# AI and kids: Alabama family shares how AI helps daughter with dyslexia - WBRC

*Источник: WBRC*
*Дата: 2026-09-15*
*Язык: en*

**Кратко:** (WBRC) - Eleven-year-old Victoria Lewis talks to artificial intelligence about everything. “I’ve made outfits and I’ve had it help me with homework,” Victoria said.

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - Eleven-year-old Victoria Lewis talks to artificial intelligence about everything.
“I’ve made outfits and I’ve had it help me with homework,” Victoria said. “It’s just very easy.”
Victoria has dyslexia and struggles with typing. Her mother, Alejandra Lewis, said AI has boosted her daughter’s creativity.
“She’s extremely creative. So with stories, many times she just goes to ChatGPT and says, I want this kind of story,” Alejandra Lewis said.
Supervision seen as key
Alejandra Lewis said her daughter’s AI use happens under a watchful eye.
“I think with anything else, you just need to be vigilant to what they’re doing. I don’t think anything nowadays is safe without supervision,” she said.
UAB Assistant Professor Amber Wagner, who is also the university’s undergraduate program director, said AI was not a major factor in the classroom until recently. She said she has worked to ensure students know how to use AI as a tool and how to build AI tools themselves.
Wagner said students use AI for tasks that range from casual conversation to image generation to writing essays.
“Unfortunately, I’ve also seen students use it to help them write essays, and by help, I mean write the essay,” Wagner said.
Wagner said some teachers have addressed the issue by having students write a first draft of an essay on paper before editing and typing it, to ensure critical thinking happens without AI.
Wagner said she has seen elementary school students use AI mostly for creative purposes, such as image generation. She said she has seen it used more as an academic tool in middle school and high school.
Wagner said Alabama’s K-12 digital literacy standards were recently updated to include AI instruction, covering how AI works in elementary grades and how to build AI-related models in middle and high school.
According to the RAND Corporation, as of March 2026, 59% of teens say using AI to cheat is a common event at their schools.
AI should teach, not answer, professor says
Wagner said AI should be used to teach, not to provide direct answers, and that the outcome depends on the prompt used.
“Give sample problems, but do not give me the answers,” Wagner said.
Wagner said she teaches students to use AI as a study partner by asking it to provide sample problems and feedback rather than direct answers, so students can learn from the process.
Wagner said she believes AI can negatively affect critical thinking if used the wrong way.
“It makes us become lazier. We don’t have to think for ourselves to find the solution,” Wagner said.
She said that unlike a Google search, where users compare multiple results, an AI chatbot provides a single answer with nothing to immediately compare it to, which can make it seem correct even when it is not.
Wagner said parents can teach children to ask AI for direction and context around a question rather than a simple answer, which encourages deeper thinking.
She said she would not let her own children consult generative AI for anything health-related, particularly emotional well-being, and that parents should check their children’s chat histories the way they would check search histories.
Wagner said she does not believe parents should ban AI outright.
“I think that in our future, there is no doubt that every person is going to have to understand how to utilize AI as a tool to be more productive, for better or for worse,” Wagner said.
Emotional support and connection
Dr. Christina Pierpaoli Parker, a clinical psychologist and assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry, said parents do not need to be AI experts to protect their children.
“You don’t need to be an expert in AI, you need to be an expert in building connection capital with your kid,” Pierpaoli Parker said.
Pierpaoli Parker described connection capital as the level of attachment and safety between a parent and child, built through honesty and communication. She said that trust makes children more likely to approach parents with questions or concerns about AI rather than hide them.
She said parents can model uncertainty about AI with their children by acknowledging what they don’t know while emphasizing their role in keeping their children safe.
Pierpaoli Parker cited a concept from MIT researchers called “cognitive debt,” in which relying on AI saves effort in the short term but can interfere with the ability to think creatively, think deeply and solve problems over time. She recommended that children use their own thinking first, then turn to AI.
She also said children should be encouraged to bring relationship or emotional questions to humans first, before AI. She cited a figure that about 40% of kids and teens have reported turning to AI for help with relationships or big feelings.
Pierpaoli Parker recommended that parents watch for changes in behavior, such as increased withdrawal, anxiety or physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches or difficulty sleeping, which could indicate overuse of AI or technology in general.
She recommended that families keep phones, tablets and other devices out of children’s bedrooms and set up a shared family charging station instead.
“I want to make sure that they understand that there is no you. There is no person. I mean, it is just a computer,” Alejandra Lewis said.
Victoria compared AI to a tool that can be used two ways.
“The hammer’s gonna help you fix the fence. But also while you’re fixing the fence, you could like hurt yourself. But also some people are just making the hammer do all the work and it can’t... You could use it to help you or to hurt you,” Victoria said.
In Alabama classrooms and living rooms, parents and teachers are setting the rules for AI use.
OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, says there is a new teen version of the platform promising additional safety tools for kids using AI.
Copyright 2026 WBRC. All rights reserved.

[Оригинал](https://www.wbrc.com/2026/09/15/ai-kids-alabama-family-shares-how-ai-helps-daughter-with-dyslexia/)