Editorial Standards

Why this page exists

We make content for children. That means accuracy isn't optional — a misleading sentence about screen time, phonics, or speech development can shape real parenting decisions for thousands of families. This page documents the review process every piece of CellieKids content goes through before publication, and the standards we hold ourselves to for citations, corrections, and updates.

Review process

1. Draft.A team member writes the first draft, including specific developmental claims (e.g., “average vocabulary at age 3 is X words”) and the exact source for each claim.
2. Source verification.A second team member checks every cited claim against the original source. Sources we accept: peer-reviewed research, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), Reading Rockets, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), and CDC developmental milestones. We do not cite blog posts, AI-generated content, or unsourced “expert tips” from social media.
3. Pedagogical review. A team member with early childhood education experience checks that the recommendation is age-appropriate, builds on (rather than contradicts) standard early-years curricula, and presents guidance in a way parents can actually act on.
4. Kid-safety check.If the piece is video or interactive (game, song, printable), it is also reviewed against YouTube's Made-For-Kids content rules and our internal kid-safety checklist.
5. Publication. Once approved, the piece goes live with a visible author byline + publication date on every page.

Citation standards

Any specific developmental claim, statistic, or recommendation in our parent guides must link to the original primary source. We prefer:

• American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) — for screen time, sleep, behavior
• National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC) — for early childhood education
• Reading Rockets — for phonics, reading, literacy
• American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) — for speech and language milestones
• CDC Developmental Milestones — for general developmental benchmarks
• Peer-reviewed research published in journals indexed by PubMed

We avoid citing sources that aggregate without attribution, paid-content sites behind authority signals (e.g., generic “experts say” clickbait), or social-media-only claims.

Updates and reviews

Parent guides are reviewed for accuracy at least once every 18 months, or sooner when major guidelines change (the AAP refreshing screen-time recommendations, for example). Every page shows its last-reviewed date in the byline so you can see how recent the editorial check was. If content is materially updated (not just a typo fix), the change is reflected in the visible date.

Corrections policy

If you spot an inaccuracy in any video, game, song, printable, or parent guide, please email [email protected] with the specific claim and the source. We respond to corrections requests within 48 hours and will publish a correction on the affected page (with the original date stamp updated to the correction date) within 7 days.

What we don't do

• We don't use AI to write the body of editorial content. AI is used for proofreading and accessibility-checking only.
• We don't accept content sponsorships or guest posts.
• We don't recommend specific brands of toys, apps, or paid services in our editorial pages.
• We don't link to affiliate offers from any educational page.