What content does your son or daughter consume on screens? Do you watch what he or she sees?
The journal Nature Neuroscience recently published an article with the following conclusion: “the brain’s mirror mechanism transforms sensory representations of the world and behavior of others into its own representations”. The connected child’s brain transforms the representations of the consumed content into its own representations, so that the child mirrors the behavior.
This week, images circulated on the internet of very young children sleeping who, while dreaming, made movements in their hands, as if they were holding a cell phone. Maria Montessori already warned us decades ago:
The psychic development of the child is linked to the development of the hands”, the hand depends on the psyche for its development, and not only on the psyche of the individual self, but also on the psychic life of different times. The progress of manual skill is connected, in man, with the development of intelligence and, if we consider history, with the development of civilization.
(MONTESSORI, Absorbing Mind, 1949)
Babies use the whole body as primal language and hands seem to take on a more important role, being an extension of their thoughts – creative, fun, divergent. Hands shape the external and internal world.
The screens of televisions, cell phones, tablets, among others, anesthetize the hands, take away the child’s right to physically discover the world, steal his becoming, his desire, his discovery.
There are many studies on the increase in behaviors in children and young people that are characterized as personal disorders, such as anxiety, withdrawal, depression and feelings of inferiority, related to screen time and increased activities related to social networks.
Earlier this month, news from The Guardian alarmed some families. Greystones, Ireland, has drawn attention to a collective pact signed between parents of eight schools in the district: to prohibit the use of smartphones by children and adolescents until they reach high school. The ban applies to all spaces, whether indoors, at school or anywhere. The aim is, in fact, not to give access to the devices in any way. The collective pact came as a result, among other factors, of the high levels of anxiety that young people have shown in recent years.
Some families may consider the attitude an exaggeration, but it urges us to face something scientifically proven: the harm that screens do to our children’s mental health and cognitive, motor and emotional development.
The technology exists, it’s a fact. But can we think of a middle ground for the use of screens? Could it be an ally to create meaningful and lasting experiences between parents and children?
Parents are responsible for regulating device access, screen time and restrictions that can help assess whether or not content is appropriate for the age group.
It takes courage and availability to create more time off screens, reorganize everyday life and (re)learn to live together. Experiencing meal times without electronic devices, telling stories at bedtime, sharing a board game on a Sunday afternoon, taking a car ride paying attention to the street and what we can observe and learn there, playing with elements of nature, painting , dancing, listening to music… Start with short breaks, simple habits that bring us closer together and invite us to look you in the eye again. Worth trying.