Hi User,

It's a few days since you downloaded Tandem now; I really hope you like it? I wanted to share something that might not be obvious when you're just having fun making stories with your child.

There's actually quite a lot of science behind how we've built Tandem.

When you and your child co-create a story, when they come up with the ideas and you – and our robots - help bring them to life, you're doing something that researchers call "serve and return."

Your child serves an idea ("I want and adventure story!"), you return with interest ("ooh, who shall we have in the story?"), they serve back ("a dinosaur!"). Back and forth. Building and building.

This kind of interaction – playful, responsive, led by your child's curiosity – is one of the most powerful things you can do to help your child to develop. It builds language, creativity, and emotional connection all at once. (You can learn more about this from of the experts who we’ve worked with in developing Tandem here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FyCUDQP1Ok)

The problem is that most tech does the opposite of ‘serve and return’. It's designed to keep kids quiet and scrolling. Passive. Alone.

We built Tandem because we think tech can do better. We think it can support those "serve and return" moments instead of replacing them. 

So if you've been creating stories together, you're not just having fun (though that's reason enough). You're also doing something that genuinely helps your child's development.

Ready to create your next story? [Link to app]

And if you're curious about the research behind all this, I wrote a bit more about it [here - link to blog/Nesta research].

Thanks for being part of the Tandem community,

Rob

P.S. If this resonates, or if you have feedback on Tandem, I'd love to hear from you. Just reply to this email – I promise I'll write back.