Salaam dear young friends, how are you? How are your summer vacations going on? Hope you are enjoying and doing well by the Grace of Almighty Allah.
Spending our time during the summer vacations can be sometimes boring. Some might spend their leisure time by watching online movies, and some may play online games on their phones or their personal computers. But can playing games and watching movies makes us productive? Can we achieve our goals by just spending (wasting) our useful time on these things?
The brains of the infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers are genetically programmed to develop most effectively when exposed to an environment. During this period of our evolution, early childhood was characterized by specific types of social interaction, including language exposure, social experiences leading to an understanding of self-awareness and one’s role in society, as well as virtually limitless opportunities for physical play, imaginative play and creativity.
We now live in a society where these types of experiences, so critical for appropriate brain development, have been usurped by television and other electronic media. Watching too much television can change the structure of a child’s brain in a damaging way, according to a new study. Researchers found that the more time a child spent viewing TV, the more profound the brain alterations appeared to be.
First and foremost, the most important issue with reference to children watching television is that the passive act of watching television displaces other activities in which the child could have been participating. When a child is watching television or playing a video or mobile game, he or she is not involved in play, not socializing with other individuals and most importantly, not receiving feedback as to the actions or consequences of his or her behaviour.
The negative aspect of television on the first two years of brain development, in terms of displacing other activities that the child would have otherwise engaged in, are of such great concern that the some research centres recently indicated that children two years of age and younger should not watch any television whatsoever. The important here is that when children watch television they are not in other fundamentally important activities for cognitive and social development.
Children need to be exploring their physical world. They need to be learning the fundamental laws of physics by manipulating objects. TV limits a child’s motivation to explore and to engage himself in creative activities.
Another important thing which gets effected by watching television or playing video games is our language. Language development also suffers in children watching television. To learn the appropriate usage of language, the child must experience appropriate responses from those around him during his attempts to use language. Children learn language by modifying their understanding based upon the responses they receive and even the corrections offered.
You all are now thinking that if watching television, playing computer or online games is bad for our brain development, then how what should be done in order to overcome this problem?
For the information of our young friends, during a research college students were asked to read a thriller book chosen due to its strong narration and a dramatic plot based on true events. After reading the novel, the students had increased connectivity in parts of the brain that were related to language. There was also increased activity in the sensory motor region of the brain, suggesting that readers experienced similar sensations to the characters in the book.
There are also long-term effects from reading books. Reading keeps your mind alert and delays cognitive decline in elders. Research even found that Alzheimer’s is 2.5 times less likely to appear in elderly people who read regularly, while TV was presented as a risk factor.
Six minutes of reading can reduce stress levels by 68 percent, and when we read, we’re forced to use our imaginations to fill in the gaps. Books also have the advantage of being able to describe everything in greater depth, while television is mostly composed of dialogue between characters, books can walk readers through scenes, characters’ thoughts, and provide lengthier commentary.
Hope you have enjoyed our weekly chat, till next week, bye.