The Impact of Technology on the Developing Child
Sunday, July 24th, 2011Reminiscing concerning the good old days whenever we were becoming an adult is really a memory trip really worth taking, when trying to comprehend the issues facing the children of today. Only Two decades ago, children accustomed to play outside all day, riding bikes, playing sports and building forts. Masters of imaginary games, kids of the past created their very own type of play that did not require costly equipment or parental supervision. Children of yesteryear moved… a lot, as well as their sensory world was nature based and straightforward. In the past, family time was often spent doing chores, and children had expectations to satisfy on a daily basis. The dining room table was a central place where families came together to eat and talk about their day, and after dinner became the center for baking, crafts and homework.
Today’s families are different. Technology’s effect on the 21st century family is fracturing its very foundation, and creating a disintegration of core values that long ago were what held families together. Juggling work, home and community lives, parents now rely heavily on communication, information and transportation technology to make their lives faster and more efficient. Entertainment technology (TV, internet, videogames, iPods) has advanced so rapidly, that families have scarcely noticed the functional impact and changes to their family structure and lifestyles. A 2010 Kaiser Foundation study showed that elementary aged children experience average 8 hours per day of entertainment technology, 75% of those children have TV’s within their bedrooms, and 50% of United states homes have the TV on all day long. Add emails, cell phones, internet surfing, and chat lines, and that we begin to see the pervasive facets of technology on our home lives and family milieu. Gone is dining room table conversation, replaced by the “big screen” and remove. Children now depend on technology for the majority of their play, grossly limiting challenges for their creativity and imaginations, as well as limiting necessary challenges for their bodies to achieve optimal sensory and motor development. Sedentary bodies bombarded with chaotic sensory stimulation, are leading to delays in attaining child developmental milestones, with subsequent effect on foundation skills for achieving literacy. Wired for high speed, today’s young are entering school experiencing self regulation and attention skills necessary for learning, eventually becoming significant behavior management trouble for teachers within the classroom.
So what is the impact of technology on the developing child? Children’s developing sensory and motor systems have biologically not evolved to support this sedentary, yet frenzied and chaotic nature of modern tools. The impact of rapidly advancing technology on the developing child has seen an increase of physical, psychological and behavior disorders that the health insurance and education systems are simply beginning to detect, much less understand. Child obesity and diabetes are actually national epidemics in both Canada and the US. Diagnoses of ADHD, autism, coordination disorder, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, depression, and sleep disorders can be causally associated with technology overuse, and therefore are increasing in an alarming rate. An urgent closer consider the critical factors for meeting developmental milestones, and the subsequent impact of technology on those factors, would assist parents, teachers and health care professionals to higher understand the complexities of the issue, and help create effective strategies to reduce technology use. The three critical factors for healthy physical and psychological child development are movement, touch and connection to other humans. Movement, touch and connection are forms of essential sensory input which are integral for that eventual growth and development of a child’s motor and attachment systems. When movement, touch and connection are deprived, devastating consequences occur.
Young kids require 3-4 hours daily of active rough and tumble play to attain adequate sensory stimulation to their vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile systems for normal development. The critical period for attachment development is 0-7 months, in which the infant-parent bond is better facilitated by close contact with the primary parent, and a lot of eye contact. These types of sensory inputs ensure normal development of posture, bilateral coordination, optimal arousal states and self regulation essential for achieving foundation skills for eventual school entry. Infants with low tone, toddlers neglecting to reach motor milestones, and kids who are unable to pay attention or achieve basic foundation skills for literacy, are frequent people to pediatric physiotherapy and occupational therapy clinics. Using safety restraint devices for example infant bucket seats and toddler carrying packs and strollers, have further limited movement, touch and connection, as have TV and videogame overuse. A lot of today’s parents perceive outdoor play is ‘unsafe’, further limiting essential developmental components usually attained in outdoor rough and tumble play. Dr. Ashley Montagu, that has extensively studied the developing tactile sensory system, reports that after infants are missing out on human connection and touch, they fail to thrive and many eventually die. Dr. Montagu states that touch deprived infants develop into toddlers who exhibit excessive agitation and anxiety, and could become depressed by early childhood.
As youngsters are connecting increasingly more to technology, society is seeing a disconnect from themselves, others and nature. Very little children develop and form their identities, they often are incapable of discerning whether or not they would be the “killing machine” seen on television and in videogames, or simply a shy and lonely little kid looking for a buddy. TV and videogame addiction is causing an irreversible worldwide epidemic of physical and mental health disorders, yet all of us find excuses to continue. Where A century ago we needed to proceed to survive, we are now under the assumption we need technology to outlive. The catch is that technology is killing what we love the most…reference to other people. The critical period for attachment formation is 0 – 7 months of age. Attachment or connection is the formation of a primary bond between the developing infant and parent, and it is integral to that particular developing child’s feeling of security and safety. Healthy attachment formation results in a contented and calm child. Disruption or neglect of primary attachment leads to an anxious and agitated child. Family over use of technology is gravely affecting not only early attachment formation, but also impacting negatively on child psychological and behavioral health.
Further analysis of the impact of technology on the developing child suggests that while the vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and attachment systems they are under stimulated, the visual and auditory sensory systems have been in “overload”. This sensory imbalance creates huge problems in overall neurological development, because the brain’s anatomy, chemistry and pathways become permanently altered and impaired. Young kids who’re exposed to violence through TV and videogames are in a high state of adrenalin and stress, as the body doesn’t know that what they are watching is not real. Children who overuse technology report persistent body sensations of overall “shaking”, increased breathing and heart rate, and a general state of “unease”. This could best be described as a persistent hypervigalent sensory system, still “on alert” for the oncoming assault from videogame characters. While the long-term results of this chronic state of stress within the developing child are unknown, we do realize that chronic stress in adults leads to a weakened immune system along with a number of serious diseases and disorders. Prolonged visual fixation on a fixed distance, two dimensional screen grossly limits ocular development essential for eventual printing and reading. Think about the distinction between visual location on the variety of different shaped and sized objects in the near and far distance (for example practiced in outdoor play), as opposed to looking at a set distance glowing screen. This rapid intensity, frequency and duration of visual and auditory stimulation results in a “hard wiring” of the child’s sensory system for high speed, with subsequent devastating effects on a child’s capability to imagine, attend and focus on academic tasks. Dr. Dimitri Christakis found that each hour of TV watched daily between the ages of 0 and Many years equated to some 10% increase in attention problems by age seven years.
In 2001 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued an insurance policy statement recommending that children less than two years of age should not use any technology, yet toddlers 0 to 2 years of age average 2.A couple of hours of TV daily. The Academy further recommended that youngsters older than two should restrict usage to 1 hour per day if they have any physical, psychological or behavioral problems, and 2 hours daily maximum if they don’t, yet parents of elementary youngsters are allowing 8 hours per day. France went as far as to get rid of all “baby TV” due to the detrimental effects on child development. Just how can parents continue to live inside a world where they are fully aware what’s harmful to their children, yet do nothing at all to help them? It appears that today’s families have been pulled into the “Virtual Reality Dream”, where everyone believes that every day life is something that requires an escape. The immediate gratification received from ongoing utilization of TV, videogame and internet technology, has replaced the need for human connection.
It’s important to get together as parents, teachers and therapists to help society “wake up” and find out the devastating effects technology is having not only on our child’s physical, psychological and behavioral health, but also on their capability to learn and sustain personal and family relationships. While technology is really a train that will continually move forward, knowledge regarding its detrimental effects, and action taken toward balancing the use of technology with exercise and family time, will work toward sustaining our children, as well as saving the world. While no-one can argue the benefits of advanced technology in today’s world, link with these units might have led to a disconnection from what society should value most, children. Rather than hugging, playing, rough housing, and conversing with children, parents are increasingly relying on providing their kids with more videogames, TV’s in a car, and the latest iPods and mobile phone devices, creating a deep and widening chasm between parent and child.
Cris Rowan, pediatric occupational therapist and child development expert is promoting an idea termed ‘Balanced Technology Management’ (BTM) where parents manage balance between activities children need for growth and success with technology use. Rowan’s company Zone’in Programs Inc. http://www.zonein.ca is promoting a ‘System of Solutions’ for addressing technology overuse in children with the development of Zone’in Products, Workshops, Training and Services.
Cris Rowan is an impassioned occupational therapist who has first-hand understanding and data of how technology may cause profound alterations in a child’s development, behavior as well as their ability to learn. Cris includes a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy, as well as a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and is a SIPT certified sensory integration specialist. Cris is really a member up to date using the BC College of Occupational Therapists, and an approved provider using the American Occupational Therapy Association, the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, and Autism Community Training. Within the last fifteen years, Cris has specialized in pediatric rehabilitation, working for on the decade in the Sunshine Coast School District in British Columbia.