What your answers pointed to: the parts of home life the stories below were chosen for, in the order the stories come. It is a list of subjects, not a score, and your child is not being measured by it.
What is on, and who it suits
Whose devices, and where they live
The Harbour One
Ines, this one reached you through what is on, and who it suits. Here is a story about Amir, whose lunch break has a cartoon running in it.
Amir drives people around the city in his own car, and the rides come to him through an app on his phone. In the middle of the day there are few rides. Then Amir drives home to Northside and eats his lunch standing up at the counter. The app stays open beside his plate, in case the airport wakes up. Hallida is in the front room, fitting a dress on a customer. Julia, who is four, has the television. It is showing whatever Idris left it on before school.
That is how the choosing is done in this house, and it has always seemed fair enough. Idris is eight and knows the remote. Amir knows the river, the one-way streets and which hotels give good tips. What is on at lunchtime has never been his department.
Today it is something with a great deal of shouting in it. The pictures change faster than Amir can chew. Julia is on the rug with a cracker.
He watches for a while with his fork in the air. He tries to work out who the blue one is angry with, and he cannot. He is forty years old and he cannot follow a cartoon. This strikes him as funny more than anything.
He puts the plate down, takes the remote and goes looking. It takes longer than he expects. The television has a whole row of programmes made for small children, and he has never opened it. Near the end of the row he finds a harbour. There are tugboats with faces. Tugboats are the small strong boats that push the big ships. There is a crane that talks slowly, and water that looks like water. One of the tugs is late for a ferry. Nothing else happens for some time. It reminds him of the old ferry pier at dawn, the two gulls included.
He presses it. The shouting stops and the harbour begins.
Julia goes on sitting on the rug with the cracker.
"Tug," Amir says, to nobody in particular. "The small ones are tugs."
He finishes his lunch standing up. The app wakes. It is the airport after all. There is a pen on the fridge, where Hallida writes the hour he says he will be back. On his way out Amir takes the pen. Under today's hour he writes THE HARBOUR ONE. Now whoever holds the remote tomorrow will know what he meant. Idris will have views about this. Idris may well win.
On Top of the Fridge
Ines, this one reached you through whose devices, and where they live. Here is a story about Theo, whose phone is the only screen in the apartment.
Theo's cousin Jade works nights at Riverside Hospital. She comes by straight from her shift. She brings him a newspaper from the stand under the green awning on Ferry Street. She also brings a carrier bag, and she puts it on the table as if it might go off.
Her old tablet is in the bag. She has wiped everything off it and found a pink rubber case for it somewhere. "For Nell," she says. "Her own. Then you get your phone back."
It is a fair point. Two people live in the apartment, Theo and Nell, and there is one phone. The phone is how the warehouse reaches Theo when somebody cannot work a shift. Twice this month it has rung in the back seat of the car, in Nell's hands, in the middle of the bus song. He has taken a call from his manager while the wheels on the bus were still going round. A second screen would be a gift to his working life. Jade runs her life on lists, and she has clearly thought about it.
He turns the tablet over. It weighs nothing. Nell is three. She is on the floor with two saucepan lids, and she has not looked up.
What stops him is a small word. When the song is over, his phone goes back into his pocket, because it is his. There has never been a discussion about that. A tablet that is hers has no pocket to go back to. It would live where her things live: in the bag, in the bed, on the floor of the car. He does not know whether that matters. He has no idea how a person would find out.
"Think about it," says Jade. "It's not a kidney."
"I'm thinking," says Theo.
He puts the tablet on top of the fridge. That is where things go in Theo's apartment while he thinks. A parking ticket is up there, and the form for the childminder, and a drill that belongs to somebody at work. Jade drinks her coffee and goes home to sleep.
A week later the tablet is still up there, fully charged, in its pink case, beside the drill. The phone still rides in the back seat. On Thursday the warehouse rang in the middle of the bus song. Nell has moved on from the saucepan lids to the saucepan.
One Episode
Ines, this one comes with the report rather than from your answers. Here is a story about Jonah.
Jonah cooks at Ferry Street Kitchen, a small restaurant. It is closed on Sundays and Mondays, and those are Jonah's nights with Ezra. Ezra, who is four, arrives on Sunday at noon with a backpack and a toy rabbit. He goes back on Tuesday morning. In between, the two of them live above the restaurant. In the afternoon they walk down to the bridge to look at the heron. It stands there like a man who is still deciding to miss the bus.
The evening goes like this: bath, pyjamas, and then one episode on the laptop in Jonah's bed, with Ezra against his shoulder. The bath is where the rabbit's news gets told, at length. Tonight the rabbit has been to the moon. The programme is about a dog who is a detective and wears a hat. It started because Jonah had never ended a day alone with a small child. The episode gave the evening an order he could follow, like the order slips in his kitchen: bath, dog, teeth, light. It is also, he would admit, the one half hour of his week when he sits still and somebody leans on him.
Tonight the laptop wants to update itself. It shows a grey bar and takes its time. They lie there and wait for it, and the bar creeps across.
Then it finishes, and they watch the dog in the hat, the same as ever. Ezra tells the dog who did it, as he does every week, and the dog does not listen.
Afterwards, with the light out, Jonah lies awake for a while and turns it over. He could not say whether this evening was different from any other. He has never timed how long Ezra takes to fall asleep, and he is not going to start. A kitchen has enough clocks in it. At Ezra's other home the day ends another way, and that is a good way as well. Here it ends with a dog in a hat.
He does not know if it should. He knows he would miss the shoulder.
He closes the laptop and puts it on the floor by the bed. He will step on it in the morning, as he does every Monday.
Pip's Other Sock
Pip has one sock on.
One blue sock with a yellow star.
"Where is my other sock?" says Pip.
"Let's look," says Nana.
Is it under the bed?
Pip looks under the bed.
A feather. A crumb. A very old crayon.
No sock.
"Not under the bed!" says Pip.
You could ask: Where else could a sock hide?
Is it in the basket?
Pip looks in the basket.
A towel, a scarf, and a mitten with no partner.
No sock.
"Not under the bed! Not in the basket!"
Is it in the kitchen?
Pip looks behind the bread bin.
A wooden spoon, lying down for a rest.
No sock.
"Not under the bed! Not in the basket! Not by the bread!"
You could try: Read "Not under the bed! Not in the…" and wait. Your child may finish it.
Is it in the garden?
Pip looks by the step.
A snail, going nowhere slowly.
A leaf the shape of a hand.
"Hello, snail. Have you seen a sock?"
The snail has not seen a sock.
Pip sits down on the step.
Nana sits down too.
"We looked everywhere," says Pip.
"Everywhere," says Nana, and she stretches out her legs.
And there, on Nana's foot,
is a blue sock with a yellow star.
On her other foot
is a green sock with a red spot.
You could ask: Where would you like a sock to hide next time?
"Nana," says Pip. "That is MY sock."
Nana looks at her feet.
She wiggles her toes.
"Well," says Nana, "I did think my feet looked very jolly today."
So Pip puts on the green sock with the red spot.
Nana keeps the blue sock with the yellow star.
And they go out to show the snail.
The snail has still not seen a sock.
But now it has seen four.
You could ask: Which socks would you pick today?
The Washing Line
Mo and Bit live among the shoes by the door.
Mo is round and likes to go fast.
Bit is long and likes to go far.
Today the wind is up, and the hall smells of soap.
Mama is out in the garden with the wet washing.
Noa has the basket of big pegs.
Mo sniffs the air, and Bit sniffs the air.
"Ding," goes the tablet.
"Flap," goes the sheet on the line, big and wet.
Mo stops, and Bit stops.
"Which one, Mo?" asks Bit.
"FLAP!" says Mo.
Off we go.
You could try: Stop before the answer and let your child shout it with Mo. Whatever your child shouts is fine; read on. Say the ding small and flat; give the flap the arms.
Today it is Mo's turn to shout.
Out they go to the garden.
Mama is pegging, and Noa is handing up the big pegs, one, two, three.
The line is high up, and the washing hangs down to Noa's knees.
The line is full of washing, and the wind is full of the line.
You could ask: What could you hang on a line?
Flap, flap, FLAP goes the big sheet.
It puffs out like a sail, and it falls back like a wall.
Noa goes behind it. Gone!
You could try: Stop just before "FLAP" and let your child shout it.
"Where has that Noa gone?" says Mama.
Flap goes the sheet, and "Here!" says Noa.
Flap goes the sheet, and Noa is gone again.
Dot the dog watches the wall of sheet.
Mo hides behind the empty basket, and pops out, and hides, and pops out.
Bit lies down in the long grass, and slowly, slowly, there is no Bit.
Everything smells of soap and wind.
You could ask: Where could you hide, so that I could still see your feet?
The wind drops, and the sheet hangs still.
"Here!" says Noa, and "There you are," says Mama, and Noa is found for good.
Everybody lies in the grass and watches the washing drip.
Back among the shoes, Mo and Bit settle down.
Mo smells of soap.
Bit smells of grass.
And now the whole hall smells of the wind.
You could ask: Who do you like to play peekaboo with?
Six weeks, and up to three things to try. Each comes from one of the stories above, in the order they are printed, and each is something on your side of the house. There is one thing to try, and it enters in week one; the weeks after add nothing new, it simply keeps happening. Nothing here is a test, and nothing counts your child. If a try is not for your house, leave it; the week keeps what is already in place, and nothing moves up to fill it.
We know this is hard, and what is here was chosen from your own answers and from what the studies we read support. The programmes that were tested asked families for several things at once, rules, devices out of reach, something else to do, the parents' own habits and praise, and the research does not tell us which part does the work, or how children react in the first days.
To read together: Pip's Other Sock, The Washing Line.
Try 1, from week 1: The Harbour One.
One way is to look, once, for something slow made for children this small, and write its name where the house can see it; what repeats each week is putting it on, not the looking. It costs a lunch break spent in a menu.
This is about what is on, not about how long, and it is not a promise about your child's words.
Not for everyone: not for the day when an older child's programme is the only one the house can agree on. Whatever keeps a small child safe and busy while you earn or cook is its own good reason.
When and where: __________________________
Where this comes from: as under The Harbour One.
Week one puts the first try in place. Write, on its line, when in the day and where in the house it will happen: a moment and a place, not a length. Nothing else is asked this week.
Week two adds nothing. What is already in place comes round again, on separate days rather than all on one. If a try has quietly disappeared by now, that is information about the try and your house, not about you. Whether the ones still there fit your house is yours to say in week six; keeping one and dropping one are both allowed.
Week three adds nothing. What is already in place comes round again, on separate days rather than all on one. If a try has quietly disappeared by now, that is information about the try and your house, not about you. Whether the ones still there fit your house is yours to say in week six; keeping one and dropping one are both allowed.
Week four adds nothing. What is already in place comes round again, on separate days rather than all on one. If a try has quietly disappeared by now, that is information about the try and your house, not about you. Whether the ones still there fit your house is yours to say in week six; keeping one and dropping one are both allowed.
Week five adds nothing. What is already in place comes round again, on separate days rather than all on one. If a try has quietly disappeared by now, that is information about the try and your house, not about you. Whether the ones still there fit your house is yours to say in week six; keeping one and dropping one are both allowed.
Week six adds nothing and tests nothing. Read the lines you wrote, and read once more the "Not for everyone" lines above them. Then say, to yourself or to another adult in the house, which of the tries fits your house and which does not. Both answers are ordinary. Nothing is marked, nothing is sent, and nobody in this house is being measured.
Your answers and this report are handled by the association HDI – Human Digital Intelligence, Zagreb, which is responsible for them. For anything about your data, write to info@hdi.vision.
Thank you for taking part. What you gave was your own view of your home, and that is all this report rests on.
If anything in this report upsets you, or you want to talk it over with someone, write to info@hdi.vision and a person will answer. Questions about your data go to the same address.
Your answers are kept for twelve months from the day you finished answering, then deleted. You can ask for them to be deleted sooner at any time by quoting your pass code.
This is a self-assessment, not a medical or clinical examination and not a diagnosis. Your answers are used for your own report and are not used for research. They come under the data-protection measures set out for them by the association HDI – Human Digital Intelligence, and nothing else.