I came across this blog post by Julia Volkman,a Faculty member of the Brain Health Initiative, a guest lecturer for Harvard University's Neuroscience of Learning/Mind, Brain, Health, and Education course (Extension School) and a Montessori Mentor. It is directed to Montessori teachers but I do think it helpful information for parents as well.

What teachers are reporting now is that children seem to have:

So is this true or is it misperception by the teachers? I think teachers are pretty accurate reporters of what they see in child development. I mean, seriously, they're actually trained to be accurate reporters! So, let's just get off the teachers' backs and listen to what they are saying.

The real question is, why are teachers seeing these changes? To figure this out, we have to look at what has happened in our culture in recent years. How about EVERYTHING!

The huge events of the past few years have led we humans to change our behaviors as we adapt to the realities of this new world. And, as Dr. Montessori and Charles Darwin taught us, that is what we humans do. We adapt. That is why we survive.

Sometimes we adapt in skillful ways (like shifting our lifestyles to be healthier because we've seen the data) and sometimes we adapt in unskillful ways (like binge watching Netflix to escape from a reality that we just can't handle at the moment). But no matter how we adapt, these changes in our ways of being change our brain physically. These changes are so profound that there's actually a whole field of science that studies this: cultural neuroscience.

I can't cover everything that has changed in the world in a blog post. So, I'll focus on the low hanging fruit of screen time. Both children and adults are using screens way more often than we used to (see Trott, et al., 2022 for a review).

But, is using screens more than we used to actually interfering with we adults being "normal" humans? And what does it mean for young children to regularly use screens?

I'm not going to get on a soap box here. I mean, I'm a mom who lives in the US. I remember one time when my daughter was three and couldn't stop vomiting. After the first hour in the bathroom when I realized it wasn't ending anytime soon, I got us a big bowl for her to throw up in and popped Sound of Music into the VCR (yes, it was that long ago). She kept throwing up for hours but both of us were not as upset about it while Julie Andrews was singing about the beauty of life.

So, is there a good place in the world for movies, etc? Absolutely!

I'm actually not here to judge. I'm just going to report on what's happening developmentally with children in 2023 that is different from how it was in 2003 or even 2013.

Children are driven to become humans like the adults around them. So, if the adults they see are often using screens, their brains become programmed to think that regularly using screens is what normal humans do. And, of course, these same adults are giving young children screens to use as well.

There is a growing body of evidence that shows that increased internet screen time is associated with depression (Kandola et al., 2022) and externalizing behaviors (see Eirich et al., 2022 for a review). It's important to note here that, at least in adolescents and adults, playing video games may actually be associated with a decrease in depressive symptoms (Kandola et al., 2022). So how we use screens matters.

One thing I'm seeing a lot of is parents giving their phones to their toddlers and preschoolers whenever they need a minute to speak with a store clerk or focus on their chores, etc. Are you seeing that too? And it's not just in the US. I was in Poland last week and saw this happen again and again.

My major concern here is what children aren't doing because they are being entertained by a screen. They aren't, for example, learning how to wait. If they're given the screen to calm themselves down, they don't learn how to work with their emotions skillfully; they aren't learning to self-regulate.

Increased screen time may also mean that we aren't getting the preferred amount of physical activity. And physical activity is incredibly important for healthy brain development.

So, have children changed? Yes. Do we need to change? Yes and no. I think the core guidance that Dr. Montessori gave us is still valid. The difference is that we need more patience. It may take longer for children to find the appeal in our lovely calm environments. In the short-term, they may not seem as compelling as bells, whistles, and animations. But, if we keep enticing them to connect with the environment and to exert themselves on meaningful work, normalization will come.

I encourage you to be persistent, consistent, and tenacious in adhering to the principles Dr. Montessori taught us. Honor the human tendencies; those haven't changed but they may be a bit obscured.

Upcoming Dates to Remember:

~Be sure not to miss Child as Teacher this month in the primary classrooms; this is a golden opportunity to get a glimpse of your child's work

~5/10-5/12: Parent-Teacher Conferences for toddler and primary classes. Early release day for all classes. If your child is registered for full time aftercare they will have normal hours those days.

~ 5/25 :Early release for all programs. The primary End of Year Program and Kindergarten Graduation for the St Anthony and St Apkar campuses will take place at the St Anthony campus at 9:00am. All are invited and encouraged to attend.

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