CHILDREN’S BRAIN DEVELOPMENT

The development of the brain is influenced by many factors such as a child’s relationship, environment and experiences. A child’s brain undergoes an amazing period of development from birth to producing more than a million neural connecting each second. Child Development specialist have released research that shows that the environment of a  child’s earliest days can have effects that last a lifetime.

How well a brain develops depends on so many factors such as:

• Genes
• Proper nutrients starting from pregnancy
• Exposure to toxins and infections(exposure to stress and trauma can have a long term negative effects while talking, reading and playing can help stimulate the brain)
• Childs interactions to other people and the world.

Healthy brain growth in infants continue to depend on the right care, nutrition and attention given by parents and caregivers, because children’s brain are still developing they are especially vulnerable to traumatic head injuries, infections, and toxins which is why childhood vaccines such as measles  vaccines are advisable to not skip any vaccines as it helps protect them from dangerous complications like swelling of the brain.

Effects of too much screen time on babies and younger children according to Brain scientists.

For the brain to grow and develop it must be stimulated by the outside world. research has shown that screens- TV, phones, tablets has little or no impacts in stimulating the brain particularly in early childhood. Although screentime will help keep your child preoccupied and entertained but they have but they have little or no impact on their development because images, voices and message on the screen moves at a fast pace than children are able to comprehend.

Exposure to screens reduces children’s attention span and the ability to focus, A child exposed to too much screentime will get used to being entertained, hence they find it difficult to pay attention to other things that do not move at the same pace or provide the same level of entertainment. Exposure to excessive screentime has also been linked to speech delay, aggressive behavior, obesity and inability to connect or show empathy to others. Excessive exposure to screentime also over stimulate the nervous system resulting to the body giving into “flight” or “fight” mode. It also results into lack of focus, short attention span, sleep issues, inability to connect or build social relationships as well as regulates behavior and emotions.

You can boost your children’s brain development by doing the following;

• Sing songs and play games that involves body movement such as peak-a-boo, hide and seek etc, this encourages them to move their body thereby stimulating neural connections which are necessary for brain development.
• Play pictures and images games, show colorful pictures, this stimulate brain growth and sight development.
• Bond by cuddling, touching and gazing into their eyes, this helps to release hormones responsible for brain growth.
• Also, reading stories and talking with them slowly in a high pitched voice using animated facial expressions will help to stimulate the area of the brain responsible for languages.

There’s a world outside of digital world, learn to reduce children’s screen time so they can learn to focus more and pay attention to other things that can help with their development.

Babies under 12 months should not be subjected to screentime, 12 months shouldn’t be allowed more than 30- 45 minutes a day, 18-24 months should co-watch with an adult for not more than an hr., 2-5years should not have a screen time more than an hr. per day. 6-10 years maximum of 2hrs a day, media should be monitored by an adult.

SHARING IS CARING!!!