Introduction
Significant technological advancement has made social life and development a critical area of concern especially for our babies growing up in the new dispensation of the internet and technology growing every day.
The brain of a young child registers a significant growth pattern during the first two years and the size of the brain triples within the second year of birth. The brain cells called synapses are formed based on the early experiences exposed to the baby while growing. The synapses cells fine-tune the mind of the baby following children inhabitants as the increase right from birth to 3 years and around 15 years.
A study shows that any child can speak any language as a native speaker if only the child gets the right exposure to the word during the first years of the child’s growth. Too little stimulation of a child’s brain is dangerous because it forms parts of the brain which are inactive. There is a possibility of overstimulating the child’s mind by technologizing the growth of the baby. In the 1970s children would start watching television at the age of 4 years when they can at least utter a few words and recognize the environment around them as opposed to today at the period of 4 months. Currently, the typical child is spending more than 40% of their wake hours watching television.
The overstimulation assumption shows that any elongated experience to fast image variation happens during a critical phase of brain growth and development and this causes a precondition in the brain always to imagine increase levels of stimulation which is not still the case, and this leads to inattention in the later life of the child. Technologizing the growth of the child affects the brain development negatively by preconditioning the brain to expect things that do not exist in real life. The study shows that the more exposure to television before three years of age, the more attentional problems they are likely to face then in school. A single hour of cognitive stimulation lowers attentional difficulties by a margin of 30% (Responsible parenting: Create memories, not expectations, 2014).
The content which the child will view at the tender age will also matter educational programs cause no harm to the brain of the child, entertainment programs causes a 60% increase in attentional problems, and any violent program creates a blowout of the child's mind by raising the changes of attentional problems by 110% (Improving early child development with words, 2014). Overstimulation of the brain causes the child to be hyper-interactive and mostly will engage in risk-taking activities because they are not able to recognize and differentiate the critical operations and the less significant events (Children and Ipad, 2014).
In my view, it is true that early exposure of the child’s brain to technology will cause damage to the mind of the young ones. Currently one can find a child who would recognize cartoons on the television more than any other social event life outside the TV. This overexposure is an indication that the child would consider real life is boring and too slow leading to attentional problems not only in school life but also later in life (Media and Children, 2002).
In conclusion, it is the sole responsibility of Parents to monitor what their children watch at a tender age. Earlier exposure to technology outside like even playing games with tablets. Parents need to be careful with the programs the children are allowed to attend in a tender age. Parents and guardians should always embrace the cognitive stimulation approach when they notice that their children are overexposed technology than necessary. Children growing up need more real-time play and less fast-paced media. Parents and guardians should embrace one phrase of changing the beginning, and in return, it turns the whole story.
Works Cited
Christakis, D. (December 28). Media and Children. [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoT7qH_uVNo
Guernsey, L. (2004, April 27). Children and Ipad. [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P41_nyYY3Zg&t=68s
Dr. Fitzgerald, B. (2014, June 3). Improving early child development with words. [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8qc8Aa3weE
Landsbergiene, A. (2014, August 31).Responsible parenting: Create memories. [Video file].
Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A71OktxTPac
