The way video content is being consumed is rapidly shifting for the touchscreen generation. According to a recent report from Common Sense Media, for the first time, watching online videos now constitutes the largest proportion of kid’s total TV and video viewing, with more than a third of kids under 8 years old watching online videos everyday. Devices are becoming ubiquitous in kid’s lives, with nearly half (48%) of all kids having a mobile device of their own, suggesting that kids are frequently consuming video content on these devices. What’s most interesting to me about these findings is that children are consuming a passive form of media on an interactive platform.

At Hellosaurus, we’re reimagining screen time by embracing the incredible capabilities that these interactive and portable devices have to offer to not only engage and entertain children, but also to enhance their ability to learn through video.

Shows You Can Play

On Hellosaurus, kids have the opportunity to play a lead role in the shows they are watching on their interactive devices. Research suggests that active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive experiences are key ingredients to a supportive learning environment for young kids. By inviting kids into the narrative, they are able play, solve, and explore alongside their favorite characters.

Each video on Hellosaurus has dozens of interactions. Our team of experts carefully review and curate the videos that your kids are already obsessed with and identifies when there’s an opportunity to promote learning (e.g. identifying objects, trivia questions, reinforcing facts and vocab), when your kids can do a task to help move the story forward (e.g. opening a package, finding a destination on a map) or when there’s a moment to give your kids their turn to try what just occurred on screen (e.g. feeding the animals, decorating a cake, building a tower).

100% Kid Safe

According to experts, asking your kids questions about what they are seeing or hearing, prompting them to imitate songs or movements, and pointing out or labeling objects or actions on screen are all ways you can enhance your kids’ media viewing experience. However, this requires an adult to be present while they’re watching shows. We know that’s a lot to ask for. Handing over the iPad to your kids should be a guilt-free break for both you and your kids. That’s why in each video, we’ve built in these questions for you. Throughout a show, your kids might be asked to guess which object a sound is coming from, or choose which butterfly is their favorite, or reflect on how they’d feel if someone didn’t want to play with them.

We also hope that you’ll continue to engage in dialogue with your kids after they play Hellosaurus. Don’t worry, we’re here to help with that too. We’ll share parent tips and resources with ideas of questions, play ideas, and conversations to have with your kids based on what videos they watched.

Observe your kids playing Hellosaurus for a bit and see if you can spot the difference in screen time. We hope what you’ll see excites you as much as it excites us. What’s the best thing you’ve seen your kid do or say while playing Hellosaurus? We’d love to hear from you!