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"'Life outcomes for American youth are worsening, especially in comparison to 50 years ago,' says Darcia Narvaez, Notre Dame professor of psychology who specializes in moral development in children and how early life experiences can influence brain development.
'Ill-advised practices and beliefs have become commonplace in our culture, such as the use of infant formula, the isolation of infants in their own rooms or the belief that responding too quickly to a fussing baby will spoil it,' Narvaez says.
"This new research links certain early, nurturing parenting practices ... to specific, healthy emotional outcomes in adulthood, and has many experts rethinking some of our modern, cultural child-rearing 'norms.'"
I liken this to the many stories in recent years with headlines like "Research shows male and female brains are different!" What used to be common sense and human intuition now has to be "proven" by endless academic studies or it just isn't believed.
Well recently I have been not allowing a 7 year old boy to play video games while in the car. Many times I have taken that kid to the same city along the same route. Each time we go, he constantly asks "Are we there yet?"
And he again did this yesterday when we were just getting into his home city. He should KNOW by looking out the window and recognizing things that we are getting close...
So then I realized he has NOT been looking out the window! He always asks me to turn on the navigation... And I suddenly realized that has become a replacement for his video games. He is constantly focused on what is going on inside the car! Looking at the navigation.
I shut the navigation off!
Then I started asking him what will be coming up next (like there is a road construction project which has been going on for 3 years and we have driven past that hundreds of times). He did not know!
So no video games while in the car and no more navigation!
Also this made me realize something... A while back I taught a teenager how to drive a car. Many times we went to the same places. He was constantly asking me which way to turn to get to where we were going. Even though he had been that same route 30 times before! I thought it was odd he had to keep asking for directions...
Well this kid had been raised on video games and cell phones. When driving around, his attention has always been focused inside the vehicle, at whatever electronic device he is holding. So he has never looked outside at what was going by. Never learned how to recognize various buildings and sights! Know where he was or which way was home. So something he had to learn when he began to drive!!!
Well recently I have been not allowing a 7 year old boy to play video games while in the car. Many times I have taken that kid to the same city along the same route. Each time we go, he constantly asks "Are we there yet?"
And he again did this yesterday when we were just getting into his home city. He should KNOW by looking out the window and recognizing things that we are getting close...
So then I realized he has NOT been looking out the window! He always asks me to turn on the navigation... And I suddenly realized that has become a replacement for his video games. He is constantly focused on what is going on inside the car! Looking at the navigation.
I shut the navigation off!
Then I started asking him what will be coming up next (like there is a road construction project which has been going on for 3 years and we have driven past that hundreds of times). He did not know!
So no video games while in the car and no more navigation!
Also this made me realize something... A while back I taught a teenager how to drive a car. Many times we went to the same places. He was constantly asking me which way to turn to get to where we were going. Even though he had been that same route 30 times before! I thought it was odd he had to keep asking for directions...
Well this kid had been raised on video games and cell phones. When driving around, his attention has always been focused inside the vehicle, at whatever electronic device he is holding. So he has never looked outside at what was going by. Never learned how to recognize various buildings and sights! Know where he was or which way was home. So something he had to learn when he began to drive!!!
Interesting, and I think you've just turned the light on for me. I have two teenagers whom I am teaching to drive, ages 16 and 17. My 17 y/o son knows his way around and usually recognizes his surroundings. My 16 y/o daughter is, well, just clueless no matter where she is. I always blamed it on her being one year younger.
But come to think of it, when we go anywhere together my 17 y/o always sits in the front seat with me (because he's tall and needs legroom), whereas my 16 y/o is always in the back with the others, often playing games with her siblings or doing something with my wife's droid or ipad. Hmmm ....
Well recently I have been not allowing a 7 year old boy to play video games while in the car. Many times I have taken that kid to the same city along the same route. Each time we go, he constantly asks "Are we there yet?"
And he again did this yesterday when we were just getting into his home city. He should KNOW by looking out the window and recognizing things that we are getting close...
So then I realized he has NOT been looking out the window! He always asks me to turn on the navigation... And I suddenly realized that has become a replacement for his video games. He is constantly focused on what is going on inside the car! Looking at the navigation.
I shut the navigation off!
Then I started asking him what will be coming up next (like there is a road construction project which has been going on for 3 years and we have driven past that hundreds of times). He did not know!
So no video games while in the car and no more navigation!
Also this made me realize something... A while back I taught a teenager how to drive a car. Many times we went to the same places. He was constantly asking me which way to turn to get to where we were going. Even though he had been that same route 30 times before! I thought it was odd he had to keep asking for directions...
Well this kid had been raised on video games and cell phones. When driving around, his attention has always been focused inside the vehicle, at whatever electronic device he is holding. So he has never looked outside at what was going by. Never learned how to recognize various buildings and sights! Know where he was or which way was home. So something he had to learn when he began to drive!!!
To be fair, I never knew how to get anywhere until I started driving myself, even though I had been there many times before. I remember when I got my license and found that I did not know how to get to the mall! It was actually embarrassing. But anyway, I didn't have any devices like that in the car as a kid. I think that you just don't pay attention the same way when you are not driving. And some people are just bad at navigation. My husband still can't get anywhere without the GPS, or me, to navigate for him.
Well recently I have been not allowing a 7 year old boy to play video games while in the car. Many times I have taken that kid to the same city along the same route. Each time we go, he constantly asks "Are we there yet?"
And he again did this yesterday when we were just getting into his home city. He should KNOW by looking out the window and recognizing things that we are getting close...
So then I realized he has NOT been looking out the window! He always asks me to turn on the navigation... And I suddenly realized that has become a replacement for his video games. He is constantly focused on what is going on inside the car! Looking at the navigation.
I shut the navigation off!
Then I started asking him what will be coming up next (like there is a road construction project which has been going on for 3 years and we have driven past that hundreds of times). He did not know!
So no video games while in the car and no more navigation!
Also this made me realize something... A while back I taught a teenager how to drive a car. Many times we went to the same places. He was constantly asking me which way to turn to get to where we were going. Even though he had been that same route 30 times before! I thought it was odd he had to keep asking for directions...
Well this kid had been raised on video games and cell phones. When driving around, his attention has always been focused inside the vehicle, at whatever electronic device he is holding. So he has never looked outside at what was going by. Never learned how to recognize various buildings and sights! Know where he was or which way was home. So something he had to learn when he began to drive!!!
[b]"'Life outcomes for American youth are worsening, especially in comparison to 50 years ago,' says Darcia Narvaez, Notre Dame professor of psychology who specializes in moral development in children and how early life experiences can influence brain development.
'Ill-advised practices and beliefs have become commonplace in our culture, such as the use of infant formula, the isolation of infants in their own rooms or the belief that responding too quickly to a fussing baby will spoil it,' Narvaez says.
This article doesn't make sense. I agree with her on a lot of her points but the fact is, most of the 'issues' she talks about are better, not worse, than 50 years ago. Breastfeeding hit its all-time LOW in the early 70s and is much higher now. Cosleeping is way up and so is the whole idea of responding right away to your baby (lots of young parents think that letting a baby cry himself to sleep is tantamount to child abuse). Helicopter parenting can be considered an extreme case of responding to your child's every whim. It is an issue today but was unheard of 50 years ago.
Well, I was always around my mother "helping" her in the kitchen, but I did not learn how to really cook until I was married and totally responsible for the meal.
As a child, my mind was focused on being fed, not coordinating the whole meal. I liken the driving thing to this as well.
This article doesn't make sense. I agree with her on a lot of her points but the fact is, most of the 'issues' she talks about are better, not worse, than 50 years ago. Breastfeeding hit its all-time LOW in the early 70s and is much higher now. Cosleeping is way up and so is the whole idea of responding right away to your baby (lots of young parents think that letting a baby cry himself to sleep is tantamount to child abuse). Helicopter parenting can be considered an extreme case of responding to your child's every whim. It is an issue today but was unheard of 50 years ago.
My impression is that traditional practices like co-sleeping, breastfeeding, and carrying babies around began to decline in the 1950s, at least in mainstream American society. But I could be wrong; perhaps it was earlier. It's a minor point. Anecdotally, I see much less of it now than I did in the 1970s and 80s.
I believe that the practices mentioned in this article are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of modern parenting hindering child brain development. Parents are too busy to give their children much attention these days. Few children have older siblings, cousins, aunts, or uncles contributing attention and care. Television and electronic media have become substitute parents for many children. Modern music, which is pumped into their ears from morning to night every day of their lives, trains their little brains to expect constant stimulation, thereby shrinking their attention spans. The incredible proliferation of toys reduces the need for children to develop their imaginations. The stress of growing up in broken or dysfunctional families, which are increasingly the norm, freezes their emotional development. And to top it off, children are increasingly institutionalized - the push for universal pre-school, longer school hours, a longer school year, etc., deprives children of the security of home life necessary for normal development.
Last edited by WesternPilgrim; 01-09-2013 at 03:34 PM..
My impression is that traditional practices like co-sleeping, breastfeeding, and carrying babies around began to decline in the 1950s, at least in mainstream American society. But I could be wrong; perhaps it was earlier. It's a minor point. Anecdotally, I see much less of it now than I did in the 1970s and 80s.
I believe that the practices mentioned in this article are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of modern parenting hindering child brain development. Parents are too busy to give their children much attention these days. Few children have older siblings, cousins, aunts, or uncles contributing attention and care. Television and electronic media have become substitute parents for many children. Modern music trains their little brains to expect constant stimulation, thereby shrinking their attention spans. The incredible proliferation of toys reduces the need for children to develop their imaginations. The stress of growing up in broken or dysfunctional families, which are increasingly the norm, freezes their emotional development. And to top it off, children are increasingly institutionalized - the push for universal pre-school, longer school hours, a longer school year, etc., deprives children of the security of home life necessary for normal development.
I don't disagree with everything you have said here. As far as breastfeeding rates though, the article is wrong.While I agree the outlook for today's youth is less positive than it has been, it isn't due to lack of breastfeeding, which has been on the rise for years. Per the CDC, 76.9% of newborns are currently breastfed in the US, at least initially. At 6 months, that drops to 47.2%, but that is still far above the rates when I was born. My mother didn't breast feed any of her 7 children, nor did any of her friends. And 50 years ago, formula was not as carefully developed to meet the needs of growing babies as it is today.
If anything, parents are far more involved in the lives of their children than they used to be. We were probably better off when our kids had less parental involvement, but a lot more outside time with unscheduled play. I think my own boys may have been raised in the tail end of the "free-range" life. Certainly I don't know many kids today who run outside and ring doorbells until they find a playmate.
What does hurt today's youth is the lack of opportunities for those less academically inclined. We need to bring back technical education and pride in blue collar jobs. As the price of college education continues to rise, it's only going to get worse for today's youth.
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