Just spend time in the presence of Jesus and Lord, anoint them with an anointing of courage and grace to make it the priority you would have us to make it. In Jesus name we do pray. Amen.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Amen.
If you want to learn more about prayer, listen to the Hour of intercession
Well, Pastor Joseph, before you go, please tell our listeners where they can catch the hour of intercession and can hear you pray just so naturally. If you want to learn more to make prayer a part of your life, a part of your vocabulary, a part of your daily walk with the Lord, you can listen to the of intercession. Pastor Joseph, tell us how to do that.
Pastor Joseph Parker: Early in the morning between 3 and 4am Central. That's when we're aired. And also, of course, they can always catch the podcast if they happen to be someone that doesn't stay up all night.
Dr. Jessica Peck: So, well, if you're up scrolling doom scrolling, turn on the hour of intercession. It will calm your spirit. Pastor Joseph, we always appreciate having you on. Thank you for dropping by. Until next time. Hopefully it won't be long.
Pastor Joseph Parker: Thank you.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Thank you.
This week's healthy habit is reading out loud
Well, as we talk about this week's healthy habit, it is reading out loud. And I want to start with a key verse from Psalm 78, verses 4. It goes like this. We will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power and the wonders he has done. And we tell that through stories, through the stories of our lives, through the stories of other people's lives, and sometimes through stories that reflect biblical characters. Ah. And attributes and model for our kids what it looks like to struggle in this world. And long before podcasts and television and smartphones or streaming platforms, families gathered around stories and stories were spoken. Scripture was recited out loud. History was remembered orally. Wisdom was passed down from one generation to the next through the human voice. And today's healthy habit is really just beautifully a simple reflection of that. Read out loud.
Experts are warning that children are reading less deeply with lower comprehension
Now we are living through one of the greatest shifts in literacy and attention in modern history, and it's got me worried. Children today consume enormous amounts of content more than ever before, through videos and clips and scrolling feeds and captions and algorithms and entertainment and infotainment, and it is endless. But many experts are warning that children are reading less deeply, less frequently, with lower comprehension. We have attention spans shrinking. We have kids who aren't able to focus on anything for more than 30 seconds because that's how our brain has been trained to pay attention. There are fewer and fewer children reading a full book, and screen based learning is replacing immersive reading. Even adults increasingly skim rather than deeply engaged with the text. We're surrounded by words everywhere, yet deep literacy is eroding. Now, when we look at historical perspective, books were once a very treasured possession. I know I have some books that were passed down to me by my great grandparents that were really special Bibles. Books were rare, they were handwritten, they were expensive, they were sacred. And families would pass these down for generations. And most of the time it. The Bible reading itself was considered to be essential for intellectual formation, for moral development, for spiritual discipline, and even for social advancement. Before there was widespread literacy, these stories were spoken aloud. Scripture was read in the public square. In the church, families gathered to listen to it, read aloud together. And reading was always a deeply relational experience. But then came radio, television, Internet, the dreaded smartphone and social media and entertainment shifted from imagination driven to image crafting from active engagement to just passive consumption. Books require participation. It requires imagination and memory and empathy and reflection and patience to wait to the end to find what, what happens. Unless you're one of those people who skips to the end. Hey, don't skip to the end of this program. I'm going to talk about the decline in reading, why it matters and what you can do about it. Join us on the other side of this break.
Preborn empowers women to become mothers through an ultrasound
Mother's Day. It's one of the most beautiful moments of the year to share life changing news. Maybe you've seen it, a family gathered around the table. When someone stands up and says, next year there will be a brand new mom in our family, there's nothing like it.
Dr. Jessica Peck: It.
Dr. Jessica Peck: But for some women, Mother's Day feels very different. Instead of celebrating, they're carrying a secret. Afraid, unsure, alone. That's why preborn exists. Because when a woman sees her baby on an ultrasound and hears that tiny heartbeat, it doubles the chance she'll choose life. I couldn't imagine my life without him because of them. He's here. We're gonna get through it and it's gonna be okay. Preborn empowers women to become mothers. Just $28 provides 1U sound. To donate, dial pound 250 and say the keyword baby. That's pound 250 baby. Or donate securely at, preborn.com/AFR that's preborn.com/AFR.
Live Out Loud by Steven Curtis Chapman : Imagine this. I get a phone call from Regis. He says, do you want to be a millionaire? They put me on the show and I went with two lifelines to spare. And I picture this. I act like nothing ever happened and bury all the money in a coffee can. Well, I've been given more than we just ever gave away. I was a dead man who was called to come out of my day. And I think it's time for making some noise. Wake the neighbor, get the word out. Come on. Crank out the music by the mountain and sh. This is life we've been given.
I'm concerned about the way that screens are retraining young people's brains
Welcome back, friends.
Dr. Jessica Peck: That is Live Out Loud by Steven Curtis Chapman what I Fun Friday song and it fits so perfectly because we're talking about living out loud. And our healthy habit today is reading out loud. Let all the teachers and the librarians and the educators rejoice. All of the book Lovers who are listening, say yes. Yes, yes. Say it and I'm going to say it. We need to read more. And I am concerned about the way that screens are retraining the brains of young people. I'm going to tell you a little bit about the biophysiology of that. So for those of you who want to nerd out for a minute, it's coming up next. But what we see is that screens are training our brains for speed. We have no tolerance. Now we're, we're holding down on your screen. My kids taught me this. If you, if you're watching social media and you put your thumb up on the upper right hand corner of the screen, it will play it on two times speed and you can scroll down to lock it down. Why do we need to watch a 30 second clip on two times speed, I ask you? But it also trains our brains for novelty instead of the familiar familiarity of a book fragmentation. Because we can watch a reel about a cat and then we watch a reel about baseball and then it's a cooking thing and then it's somebody falling and laughing instead of an arc of a story and character formation over time. We need constant stimulation and we hear from teachers, I know you are out there saying yes and amen. Because we see kids who don't know how to read, who have reduced comprehension, who don't have as big a vocabulary, who can't critically think, who are using chat for everything and their attention span is nil to nothing. Now this is happening because short form video platforms are built on rapid novelty, giving you very highly stimulating content and seconds long burst to capture your attention because it wants you to stay on the platform. Now this format trains your brain toward constant switching. It gives your brain a quick reward for that. from, from a chemical reward, quick exit, quick next stimulus rather than sustained focus. So your brain is literally trained that now neurologically repeated exposure to fast paced content. It strengthens your attention pathways, meaning it trains you to scan, to skip, to seek something new. And it makes reading feel so slow and boring and painful. Now long form reading by contrast requires a long term attention. It requires imagination where you have to create the images in your own mind rather than having those images presented to you on a screen. That engages your working memory, memory in a much different way that really the visual stimulus does not. It also promotes emotional continuity, the same emotional journey across pages or chapters. Now short form media makes, they want you to laugh quickly, they want you to be shocked, to be outraged or to say oh, that was so satisfying. That's what people say about clips these days. While books delay that resolution, it trains character like patience and reflection and deeper emotional regulation. So over time, this frequent short term consumption makes us just have no tolerance for comfort, discomfort, for boredom, for silence, for waiting. We don't want that. Now, short form media is not in itself inherently harmful, but because it is so disproportionately used, it's crowding out that part of our brain that takes care of slower thinking, deep thinking, critical reasoning. And so one of those biggest shifts is that one part of our brain is overworked while the other part is underworked. Now, reading books is neurologically different from scrolling screens. So that's important. A screen is giving you the image, A book asks you to build the image. And that works our brain in a much different way. Even turning the pages of a picture book for a child is a much different workout on your brain than just seeing the lights of the screen, which actually blue light inhibits, melatonin, which means it's hard to go to sleep at night. So pages page is better. Reading also builds emotional intelligence. It helps us to be more thoughtful about considering the perspective of others. It teaches us themes of resilience, of getting over hardship. And stories are a way to allow children to safely explore things, of being afraid. What do you do when you're afraid? How do you show courage? What is it like to work through grief, to forgive someone, to resolve a conflict, to have a redemptive ark? And the Bible itself is a story centered faith tradition. God chose to write through parables, through poetry, through narrative, through letters, even through songs to shape the hearts across generation. And when families stop reading together, we are not only losing literacy, we're losing shared imagination.
Reading aloud during pregnancy helps babies develop vocabulary and strengthens attachment
Now let me walk you through some of the holistic health benefits of reading from womb to tomb. Really reading out loud during pregnancy. Science shows it familiarizes babies with their moms and dad, Dad's voices with their grandparents. Voices. They recognize those voices from the womb. It promotes bonding. It supports early language recognition for little tykes. It builds their vocabulary, it strengthens attachment. Because if you're reading next to them, they are snuggled in beside you, their heartbeat is regulating with yours. They feel their arm around you. They feel the security of that physical and emotional connection. When you don't have a phone, there you go, you're just exploring a story together. It improves language processing because you can answer their questions. And babies don't care for frankly, they don't care whether you're reading Shakespeare or scripture or recipes or children's books. But they are absorbing the rhythm of your voice, the language that you're using, the tone that you are using. And most of all, they're absorbing that physical and emotional connection. Now when we get to the school age years, reading aloud science shows dramatically improves literacy. It helps kids do better in school. They speak better, they understand better, they can concentrate better, they have better imaginations. It makes them more confident in school. It gives them more curiosity to explore different stories. And I think that many families stop reading aloud too early. I read to my kids all the way through their teenage years and I still read aloud on occasion. Do they roll their eyes? Yes. But do they leave the couch? No, they don't. And I think it is secretly like they can't say, oh, I love that. But they say, one more chapter, one more chapter, mom, just one more chapter. And that's how I know. But older kids can really benefit from reading out loud together. It can open difficult conversations naturally. It reduces defensiveness because it just increases that verbal communication you have and it exposes teens to deeper ideas and moral complexity. This is what I did, especially with my kids. I read coming of age stories and then we would talk about it. What would you do? Which character do you see yourself as? Do you see yourself as this one? Maybe the, the more timid, the more, the more quiet spoken. Maybe you're the more brash and the risk taking. Where do you see yourself in this characters and what would you do? This is really helpful. And even adults and older adults, I think kids reading to grandkids is a beautiful thing. It reduces stress, it improves sleep, it increases emotional bonding. And even for older adults, it can have protective effects against declining memory. And don't we all need that? Reading nourishes the mind in a way. That movement nourishes your body. Now we paid a cost of that replacing books with screens. Because technology in itself is not inherently an evil thing, although that is changing and technology is definitely not neutral. But a screen and a book are not identical experiences and we have to be concerned about that. So what do we do about it? Well, as Pastor Joseph said earlier, we gotta make read aloud time fun. Keep books visible and accessible throughout your home. Read at bedtime, consistently. Use funny voices, even if you feel completely ridiculous. Kids love to hear your personality come through there. So try to make a voice for each character. Let the kids choose which books to read. Give them three choices that you are perfectly fine with any of those choices. Choices. Reread their favorites. That's a great thing. To go back with. Maybe you pair reading time with snacks or cozy blankets or you listen to audiobooks together on road trips. Start small if their attention span is short and don't turn reading into constant performance or pressure. The goal is connection. So even if you're reading and maybe they're doing cartwheels around the room while you're reading, or maybe they seem disaffected or disengaged, just say, hey, I really, really would like to read something out loud to you at night before you go to bed. Can we try it out? Can we try it for a couple of weeks and see how you like it? Most of the time what kids really, really want is their parents attention. And so I think they'll be more receptive than you think they will.
I'm going to give you some recommended books by age just to start here
So I'm going to give you actually some recommended books by age just to start here. You can go back and listen to this on Halftime Speed if you need to to see what the recommendations are. But for babies and toddlers, some of my favorites are, are Goodnight Moon, Brown Bear, Brown Bear, what do you see? The Jesus Storybook Bible and Guess how much I love you. I love these simple books that have great stories. Although you can read scripture too. Preschool and early elementary. I think some great choices are Winnie the Pooh, this the the Chronicles of Narnia, which are a great series to read through together. Charlotte's Web, the Secret Garden, these classic books that can be read over and over again for tweens. Wonder is a great. That's a, that's a relatively newer book about a boy who's born with a disability that causes him to be visibly disfigured. It was made into a movie as well. The Hiding Place is a fantastic book. The story of Corrie Ten boom. That is a great book to read out loud. And as you read it, as I said, maybe kids won't tell you, oh, you know, mother, how you've started reading aloud in the evening. I've told all my friends about it and it's really an edifying process. Practice. No, but like I said, they may say, oh, one more chapter. Wait, can you read what happens next? Can you give us a hint? Can you give us a spoiler? That's when you know that you're on the right track. There is also a series. Now I have not read this series myself, but I've seen, I've seen enough recommendations from people I trust to tell you about them. And this is on my list. It's called the Wing Feather Saga. Now this is by a, musician Andrew Peterson. So that may be a series that you check out as well for teenagers. I think we underestimate what teenagers can read. And one thing that we have read out loud in my house is mere Christianity by C.S. lewis. Now my husband is an engineer, rocket science actually, and he says I speak in numbers. And so we'll read a passage out loud. And he's like, wait, read it again, read it again, read it again until I understand it. And we really ponder on that. And it's kind of a running joke, but a great way to repeat things out loud. The screwtape letters by C.S. lewis. Lewis is also really amazing. To Kill a Mockingbird might be a classic that you want to explore that has a lot of really mature themes in it that you could talk about. And then for adults and multi generational reading, Pilgrim's Progress is always a favorite. A Christmas Carol and one of the things I read to my family regularly at Christmas and there was recently a movie that came out is the Best Christmas Pageant Ever. The that is a fun book to read out loud. If you have never read the story of the Herdmans. It is such a great uplifting story and a fun story to read to children who, you know, are just usually shocked by what the Herdmans do and what God does at the end. But let's go Back to Psalm 78:4 we will tell the next generation, listen. Reading is not just just an educational practice. It is discipleship in action. It is connection. It is memory making. It is emotional formation. It is legacy building. And kids are going to remember the stories that you read long after they forget. The chores you made them do, the schedules that you had them on, the routines that you had so perfectly ironed out. The things that God designed children to remember remember are the sound of a parent or grandparents voice, bedtime stories, laughter over their favorite books, the feeling of being close and being safe as you read together. And so I challenge you some time this summer to read out loud. Now I will be in full transparency with you. I was very much one of those moms who took my kids to the library in the summer. Some of my kids could not wait to go and they basically need a wagon to cart out the books that they were going to read that week. Others may have gone kicking and screaming and saying, no, no, I don't want to get a book and maybe coming out with one that I would read to them. And they did not enjoy reading time as much as the others. That's okay. That is completely, absolutely fine. It's really tempting to try to compare kids and say, why can't you be like. But God made them all differently. And that same kid who didn't want to read was the one who's leading the fun. And God gifted siblings to each other for a reason. So I encourage you, whether you have cousin camp, especially you grandparents, read out loud to your kids. I'm actually looking right now at a copy of a old book. Peter Pan is the book that I have from the 1980s that my grandmother bought for me. And I still have that from her. It's one of the things I got from her house. And when I open the pages, I can smell what her house smells like. And I can feel her arm around me and I can hear her voice reading that book to me over and over again. That one and no More Elephants is the book that she would read to me, over and over again. I challenge you. Turn off the screens just for a little while. Give your family the gift of your voice. Because healthy families are not only built through information, through scheduling, through all of the things that we're doing, doing these stories that are shared heart to heart, one page at a time, one hug at a time. These are really powerful, powerful narratives and powerful ways to emotionally bond with your kids. We'll talk about film, soon here on A Habit upcoming. And one of the things that we've lost in watching film together is everybody streaming their own story now. Everybody has a different emotional arc. Maybe somebody's watching something that's really kind of scary and adventurous while somebody else is watching something that's really sad and melancholy. And then your family gets kind of disjointed emotionally. There's something really powerful. And watching the same story and all being on the same page with the same emotional experience, this can be a legacy in your story. When we come back, I'll talk about home front headlines, what is happening, why it's important for your family, and what you can do about it. I'll be right back after the break.
Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildmon
During the Christmas season of 1976, I sat down one night to watch television.
: One man saw the battle coming. If we lose this cultural war, we're going to have a hedonistic, humanistic society.
: And he chose to stand and and fight. If you will not respect our beliefs, then you will respect our money and we'll spend it with somebody else. Reverend Wildmon. Reverend Wildmon. The Reverend Donald Wildmon.
: Discover the story of the culture warrior Don Wildmon and how he went head to head with Hollywood playboy, the homosexual agenda and the Disney empire. Things were changing and many people just
: saw of acclimated to it and Don Wildmon didn't. They thought I think that they could just crush him.
: The movement Don started paved the way for Christians to boldly stand for truth and righteousness in a hostile culture. Watch Culture Warrior today for free visit culturewarrior.movie if you've been walking the
Chain Breaker by Zach Williams: same old road for miles and miles if you've been here hearing the same old voice of the same old lies if you're trying to feel the same old holes inside There's a better life there's a better life if you got pain, he's a pain sa if you feel love, he's a way maker if you need freedom, save it He's a prisoner.
Dr. Jessica Peck: Welcome back, friends. That is Chain breaker by Zach Williams. And I want to give a shout out to all the chain breakers out there. I know you're listening. I know there are people out there who are saying, hey, I'm the first one. I'm the first Christian in my family. I'm, the first one who has stepped out of generational trauma. I'm the first one who stepped out of addiction. There is hope and healing for every family and God keeps his promises to a thousand generations, to those who love him and keep his commands. So keep up the good work. And in the spirit of chain breaking, that's exactly why I'm so passionate about this healthy habit journey. So this is such an important way, just daily disciplines, giving your life to the Lord one little habit at a time. This is the way you build a relational legacy. If you have been listening since the beginning of the year, we started off with a series of four core spiritual disciplines. We talked about six rhythms your family should have, eight communication habits and we're moving into 12 tech habits. Today is the first one of those reading out loud. And on Fridays, I also share with you some home fret headlines. What is going on in the world so you don't have to doom scroll as much. I'm on it. I am watching the news for you so you don't have to why it's important for your family and what you can do about it. So let's talk about some stories and some of these relate to what we're talking about with reading this first story really captured my mind because I know I'm about to talk about something that some of you wish I was not going to talk about. So brace yourself. I'm going to say the word Covid. I know everybody has a collective Grown. We've moved on from COVID Unfortunately we haven't. And I will still keep talking about this because I firmly believe that Covid was a severe emotional, social, psychological, mental health injury to Gen Z and Gen Alpha. Gen Alpha is about 15, starting about, 15 years old is Gen Alpha is getting to that age. Gen Z is becoming the geriatric generation now, the next one or so according to Gen Alpha. And we've got Gen Beta now being born. And I believe that these generations will feel the impacts of COVID for their entire lifetime. I know that's bold, but I believe that it will be there. And research just this week that I saw shows that children who experienced early schooling disruptions during the COVID pandemic are still lagging in reading performance. Now we're seeing some improvement, but it hurt them. And even years later, reading scores for early elementary students have not fully recovered and in some cases they remain stagnant. We see better improvements in math, but worse improvements in reading. Why is this? Well, I believe that's because Covid pushed a generation of children onto screens. They were bored, they were lonely, they were isolated, they were afraid. And so they spent their time doom scrolling and learning to rewire their brains to get chemical kickbacks from short form video engagement. So this is not just an academic issue. It's a foundational development issues because early reading delays and impact vocabulary growth as we've been talking about attention span development, academic confidence, long term reading readiness. And researchers also noted in the study some broader shifts throughout society, including one of the things that they objectively measured, which is basically like them telling on a generation of parents, including me. Reduced parent child reading time. This was reduced. We are not reading to our kids as much as we did Further and fewer early, literacy experiences. And so we just have kids that are not exposed to reading. So for families this means that kids may need more intentional literacy support at home. Screen time is replacing read aloud time. And early language development matters more than we even thought it did and we knew it mattered a lot. So what can you do? Well, you can adopt today's habit, reintroduce daily allowed reading a time tiding time at home, even just five or 10 minutes helps. We're not talking about an hour long passage, okay? We're talking about five minutes. And you can habit stack by reading out loud. Your devotional. You could just start out that way reading out loud just one passage of scripture. If you start in the psalms and you read one a day, that's 150 days. You're covered where you can just read out loud for a few minutes. Read with preschool and elementary children consistently. Not just academic dynamically. Read with them socially, read with them emotionally, read with them relationally during bedtime, during playtime and build their vocabulary through talking with them, having conversation back and forth. Limit passive screen time as much as you possibly can, but don't just limit it. Replace it with reading as a bonding activity, not just something that is tied to school performance.
A new analysis shows that boys are increasingly falling behind girls in reading performance
Now another story that I saw show that a new analysis shows that boys are increasingly falling behind girls in reading performance. There is a long term long term trend of declining engagement and proficiency and literacy among male students. This was around the world in many countries. And this matters because boys are reading even less than girls and engagement with long term long form text is even lower for boys than it is for, for girls. And we see this digital media is competing with their ability to read something that's longer than 30 seconds. And we see reading become screen based, not text based. And we see that boys can't will engage. We know boys need stories that are action based narratives that are adventure stories. One feature stories, a feature of stories that we've talked about on this show that we featured here are Borders, Bob Smiley's books and the Adventures of Average Boy. Those are great books. They're kind of like a I compare them to a kind of Christian version of Diary of a Wimpy Kid if you're familiar with that series, the Adventures of Average Boy. Great series for boys. So I encourage, especially you parents of boys, look for series for boys. And if you're an aspiring author and you have an adventure story in you, the world needs to hear it. We need more adventure stories for boys. So choose some high interest adventure based books for boys. Read aloud with them. It's, it's really very effective. I know I did it with my boys. Connect that reading to identity and purpose and themes of adventure and courage and what it means to become a man. Let boys see adults reading for enjoyment, not just obligation. And some series based books can really build momentum and engagement. Engagement.
Schools are integrating AI into the classroom, including AI tutoring systems
Now what we see, another story that I'm bringing to you, a headline, is that AI now is even rapidly transforming the way that reading we did just have reading in a physical book based form, a text, a page that you turn and those books then were generated to a screen and you still turn the page and you have different platforms that will even make the page turning sound for those of us who oh, you can't get, get away from that page. Turning sound. We'll put that on the digital platform. Platform. Well, now AI is changing that rapidly, and schools are rapidly integrating AI into the classroom, including AI tutoring systems, AI writing assistance, AI grading tools, AI personalized learning platforms. And this means that even they're. They're even replacing what, what. But just passive screens are doing this is completely fundamentally changing, changing the way that stories are. And kids are using AI to generate stories. I saw this in two of my little nieces who were doing play. And when we. You know what I was thinking? When we would grow up, we would make up a play on our own. And you spend hours writing the script. Now they just have AI make a script for them, and they can do a play for the whole family in a matter of minutes. It's hilarious. It's still great. But I wonder how much we're losing in imagination. Now we see AI reshaping how children. Children want instant answers instead of just deep thinking. They don't struggle with a story or a narrative. They just want AI to resolve it for them. And writing assistance is really bypassing that skill. It just does it for them. And honestly, AI at this point is such a mediocre author. It's just really. It's got this. It's everybody speaking in the same voice, everybody using the same vocabulary. As a professor, I see this where one word will become preferred by AI, and so then every. Everything is moreover, moreover, moreover, this. And everybody speaks the same. That's so boring. That's not how God intended us to be. He created each of us very uniquely. And I don't want to see critical reasoning weaken if these tools are overused. And we also know that AI is highly experimental. Highly experimental. And it reduces originality. And so we've got to learn how much AI, AI, support is appropriate. I've also been talking a lot about my concern about kids normalizing engagement with chatbots. This is just. They use chat like we use Internet search engines, like Google. They chat it where we Google it. They literally say, why don't you just chat it? Like it. It is a verb. And this we've got to see when that help becomes a substitution for maybe a relationship that they need for guidance along the way. And I'm concerned about kids normalizing that engagement with AI channel chat bots. And many kids will start asking about homework, but when they ask about homework, it will say, that was such a great question. You're so smart. How was your day? And it really engages them to all of a sudden become a friend. You've got to be very vigilant about those. So what you can do? Teach children to ask to think before they ask AI for the answers. Require some no device thinking time m for homework when it's appropriate. Maybe you say, okay, you work on this yourself for 10 minutes and then we go to an AI support and you, you use AI as a, as a supplement, not a replacement for learning. That is really important.
Research shows smartphones and constant digital engagement does affect our attention
The last story I'll bring to you today is about smartphones and the brain. I've been talking to you about how smartphones have been subtly reshaping the brain of entire generation. It's literally reshaping the way that our brain is physically shaped, the way that it is chemically washed. This is wild stuff. And we kind of just all, collectively shrug our shoulders and yawn and say, yeah, yeah, that, that's too bad. We really have got to engage. And research is increasingly showing we are having a much more credible, robust body of literature that shows us that smartphones and constant digital engagement does affect our attention. It affects our memory, it affects the way we sleep, it affects the way that we regulate our emotions emotions. It affects the way that we are just frequently task switching. We are checking out of relationships because we are pursuing these high stimulation reward cycles in our brain. Now this matters for families because smartphones are not just communication devices. It is literally an attention trainer. It is training your child's attention. It is an emotional regulator device. It is a dopamine stimulator. It is a sleep disruptor. Now if we start to think about that, we would be more careful in the way that we steward them. And so what can we do? Well, you can listen to the whole rest of this series because we're going to talk about tech free time, tech free zones. What are healthy habits? How do we encourage boredom without devices? How are you bold and brave enough to have a summertime where you let your kids get messy and maybe a little destructive? I'll share some of my stories with that and how we have better sleep. This is really important because when we see the way that smartphones are rewiring our brains, we can't forget about online gaming. Especially in the summertime when kids have more time on their hands. They use video games not just for entertainment, but a primary way to socialize and to maintain friendships. And online gaming environments have become major social ecosystem systems for teens. And this matters because gaming in some situations, with a developmentally appropriate game in a safe context, it can provide connections. I remember one of our guests talking about her Adult sons living across the country. And that was how they connected was through playing video games. And that was a beautiful thing. It can make teamwork, it can cause stress release, it can build a sense of community. But it can also replace that in person. Interaction increases screen dependence. It blurs the boundaries between what I'm just doing for fun and what I must do. And it rewires your brain to feel compulsive about using it. And I have counseled many, many families who have said they have increasing concern about their little kids even experiencing violent behaviors, throwing games at their gaming systems, at their parents if they're just getting connected. Make sure that this summer you have a plan. Because I know, especially as moms, we all start off the summer so well with such the best intentions, with the perfect schedule that includes by the way, going to the library and having scheduled snack time and, and reading time. And by the end of the summer, let's be honest, many of our homes are basically at frat house level. Like there is food everywhere, people are sleeping at all odd hours of the the night. There is no healthy sleep. It is just not a good situation. So let's talk about how we can make a plan for realistic engagement this summer. And if you're thinking about video games, really start thinking now not just about the boundaries, about being the gaming police, the screen police, the phone police. Get off your phone. Yesterday, ah, or this week in, in church when I saw a Mother's day video and they were asking people what does your mom say is do the most ones that get off your phone. Get off your phone. Get off your phone. Moms, let's just agree to throw that phrase from our vocabulary this summer. Let's not say get off your phone. Let's give them a compelling alternative. Let's invite them to something else. Get off your phone and join me for a walk. Join me for a puzzle. Join me to make something. Join me to do something fun. What would you do? What would you ask me to do if you knew I wouldn't say no. What would you ask me to do? And maybe it's something that you can swing. Listen. Attention is the new battleground and that is what is shaping our kids. Our childhood development is increasingly digitally shaped and we've got to be more intentional about formation to protect our kids attention. And we can start with that by reading out loud. And as you think about that and move forward in that, I pray the Lord will bless you and keep you and make his face shine upon you. I'll see you on Monday.
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Jeff Chamblee: opinions expressed in this broadcast may not necessarily reflect those of the American Family association or American Family Rights Radio.
