Apps can help your kids learn, but nothing beats a human touch: Don’t be fooled by how easily your toddler manages to unlock your phone and make a long-distance call when you’re not looking: Using screens (such as tablets) to teach kids certain skills and encourage brain development can be useful, but you would really maximize their benefit by engaging with your child alongside the screen, NPR tells us.

Studies have shown that having a parent or other figure demonstrate to the child how to do a certain activity on an app resulted in the child being far more successful in completing the task at hand. “This is an optimal way to promote learning and that should not be downplayed at all,” researcher Laura Zimmerman says. “Typically, having another person present during these interactions with touch screens or while viewing television is really beneficial. The parent or teacher can take into consideration what their child knows and build on that — something that’s too complex for an app to be able to do.”

This concept, known amongst psychologists as social scaffolding, boosts children’s ability to absorb and transfer knowledge, and is also key in helping children make connections between what they see on and learn from screens and real life: “Let’s say there’s a show or an app game about a cat and you have a cat living in your house. When that image of the cat is on the screen, the parent can simply say, ‘Oh that’s a cat just like ours.’ So it’s not sort of 24/7 and guiding every single piece of the experience, but it’s providing that information at the key point.” In other words: There’s no need to be a helicopter parent; simply be present enough to guide them and insert helpful cues at certain times.