Reframing Children's Digital Wellbeing as a Developmental Process - Insights from Creative Learning Practice

This working paper reframes children’s digital wellbeing as a developmental process rather than a set of measurable outcomes such as screen time or online risk. Drawing on five years of practice-based research through the Guiding Light Art Company, the study presents longitudinal observations of children aged 4–14 across diverse creative learning environments. The paper identifies recurring patterns in attention, motivation, creativity, and social behaviour, highlighting how digital and physical experiences are increasingly interconnected in children’s lives. It argues that current approaches to digital wellbeing remain fragmented, often separating play, learning, and digital engagement. In response, the paper proposes an integrated conceptual direction and outlines the early design of the Innovative Learning Center (ILC) Project—an intervention-evaluation framework combining creative, play-based, and digitally mediated learning. The study contributes to emerging discussions by positioning digital wellbeing as a developmental capacity shaped over time through cognitive, emotional, social, and embodied processes.