The impact of early childhood digital addiction on cognitive and emotional development.

Author: Zavgorodnii A. Private practice (Russia)

Keywords

Information technology, neural networks of the brain, cognitive and emotional development, periods of development of the child's brain, the formation of the child's psyche, the substitution of the real world for a virtual one.

Abstract

Digitalization has a detrimental effect on the yet unformed neural networks of the child's brain. The development of the child's brain affects the brain stem at the initial stage, and the cerebral cortex at the final stage. The first period in the womb is 20-27 days, when the baby's brain begins to form from the front of the neural tube. The second period is considered to be the most critical 1 - 8 weeks due to the formation of visual functions and 6 - 24 months, a sensitive period, when a set of psychological properties and behaviors are formed. And so on until the age of 20-23, when the final maturation of the prefrontal cortex of the brain occurs. The development of the brain has a wave diagram, but the most significant period is the period of the first three years due to its intensity of formation of the foundations of conditioned reflex connections, which are distinguished by their strength and can persist until the end of life. During this period of the formation of the child's psyche, replacing the real world with a virtual one, we replace the skills that have not yet been formed with third-party ones. In fact, slowing down the development of their own and grossly interfering in their formation, causing irreparable harm to the child's psyche for life. A deep addiction comparable to a drug addiction is established after the substitution of skills formed with the use and capabilities of artificial intelligence. When programs and various algorithms intuitively replace imaginative thinking, feelings, communicative qualities and more. The child's time must be filled with anything that will force him to imagine, read, think, create, show curiosity, interest, care, compassion, love. This is everyday work. And I wish everyone involved in the process of patience, endurance and wisdom.

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