In homes across the world, a familiar scene unfolds daily. A child stares intently at a screen, thumbs flying, dopamine surging with every notification, every new level reached, every like received. The devices are small, but their neurological impact is not. As children become immersed in apps designed to reward impulsive behavior, parents are left with a difficult question: what is this doing to their child’s brain?
Dr. Crystal Collier, PhD, LPC-S, has been studying that question for years. A licensed psychotherapist, researcher, and prevention science educator, she has developed a unique, neuroscience-based model that connects screen time, reward processing, and executive function. Her work helps families understand that what looks like harmless scrolling is often a slow erosion of attention, impulse control, and emotional regulation.
The Dopamine Hijack: Technology’s Reward Trap
Technology is not inherently harmful. It is, however, deeply stimulating. Apps, video games, and digital platforms are often engineered to trigger dopamine, the brain’s pleasure chemical, at regular intervals. For a developing brain, this presents a challenge. Unlike adults, children and adolescents have underdeveloped prefrontal cortices, the area responsible for reasoning, planning, and resisting temptation.
Dr. Collier explains that the constant stimulation of dopamine-rich platforms reshapes how the brain experiences reward. Children begin to associate gratification with instant, external triggers rather than sustained effort or delayed success. Over time, this conditions the brain to seek novelty and avoid boredom. Tasks that require patience or deep focus, such as reading, chores, or even conversation, begin to feel intolerable by comparison.
The result is not just behavioral. It is structural. The more a young brain is immersed in fast-paced, low-effort reward systems, the less it develops the neural connections needed for emotional regulation and long-term planning.
Executive Function: The Brain’s Brakes and Compass
Executive function is the set of mental skills that allow individuals to focus, manage emotions, remember instructions, and control impulses. These functions are crucial for school success, emotional resilience, and healthy decision-making. In Dr. Collier’s work, executive function is framed as both a biological process and a teachable skillset.
When executive function is compromised by overexposure to screen-based stimuli, children may appear inattentive, anxious, or defiant. But underneath, their brains are simply struggling to process information in the same way they would if they were more developmentally regulated. The digital environment primes them for reactivity, not reflection.
Through her Know Your Neuro initiative, Dr. Collier teaches parents and educators how to build these skills intentionally. This includes structuring environments that promote consistent routines, mindfulness, and metacognitive strategies, ways for kids to think about their own thinking.
Parenting in a Digital Culture: Boundaries with Brain Science
One of the core challenges today’s parents face is that their children are growing up in an ecosystem of distraction. Unlike previous generations, today’s youth have access to a nearly endless stream of content that is custom-designed to capture attention and promote emotional highs.
Dr. Collier does not advocate for a technology ban. Instead, she encourages parents to approach screen time with the same intention they might apply to nutrition or sleep. Her prevention model includes behavior contracts, family tech agreements, and decision trees that help children learn to pause before acting.
The goal is to make children co-creators of their own habits, not just passive recipients of rules. When kids understand why limits exist, they are more likely to follow them. Dr. Collier’s educational tools are built on the idea that agency fosters compliance more effectively than control does.
Delaying the Device: The Case for Later Access
In collaboration with Smart Families, Dr. Collier supports efforts to delay smartphone adoption among children. Research continues to show that early exposure to smartphones correlates with increased anxiety, sleep disruption, and attention issues. The Wait Until 8th pledge, championed by Smart Families and endorsed by parents and educators alike, invites families to collectively delay smartphone use until at least eighth grade.
Dr. Collier’s advocacy is grounded in data, but also in experience. Her years in clinical practice have shown that many of the struggles children face are tied not just to the presence of technology, but to its timing. By allowing a child’s brain to develop foundational executive skills before introducing high-stimulation platforms, parents can give their children a neurological advantage.
The Role of Co-Regulation: Teaching Through Presence
Another key insight from Dr. Collier’s work is the importance of co-regulation. Children learn to regulate their own emotions by first borrowing the calm presence of a caregiver. This means that managing screen time is not just about timers or passwords—it is about modeling.
When parents themselves are dysregulated, distracted, or digitally absorbed, children absorb those patterns. On the other hand, when parents are emotionally attuned, limit their own device use, and engage directly with their children, they create a relational buffer that supports resilience.
Dr. Collier’s coaching approach includes exercises for parents to build their own self-regulation skills. Techniques such as breathing, reflection, and body awareness are emphasized not as wellness trends, but as foundational parenting tools in the digital age.
From Awareness to Action: Building Brain-Literate Families
Knowledge alone does not change behavior. It must be accompanied by actionable steps and sustained support. That is why Dr. Collier has designed her resources—books, workbooks, children’s stories, and videos—to be more than educational. They are blueprints for culture change.
The Know Your Neuro children’s series, for example, helps young readers understand their brains through characters and scenarios that make neuroscience relatable. Parents and teachers can use these books to start conversations that are rooted in science but framed in empathy.
Her NeuroWhereAbouts Guide equips parents with scripts, visuals, and age-specific tools for discussing everything from gaming to digital peer pressure. The material is direct but not fear-based, and it invites open dialogue rather than secrecy or shame.
Parenting the Prefrontal Cortex
In the end, Dr. Collier’s message is not one of alarm. It is one of awareness. Parents are not powerless in the face of technology. They are neuro-architects, shaping their child’s brain with every boundary, every conversation, and every choice to be present.
Digital life is not going away. But with science-informed strategies, families can learn to engage with it in ways that protect the most vulnerable parts of their children’s development. The challenge is real, but so is the opportunity. As Dr. Collier’s work shows, the most powerful tool we have is understanding and using that understanding to guide our children into healthier, more focused lives.