Creates a healthier society

When we are born into our planet, we faced a myriad of choices. In the simplest of chores to the most complex, like a mate or job, we must decide notebook computer for all of us. The entire of these form our lifestyle and future. Many of these decisions are the result of our upbringing including social norms, ethnic or religious groups, or cultural influences. However, many are personal, especially as we grow older. No more shall we be bound by parental direction or peer pressure. So, what am I discussing here?

Let’s start with the will to succeed. In early stages, we discover the power of cash; what it buys and also the influence it wields. We understand it can purchase us fun and fancy things. It’s needed to acquire a lifetime of ease and also to bring us the fruits in our labors. Some of us work hard and others receive money in a number of ways. However the result still it the worshiping of cash because the ultimate idol. It should make us happy and satisfied, but often times, it does not. As we manage to get a house, within a few years, we would like a bigger one. The vehicle we own is never enough. It could be fancier, faster, newer and larger. And who can’t make use of a giant television and much more computer power? Money is seemingly the solution to a happier life. But does it help provide us with a longer life?

Some may reason that it does, Happier people with less anxiety may live longer, or so professionals say. Money can buy us better medical care along with a healthier home. One with safer features such as home air cleaners, filtered water, and beds made for comfort. However these are only slight improvements to our life and disregard the other issues that money creates. For example, the wealthy like to eat at restaurants or “dine.” They enjoy the richer foods like steak and lobster. Fancy desserts and appetizers are very common. Is the fact that a bad thing, you ask? Not necessarily. But combined with the more decadent lifestyle comes a price, It is called cardiovascular disease, strokes, cancer, along with other medical maladies. It has no regard as to whether it attacks a rich or poor person. But it is proven to be more prevalent among Americans compared to average, less affluent, Chinese farmer who consumes mostly rice, vegetables as well as an occasional fish or fowl. They’re also typically not overweight and work hard within the fields every single day. It is possible to lesson here?

We love our more sedentary realm of computers, television and comfortable chairs. Now include the snacks we consume, the beer, the desserts, candy, and cigarettes. The result is an equation for a shorter, more ailment-filled life. And all the cash you are making won’t change anything. The problem dates back towards the first sentence. We are making bad choices. Forget how much money you are making or have invested. All of us should be worried about our health before every other interest. It’s critical we recognize that our lousy diet and loss of focus will shorten our life and that’s almost guaranteed.

Now a number of you convinced that we’re able to also die in a car accident and that’s possible, but that is additionally a random event. Overeating, being overweight and out of shape will ultimately take it’s toll and can cause the body great harm. It might not kill you but it stop you against keeping up with the grand kids and doing things that provide you with joy in later life. Do you want to travel or bicycle or take very long walks along the beach? Having a diminished lung capacity or additional weight, that is problematic, I know many friends unwilling to quit smoking or quit the snacks. It’s not easy but I’ve also witnessed the end result once the matter is ignored. My wife died at 55 from obesity. She refused to prevent overeating and paid the best price. So I am suggesting that you be smarter than she was and make an effort to be healthy, wealthy AND wise.

Money is not the answer or the trouble. Anyone associated with a income level can eat better and use. You simply lessen the calories and start with walks. You may also save money because snacks, candy, steak, and cigarettes are expensive. Cutting back is not always easy which means you start slowly and give up one thing each week. Then choose chicken instead of beef. Try more turkey and fish. Snack on veggies and nuts. Walk Fifteen minutes every day after which slowly increase your walks. You don’t need to join a gym. Buy a workout or yoga/Pilates video and work out in front of the television. Promise to be healthy for the sake of your spouse, children, grand children, other family, friends, after which, mainly yourself.

If you’re a millionaire you get to spend more as you live longer. If you are not, then live a better, happier life with fewer illnesses and pains. And if you want to become a real healthy person, try taking some vitamins and supplements, drink green tea extract, floss, and have a regular workout routine. Keep in mind that all the money in the world won’t save your life if you are unfit. Only you can do that before that fatal day. I’d think that most wise people wish to prolong their life and live it fully. I know I do therefore i is going to do whatever is needed to eat well. After which I recieve to enjoy the money, my wife, my family, the planet, and all sorts of it has to offer.

Reminiscing concerning the good old days when we were becoming an adult is really a memory trip really worth taking, when trying to understand the problems facing the children of today. A mere Two decades ago, children used to play outside all day, riding bikes, playing sports and building forts. Masters of imaginary games, children of yesteryear created their own type of play that didn’t require costly equipment or parental supervision. Kids of the past moved… a lot, as well as their sensory world was nature based and straightforward. Previously, family time was often spent doing chores, and kids had expectations to satisfy every day. The dining room table was a central place where families came together to eat and discuss their day, and after dinner became the center for baking, crafts and homework.

Today’s families are different. Technology’s impact on the 21st century family is fracturing its very foundation, and causing a disintegration of core values that long ago were what held families together. Juggling work, home and community lives, parents now rely heavily on communication, information and transportation technology to make their lives faster and more efficient. Entertainment technology (TV, internet, videogames, iPods) has advanced so rapidly, that families have scarcely noticed the significant impact and changes for their family structure and lifestyles. A 2010 Kaiser Foundation study demonstrated that elementary aged children experience average 8 hours daily of entertainment technology, 75% of those children have TV’s within their bedrooms, and 50% of North American homes possess the TV on all day long. Add emails, mobile phones, internet surfing, and chat lines, and that we begin to see the pervasive aspects of technology on the house lives and family milieu. Gone is dinning table conversation, replaced through the “big screen” and take out. Children now depend on technology for almost all their play, grossly limiting challenges for their creativity and imaginations, in addition to limiting necessary challenges for their bodies to attain optimal sensory and motor development. Sedentary bodies bombarded with chaotic sensory stimulation, are leading to delays in attaining child developmental milestones, with subsequent effect on foundation skills for achieving literacy. Hard wired for high-speed, today’s young are entering school struggling with self regulation and attention skills necessary for learning, eventually becoming significant behavior management trouble for teachers within the classroom.

So what exactly is the impact of technology on the developing child? Children’s developing sensory and motor systems have biologically not evolved to accommodate this sedentary, yet frenzied and chaotic nature of today’s technology. The impact of rapidly advancing technology on the developing child has seen a rise of physical, psychological and behavior disorders the health and education systems are just beginning to detect, much less understand. Child obesity and diabetes are now national epidemics both in Canada and the US. Diagnoses of ADHD, autism, coordination disorder, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, depression, and sleep problems could be causally associated with technology overuse, and therefore are increasing in an alarming rate. An urgent closer consider the critical factors for meeting developmental milestones, and also the subsequent impact of technology on those factors, would assist parents, teachers and health professionals to higher comprehend the complexities of this issue, and help create effective strategies to reduce technology use. The three critical factors for healthy physical and psychological child development are movement, touch and link with other humans. Movement, touch and connection are forms of essential sensory input which are integral for that eventual growth and development of a child’s motor and attachment systems. When movement, touch and connection are deprived, devastating consequences occur.

Young kids require 3-4 hours per day of active rough and tumble play to achieve adequate sensory stimulation for their vestibular, proprioceptive and tactile systems for normal development. The critical period for attachment development is 0-7 months, in which the infant-parent bond is best facilitated by close contact with the main parent, and a lot of eye-to-eye contact. These types of sensory inputs ensure normal growth and development of posture, bilateral coordination, optimal arousal states and self regulation necessary for achieving foundation skills for eventual school entry. Infants with low tone, toddlers failing to reach motor milestones, and children who’re unable to pay attention or achieve foundation skills for literacy, are frequent visitors to pediatric physiotherapy and occupational therapy clinics. The use of safety restraint devices such as infant bucket seats and toddler carrying packs and strollers, have further limited movement, touch and connection, as have TV and videogame overuse. A lot of today’s parents perceive outdoor play is ‘unsafe’, further limiting essential developmental components usually attained in outdoor rough and tumble play. Dr. Ashley Montagu, that has extensively studied the developing tactile sensory system, reports that when infants are missing out on human connection and touch, they neglect to thrive and several eventually die. Dr. Montagu states that touch deprived infants develop into toddlers who exhibit excessive agitation and anxiety, and may become depressed by early childhood.

As youngsters are connecting increasingly more to technology, society is visiting a disconnect from themselves, others and nature. As little children develop and form their identities, they frequently are incapable of discerning whether or not they are the “killing machine” seen on television and in videogames, or simply a shy and lonely little kid looking for a friend. TV and videogame addiction causes an irreversible worldwide epidemic of mental and physical health disorders, yet we all find excuses to carry on. Where A century ago we required to proceed to survive, we’re now under the assumption we want technology to survive. The issue is the fact that technology is killing what we love the most…connection with other people. The critical period for attachment formation is 0 – 7 months of age. Attachment or connection is the formation of a primary bond between the developing infant and parent, and is integral to that particular developing child’s feeling of safety and security. Healthy attachment formation results in a happy and calm child. Disruption or neglect of primary attachment results in an anxious and agitated child. Family over utilization of technology is gravely affecting not only early attachment formation, but also impacting negatively on child psychological and behavioral health.

Further analysis of the impact of technology on the developing child indicates that while the vestibular, proprioceptive, tactile and attachment systems they are under stimulated, the visual and auditory sensory systems are in “overload”. This sensory imbalance creates huge problems in overall neurological development, as the brain’s anatomy, chemistry and pathways become permanently altered and impaired. Young children who are subjected to violence through TV and videogames have been in a high state of adrenalin and stress, as the body doesn’t realize that what they’re watching is not real. Children who overuse technology report persistent body sensations of overall “shaking”, increased breathing and heartbeat, along with a general state of “unease”. This could best certainly be a persistent hypervigalent sensory system, still “on alert” for that oncoming assault from videogame characters. While the long term results of this chronic state of stress in the developing child are unknown, we all do realize that chronic stress in grown-ups produces a weakened defense mechanisms along with a number of serious diseases and disorders. Prolonged visual fixation on the fixed distance, two dimensional screen grossly limits ocular development necessary for eventual printing and reading. Think about the distinction between visual location on the variety of different shaped and sized objects within the near and far distance (for example practiced in outdoor play), as opposed to taking a look at a fixed distance glowing screen. This rapid intensity, frequency and duration of visual and auditory stimulation produces a “hard wiring” from the child’s sensory system for high speed, with subsequent devastating effects on a child’s capability to imagine, attend and focus on academic tasks. Dr. Dimitri Christakis found that each hour of TV watched daily between the ages of 0 and Many years equated to a 10% rise in attention problems by age seven years.

In 2001 the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement recommending that youngsters under 2 yrs of age should not use any technology, yet toddlers 0 to two years of age average 2.A couple of hours of TV per day. The Academy further recommended that youngsters over the age of two should restrict usage to 1 hour daily if they have any physical, psychological or behavioral problems, and 2 hours daily maximum if they don’t, yet parents of elementary children are allowing 8 hours per day. France has gone as far as to get rid of all “baby TV” due to the detrimental effects on child development. How can parents carry on living in a world where they are fully aware what is bad for their children, yet do nothing at all to assist them to? It appears that today’s families have been pulled in to the “Virtual Reality Dream”, where everyone believes that life is something which requires a getaway. The immediate gratification received from ongoing use of TV, videogame and internet technology, has replaced the desire for human connection.

It’s important to come together as parents, teachers and therapists to help society “wake up” and see the devastating effects technology has not only on our child’s physical, psychological and behavioral health, but also on the ability to learn and sustain personal and family relationships. While technology is a train that will continually move ahead, knowledge regarding its detrimental effects, and action taken toward balancing using technology with exercise and family time, works toward sustaining our children, in addition to saving our world. While no-one can argue the benefits of advanced technology in today’s world, link with these devices may have led to a disconnection from what society should value most, children. Rather than hugging, playing, rough housing, and speaking with children, parents are increasingly resorting to providing their children with increased videogames, TV’s in the car, and the latest iPods and cell phone devices, creating a deep and widening chasm between parent and child.

Cris Rowan, pediatric occupational therapist and child development expert is promoting a concept termed ‘Balanced Technology Management’ (BTM) where parents manage balance between activities children need for growth and success with technology use. Rowan’s company Zone’in Programs Inc. http://www.zonein.ca has developed a ‘System of Solutions’ for addressing technology overuse in children through the development of Zone’in Products, Workshops, Training and Services.

Cris Rowan is definitely an impassioned occupational therapist that has first-hand understanding and knowledge of how technology can cause profound changes in a child’s development, behavior and their ability to learn. Cris includes a Bachelor of Science in Occupational Therapy, in addition to a Bachelor of Science in Biology, and is a SIPT certified sensory integration specialist. Cris is a member in good standing using the BC College of Occupational Therapists, and an approved provider using the American Occupational Therapy Association, the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists, and Autism Community Training. For the past fifteen years, Cris has specialized in pediatric rehabilitation, employed by on the decade within the Sunshine Coast School District in Bc.