Play, watch and browse together — while carving out more tech-free time.

Once your child is running about and eager to learn all the things, it'll be hard to keep electronic devices away. A survey by Erikson Institute found that an overwhelming 85% of parents allow their children under age 6 to use technology at home and 86% of parents surveyed said they found benefits for their young children's tech usages, including literacy, school readiness and school success. While there are more apps and gadgets than ever before explicitly designed for toddlers, you'll still want to make tech a small slice of their larger learning and activities pie.

At this age, children are learning prosocial behavior: sharing, helping, donating and benefiting other people. It's the age when kids learn to give and take. Technology can help with this developmental stage when you co-play with them, taking turns and exploring a game or digital book or video together. Now (and, honestly, at every other age), children want your undivided attention — even when their focus seems to be mostly directed at a screen.

You'll want to do this for your kids in any age group, but as soon as possible, get into the habit of checking age ratings for digital content. Stephen Balkam, the founder and C.E.O. of the Family Online Safety Institute, a nonprofit that represents members such as Amazon and Verizon with the aim of making the online world safer for children and families, recommends checking the International Age Rating Coalition (IARC) ratings versus app store ratings. Google, Microsoft, Nintendo and many other major tech companies use IARC ratings when producing user content, and these ratings are linked to national age rating systems.

Some toddler-friendly apps include Kiddle, Google's visual search engine for kids, and Kidoz, a curated collection of children's apps and content. CommonSenseMedia.org offers reviews of apps and games sorted by age group. It's important to keep in mind that age recommendations in app stores and sites like YouTube haven't always been accurate, though (some providers go out of their way to infiltrate the listings with disturbing content masquerading as child-friendly) so the best recourse is to vet the content your kids are exposed to yourself.

Establish rules for when the family should not be on their devices, such as two hours before bedtime and during meal times. Similarly, set up screen-free zones in your home. For example, mobile devices, computers and TVs are not allowed in the dining room or bedrooms. Firm rules like these — that everyone in the family follows — make sure everyone gets tech breaks and family time.