On a special episode (first released on May 9, 2024) of The Excerpt podcast: Generation Alpha has arrived. More than 2 billion children in this cohort were or will be born worldwide between 2010 and the end of 2024. It will be the largest generation as well as the most digitally-connected in history. What do we need to know about this dynamic group as they navigate some of the world’s biggest challenges? Dr. Leah Orchinik, a pediatric psychologist at Nemours Children’s Health, joins The Excerpt to provide a clinical and developmental perspective on what impact this group might have on our world.

Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.

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Dana Taylor:

Hello and welcome to The Excerpt, I'm Dana Taylor. Today is Thursday, May 9th, 2024 and this is a special episode of The Excerpt. Generation Alpha has arrived. More than 2 billion children in this cohort were or will be born worldwide, between 2010 and the end of 2024. It'll be the largest generation as well as the most digitally connected in history. What do we need to know about this dynamic group as they navigate some of the world's biggest challenges? Dr. Leah Orchinik, a pediatric psychologist at Nemours Children's Health, joins us to provide a clinical and developmental perspective on what impact this group might have on our world. Thanks for being on The Excerpt, Dr. Orchinik.

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

Thank you so much for having me.

Dana Taylor:

How would you define Generation Alpha?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

As you said, they are kids who are born from 2010 up until the end of 2024. So some kids have yet to be born to this generation. And they will be comprising about 2 billion people worldwide, which is about 25% of the global population. So it will be the biggest generation that we've seen to date. And within the United States, they will be the most diverse. And I think there's some exciting ideas that they're probably going to bring, but of course remains to be seen because we're talking about kids who are ranging from teens to kids who are just in the infancy and yet to be born at this point. Most of them are children of millennial parents, parents who were born from 1981 through 1996.

Dana Taylor:

Well, being the most digitally connected generation, there is concern that Alphas are too focused on screens and the internet with reduced attention spans. How might this impact their relationships or even their job prospects?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

I think it's a great question because technology continues to evolve and change. And every generation since the onset of the internet and the technology as we know it, has had their own unique challenges with how to navigate and how to integrate this technology into their lives. I think the Generation Alpha will be no exception in terms of trying to learn the best ways to manage. And so I think at this point, we want to make sure as parents and as members of the community who are engaged with these young people that we're thinking about how to teach them digital literacy and how to teach them safe and healthy ways to have relationships, technology, and use it to their advantage and in positive ways rather than some of the challenges that we know can come with social media or misinformation.

Dana Taylor:

Well, this is the first generation to never know a world without smartphones and social media, two things that are correlated with an increase in depression, anxiety, and loneliness. As a psychologist, how do you think parents should address this?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

I think a couple of things. We really want parents to be mindful about the amount of time that kids are spending on screens. And so we know that under age two, there really is no benefit to having any screen time whatsoever. And actually it's associated with some additional risks in developmental delays and communication and fine motor skills. So under the age of two, we really don't want to see kids on screens if at all possible. The preschool age, more than one hour a day can be associated with developmental concerns as well and lower pre-literacy rates and things like that. And so again, thinking about how do we make sure that there's a balance between other activities and educational opportunities for kids, aside from screens. And then moving all the way into adolescence, we know that the amount of time, specifically spending three hours or more on social media has been linked to double the risk of anxiety and depression and those concerns as well. And so the sheer amount of time, aside from the content or what's being shared is certainly a concern.

Dana Taylor:

Well then on the flip side, being so tech-savvy might serve them really well when it comes to access to information or various creative outlets, this sounds like a positive thing.

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

And I think it can be. And at this point, I think parents probably have had the experience that they're learning about technology sometimes from their kids. But at the same time, the internet has a lot of information and facts. It also has a lot of misinformation, and we want to make sure that kids are learning how to navigate that, how to determine what sources are valid, how to be safe and have online interactions with people and making sure that they're protecting themselves. And this comes from parent monitoring, but it also comes from continued communication with kids and parents about what are they seeing, what are the challenges that have come up for them? Is there any concern and how they feel about that or how their friends are navigating some of those challenges as well.

Dana Taylor:

COVID had a profound impact on the Alpha's access to learning socialization and emotional development. It's been widely reported that many are still struggling. What can we do to help them recover?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

We know that educational achievement scores in reading and math declined during the pandemic, and there was a lot of lost learning. We're seeing some gains in that, but kids are still not back to where they were in terms of reading and math scores that were before the pandemic. And so, one thing I think we can really do on sort of an individual and community and societal level is to be really promoting consistent attendance in school and making sure that we're not seeing any more lost learning through chronic absenteeism and missing days of school because that perpetuates and exacerbates the problem that we already are seeing.

And I think when kids were in virtual school and not able to go, it sort of made school a little less consistent, I think is at the very minimum we can say. And so we want to make sure that kids have gotten back into the routine and are really there and engaged as much as possible. There's a lot of other ideas, I think, at the larger level, and how do we really address educational disparities? Things like having summer school and additional tutoring and programs like that can help. Having parents and teachers have really good communication so that they're all on the same page if a kid is struggling or they're all aware of the resources that need to be put in place to help kids who may be falling behind or having yet caught back up.

Dana Taylor:

Well, this generation's parents are primarily, as you've said, millennials who have put more emphasis on mental health and personal wellbeing. Is that focus being passed along to the Alpha children?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

Absolutely. And I recently saw a statistic out of Lurie Children's Hospital, did a really nice research study on millennial parents and their views on mental health. And it showed that really most millennials say that their own parents didn't talk to them about mental health, but that 98% in this one particular study actually do talk to their own kids about mental health. And I think this is such a positive thing to be normalizing and talking about emotions and wellbeing from this perspective. I think it will be important not to have millennials set the expectation that kids always need to be happy or everything needs to be going well, that all emotions in a range of emotions is healthy and important, but setting the stage to talk about when things aren't going well or how do we navigate tricky and challenging situations that come up at school because we know that they will. And how do we know when to seek help and making sure that parents have the resources to seek out when they need to.

Dana Taylor:

Do you see this group's changing conventional milestones in life different from previous generations? I'm talking about things like marriage, buying a house, having kids.

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

It's a good question, and I think it remains to be seen. These kids are so young and it's hard to even predict what the technology will look like. We know that their parents, millennials are more likely to be raising kids in single parent households than ever before. But we also know that fathers are more engaged with kids emotionally. So I think there's going to be different trends across this generation. And the fact that Alphas are from the most diverse generation to date, suggests that maybe they will be more accepting and empathic because that's what we know about kids who are exposed to diversity at an early age. And so those sounds like positive potential strengths, but I think certainly we'll be conducting some research to get a better sense of where this generation is going.

Dana Taylor:

And this group is also being impacted more than any in history by climate change, cost of living increases and inflation. How would you counsel them to deal with these really big challenges?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

Yeah, and because some of these kids, again, are so young and some are teenagers and already taking up causes that they in, I think a lot of this starts at home. And how do we talk about socialist justice? How do we talk about really stressful, big events in the family? And one way to build resilience is to have these conversations and accept that change is happening. And whether that's change for the better or change for the more stressful, how do we embrace that and develop really healthy coping habits and strategies to communicate and talk about that and manage that from a way that feels developmentally appropriate for a three-year-old versus a 17-year-old? And how that's going to be different and how do we make sure that kids feel connected and supported? Because there are some big things happening globally, and that will likely continue, and the nature of that may change. But kids in every generation are going to be faced with challenges and obstacles and think this generation more than ever is resourced and able to talk about that. So my hope is that they will continue to have that resilience moving forward.

Dana Taylor:

Many consider Alphas to likely be more resilient, empathetic, innovative, and solutions driven than other generations. How might this make a difference to their potential and society as a whole?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

Yeah, I think we are living in an era where there is a lot of separation and dissent and hatred, and there continues to be racism and injustices. And to be building a generation who is ready and able to fight against that and to embrace differences and understand and really view the world from a lens of compassion and curiosity rather than judgment and trying to create conflict and dissension, I think is going to be such a strength moving forward and a priority, hopefully, of parents and educators alike.

Dana Taylor:

And then finally, what do you think most people don't understand about Generation Alpha?

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

I've seen some media out there, social media or commentary, that it's a little bit hard on Generation Alpha, and these kids are kids, and I've heard the names about their use of screens and tablets, and the generation started the year the iPad was introduced. And so this is something that kids are exposed to, not something that they have invented themselves here. And so I don't think we should be blaming kids. I think we should be supporting kids and families, and parenting is difficult. And I think everyone is trying to do the best that they can. And so if we can really, as a society avoid blaming and judging and rather thinking about being solution oriented or compassionate, how we can help everyone manage these struggles, whether it's technology and screens or overcoming racial injustices, I think that that's where we need to be moving as a society. And I think in many areas we really are.

Dana Taylor:

Great info. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Orchinik.

Dr. Leah Orchinik:

Thanks for having me.

Dana Taylor:

Thanks for our senior producers Shannon Rae Green and Bradley Glanzrock for their production assistance. Our executive producer is Laura Beatty. Let us know what you think of this episode by sending a note to podcasts at usatoday.com. Thanks for listening. I'm Dana Taylor. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with another episode of The Excerpt.