“We know from decades of research that too little stimulation early on is bad for brain development.”
Dr. Dimitri Christakis tells us something we’ve been told for years: stimulate your baby’s brain. When your baby is under 3 years old, her brain is developing so much. But how much is too much stimulation?
Unlike any other period, your baby’s brain triples in size.
It’s important to stimulate your baby’s brain appropriately, but what does that mean? What your baby is exposed to – the type and amount of love, attention, and stimulation she receives makes a big difference to her future life. We know that neglect and some stimulants are bad for your baby’s brain and its development.
Dr. Christakis, the Director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior & Development in Seattle, was a pediatrician first, and a father second. His research became so much more important to him and to his field after having children.
One conclusion the good doctor found was that 1 hour of television per day will increase your baby’s risk of attention problems by 10%. Even programs designed specially for babies, like Baby Einstein, will give your child problems with attention later in her life.
Maximize Good Screen Time
In this age, we live around so many screens. Computer, television, tablet, and phone, we’re surrounded by screens, but the interactivity is different for each screen. Some offer passive entertainment, some offer a more active experience.
Your baby needs active entertainment – something that engages her brain, and keeps her thinking and moving. Some iPad apps provide this, but the tablet can be dangerous as well; compulsive use is linked to the youngest users of these apps. As responsible parents, we must know when enough is enough.
Children under 3 should not use a tablet for more than 60 minutes per day. Even if the games promote thinking, learning, and brain growth, too much time on the iPad can undo the learning the games are providing your child.
Make For The Door
Babies are being born into technology. The screen you should be most worried about is the screen door. Just open it, and bring the kids outside. A lot of learning can be done in the garden, at the park, or just looking into the world around us.
Babies get the chance to socialize when we take them to the park. Heck, we get to socialize as well! The kids get energy, from the sun, from playing with other babies, and they also spend a lot of that energy as well. The backlit screen has more problems than just dulling your baby’s brain.
Keeping our eyes on the screen keeps us from sleeping easily. The same is true with your toddler; the unnatural light that comes from the tv screen or computer screen will give your baby an unnatural view of the world around her. She will be more drawn to false light than natural light, constantly searching for a screen to look at, without knowing why.
And why? Because the TV brought her up.
Instead, bring her outside. You’ll both feel better, you’ll both sleep better, and your baby will be much less likely to have attention-span problems in the future, and just be generally more well-adjusted.
SOURCE: http://www.bellybelly.com.au/baby/a-doctor-warns-this-activity-has-damaging-affects-on-your-babys-brain/
