Movement not only assures optimal cardiovascular health and prevention of diabetes, stroke and heart attacks, but also ensures optimal physical mental development needed for growth and academic success. Movement performed on playgrounds, in classrooms, and in gyms also provides opportunity for socialization and human interaction, integral components for happiness and functional relationships. Movement stimulates two systems integral for development of core strength, a precursor to motor coordination of eyes to hand, as well as both sides of the body, and upper to lower body – the vestibular and the proprioceptive systems, both integral for literacy, attention and learning.

Whenever a child moves off their centre of gravity, the vestibular system is stimulated, sending messages to core muscles to contract to bring the child’s body back to centre. Think of a swing. When the swing moves forward, the gravitational forces push the child backward, and the vestibular system responds by activating contraction of muscles on the front of the child’s body to prevent the child from falling off backward. As the swing moves through it’s arc, the opposite happens. Think of a merry-go-round with gravitational forces operating all directions, continuously activating core muscles to contract. Strong core is important for eventual motor coordination, essential for printing and reading. Vestibular stimulation also optimizes a child’s arousal state. Remember rocking your infant to sleep, or tossing them in the air to make them smile? These movements stimulated the vestibular system to change the child’s arousal state, getting their energy in the zone to pay attention and learn. Even though studies show child injuries on playgrounds have not risen in the past 25 years, parents, teachers and licensing officials proceeded to decide these devices were not safe. Swings and slides got shorter, merry-go-rounds disappeared, and children now stay inside.

The other system that is stimulated with movement is the proprioceptive system, located in the joints and muscles and activated with “heavy work” type activities. Any movements requiring push, pull, lift and carry isometric loading of the muscles activate the proprioceptive system, known for development of refined gross and fine motor patterns required for all activity. Activation of the proprioceptive system also results in an “energy release” necessary for again obtaining optimal arousal states for paying attention and learning. Many behaviour problems arise from children being kept in at recess, or not having recess at all. Recent conversations with colleagues in Texas concluded that many schools are removing recess altogether in favour of more academic pursuits. Not a good idea if we want children to be able to learn.

Photo courtesy of Kelsey E (Flickr)

Dr. John Ratey, child psychiatrist and author of the book “Spark – The revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain” describes how exercise not only increases endorphins, but also increases dopamine, a neurotransmitter known for improving attention and learning ability. So does Ritalin. While stimulant medication might result in temporary improvement in attention, the long term side effects are 10% weight loss, depression, and cardiac overload. Let’s see…playgrounds and exercise do the same thing as stimulant medication, but schools continue to reduce recess and gym time? Exercise increases size and number of neurons and neuronal connections in an area of the brain called the hippocampus, known for memory and concentration. Schools across North America have embraced Dr. Ratey’s finding and applied them in classrooms with startling results. As profiled in CBC’s documentary “Brain Gains”, a grade nine alternative school in Saskatchewan used treadmills for 45 minutes per day and raised grades four levels in four months.

Another positive aspect to movement is if it is carried outdoors, there is the added benefit of nature. Researchers found that inner city children had three times the incidence of adhd as rural children because of access to “green space” or nature, and reported in a 2004 study that a 20 minute walk in the park can significantly reduce adhd. Hmmm…access to nature and movement significantly improves attention and learning, yet schools are increasingly putting children on computers, and now allowing them to stay at home and do online courses. If teachers and parents would just let children outside to play, behaviours would improve, as well as attention and learning, in addition to motor development necessary for attaining literacy.

Cris Rowan, BScOT, BScBi, SIPT
Pediatric occupational therapist, CEO of Zone’in Programs Inc., and author of “Virtual Child – The terrifying truth about what technology is doing to children”

While some technologies might promote higher level thinking, the majority of technology that young children use is either “spoon-fed/brain-dead” (TV), or “stimulus/response” (video games). Studies have have shown that early exposure to these types of technologies result in the brain “pruning” connections to the frontal cortex. A child’s brain develops, or allocates “neural real estate”, in relationship to the environment and how they spend their time. If the only activity a child engages in is high speed, mind numbing technology, their brain efficiently short circuits the no longer needed frontal cortex. Gone is executive function, impulse control, and critical thinking, three necessary elements for learning. Gone also is imagination and creativity, also necessary for learning, but also integral for eventual success and survival in increasingly competitive work environments. Parents and educators think that early exposure to technology is necessary for eventual success in our technological world, yet they couldn’t be farther from the truth. Termed “The Learning Paradox”, early use of technologies actually make children attention-deficit, ensuring they can’t learn, nor be successful earners once they reach adulthood. Research is also showing that early exposure to technology changes brain structure, chemistry, and function in areas associated with addiction. The younger the child is, and the more intense the exposure to technology, the more prone that child will be to addiction.

Child addiction to technology could be viewed as a lack of creativity and imagination. For instance, if a child had the capacity for expansive thought, and was able to readily engage themselves in a variety of activities alternate to technology, they would not be “addicted”. Consequently, early exposure of children to alternate forms of activity is essential if we want our children to be able to survive in the real world. Parents (and educators) often report that when they encourage children to put down the device, the response is “But there’s nothing else to do”! This type of response to technology reduction, is an indicator of a child who lacks creativity and imagination, and should be a wake-up call to parents and educators of a definite technology dependence, and eventual possible technology addiction. If this is your current situation, an experiment is called for – a home and school one week “unplug”, with parents and educators participating as well. You could call this experiment “Survivor Unplugged” e.g. your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to go one week without any technology. No cell phones, computer, iPad, or TV. Could you do it? Would you survive? Could you even go one day, one hour, even 15 minutes separated from your device? If the answer is “No”, then what kind of example are you setting for your children or students, and what kind of a life and future are they going to have if they follow in your footsteps? It is imperative, now more than ever, to lead our children toward a sustainable future, one where they can entertain themselves in the real world, explore nature, and find comfort and support in relationships with real human beings.

http://www.fasdoutreach.ca/elearning/teaching-strengths-and-needs/cris-rowan-movement-attention-learning

This picture of a 3 year old girl in front of a laptop, is found on the home page of BC’s new educational plan advertising “individualized programs” for students www.bcedplan.ca. Accompanying the push by education governments for increased use of computers with younger and younger children, is the recent government mandated return to work following strike action. As cyberschools rapidly grow in popularity (see below), it becomes all too clear of government’s plans for future education for young students. This short sighted thinking, that students can learn from computers, has already caused significant harm to children’s development and academic performance. Technology overuse in homes and schools has resulted in one in three children now entering the education system developmentally delayed, one in four are obese, and one in six with a diagnosed mental illness. Half our grade eights don’t have job entry literacy, and one third of students have difficulty learning, largely because they can’t pay attention. Behaviour and aggression are problematic, and consequent behaviour diagnosis and use of harmful medication on the rise. The ways in which society is choosing to raise and educate children with technology are no longer sustainable. This article is designed to bring awareness to the damage we are causing to children through unrestricted use of technology, in homes and schools, and is a call for a ban on the use of school-based technologies with developmentally vulnerable young children. Re-focusing on teaching the basics, along with improved access to movement and nature-based activities, will ensure sustainable futures for all children.

1. Technology is addictive

Engaged in an average of 7.5 hours per day sedentary technologies, our children are not achieving critical factors for development and academic success. To grow and succeed in this world, children need to move, touch and be touched, connect with other humans, and explore nature. We live in a society obsessed with devices, and in our need to connect to technologies, are disconnecting from our children at a rapid pace. Technology addictions are rampant in the adult population, and are becoming alarmingly common in children. In the absence of a tech-addicted parent, children are defaulting to forming attachments with devices. Think this is a joke? How successful were you, or your children, in your last attempt to take a “tech holiday” and reconnect as a family? Never tried? In the history of humankind, we have never seen children with addictions. The cost to the education, health and social governments to treat technology addictions, as well as addiction outcomes (developmental delay, obesity, mental illness, illiteracy), will be astronomical. We are only viewing the tip of a very large iceberg, and the time to act is now. The population on which to focus first is our developmentally vulnerable, ages 0 to 8 years. The place to act is through the organization and structure of our existing health units and schools. The action itself is to eliminate use of all education technology with the K to grade 3 population. They don’t need it, and this ban on the use of education technology will send a clear message home to parents that it’s not good for them. Don’t believe educational technology is all bad? Read on.

2. Technology causes attention-deficit and impedes learning

Research regarding detrimental effects of technology use with young children is vast, and should be considered when educators calculate risks vs. benefits of using education technology in the classroom. Dr. Dimitri Christakis, pediatric researcher from the University of Washington in 2011 found 9 minutes exposure to Spongbobs cartoon in a 4 year old population, resulted in a significant decrease in executive function. Dr. Christakis in 2004 found that for every 1 hour exposure of TV or video games per day resulted in a 10% increased incidence of attention problems at seven years of age. Gary Small, neurophysiologist and author of “iBrain, The technological alteration of the human mind” reported in 2008 that children ages 10-14 who used more than 4-5 hours per day of video games, were “pruning” neuronal tracks to their frontal cortex. The results? A recent study from China in 2012 by Fuchun Lin reports increased grey matter (non-conductive cells) in the frontal cortex of children who have video game addictions. Education and entertainment technology is essentially short-circuiting frontal cortex (known for impulse control), causing irreparable brain damage, and is making children attention deficit. Students who can’t pay attention are impulsive and cannot learn. Yet, in spite of what I term a “learning paradox” e.g. the more technology used the less likely children are to learn, our education government is advocating for increased use with younger and younger children.

3. Education technology doesn’t educate

Schools can challenge this initiative to increase use of education technologies by asking a simple question “Show me the evidence that these devices actually teach children, build literacy, expand knowledge”. There isn’t any (evidence), except what the technology production company has provided which is rife with conflict of interest. Teachers are the most effective instructors of children, they just need to get back to teaching the basics (printing, reading, math)…without computers! Evaluating the benefits of technology use in the classroom is not a task usually performed by the education community. I was recently asked by a K teacher at a workshop what I thought of SMART Boards. I asked the teacher what she used this device for, and she responded “To capture student’s attention”. “And then what?” I asked. She stated she wasn’t really sure what the SMART Board was doing in the realm of education, which is essentially the question she was posing to me. This teacher went on to state that possibly the SMART Board was teaching spatial concepts, as the children were manipulating shapes on screen. I told her spatial concepts are best acquired in space, and require the need of a three dimensional world, which is why many Chinese communities have gone back to using Abacus boards, a progressive line of thinking that has reflected back on proven teaching methods which are hundreds of years old. Shapes, letters, and numbers on a screen are mere symbols that are supposed to be representational, but of what in the eyes of a child? While Math Blaster might be beneficial for learning basic adding or subtracting, the student is just memorizing symbols, and when the student advances to more conceptual math, they don’t understand the underlying premise of space. While traditional methods may seem boring to many teachers, and technologies appear far more exciting, experimenting with unproven methods (no long term data) on a wide scale with a whole generation of students is questionable, to say the least.

4. Technology use is sedentary

Technology use is inherently sedentary, and anytime spent sedentary is detrimental to growth and academic performance. Technology poses significant risk for obesity, which has been termed an “epidemic” by Canadian physicians, along with accompanying diabetes and cardiovascular disorders. While we know movement improves attention, learning and behavior, educators and parents continue restrict necessary movement by placing children in front of screens. Health Canada should be at the forefront in educating the public regarding the risk of sedentary lifestyles. Posters, sponsoring unplug weeks, public service announcements on television, radio and internet, as well as child addiction centres are all desperately needed. We know 20 minutes per day access to nature eliminates adhd and improves autism, yet these two populations are heavily diagnosed and medicated, as well as frequently placed for extended periods in front of technological devices. With extensive research showing media violence causes child aggression, technology producers are pitching that education technology should mimic video games (or why not mimic Spongebobs?), as this is the type of technology that captures children’s attention. Adults are using children to advance their own agendas, and are placing the most vulnerable of our population in an extremely risky situation. Technology is the largest, most wide-scale experiment ever imposed on child populations, but no one seems to care, least of all our governments, who I might add, will just be passing the bill down to the tax payer.

So can this young girl on the BC Education Plan website actually achieve foundation skills for school entry while sitting sedentary, staring at a two-dimensional screen? In the absence of a parent or a teacher, will this young girl eventually attain literacy necessary for academic success? What message is the education community giving to parents of young children regarding technology by showing this image? These are important questions, which require careful, thoughtful answers. What can you do? Ask the question “Show me the evidence”. Balance risk vs. benefit, and stop high risk/dubious benefit technology use. Counterbalance technology use with access to movement, nature, touch and human connection – the four critical elements for optimizing child development and learning. Divert funds from technology toward playgrounds, the real epicenter for enhancing student attention and learning. Discontinue use of all school-based technology with children under the age of 12 years, they get enough at home. Proceed with caution, not with retrospect.

Please refer to the Fact Sheet located on the www.zonein.ca website for research references.

Cris Rowan, BscOT, BscBi, SIPT, Approved Provider AOTA
CEO Zone’in Programs Inc.
info@zonein.ca

Self-regulation is defined as the ability to control behavior, and be able to focus and attend on tasks in learning environments such as daycares, pre-schools and elementary school settings. The better a child can stay calm, focused and alert, the better able they are to filter, integrate and make sense of information, and plan and sequence their thoughts and actions. Self-regulation isn’t just about “being good” and compliant, it’s about being able to cope with challenges and changes in routines.

Self-regulation has it’s origins in the early years, and is related to the quality of early attachment formation between infant and parent. During the first few weeks of life, an infant is dependent on their parents to meet their needs. If the parents are present and can anticipate and immediately meet the infant’s needs (hunger, wet/soiled, lonely, scared, pain), then the infant builds a trust base with the parent, and can begin the long journey toward waiting longer and longer periods for their parents to meet those needs. Alternatively, if an infant was neglected or their care was inconsistent, the infant has no predictability in their world, and never builds trust, so is never able to relax and know that their needs will eventually be met. This type of child is highly anxious and easily agitated when things don’t go their way, which is quite often in busy daycare, pre-school and elementary settings.

In today’s fast paced and busy world, parents don’t seem to take the time necessary to develop these close and intimate relationships with their babies, and when the child reaches toddler age, the stage seems to be set for a disruptive and chaotic existence, for both the child and the parent. Today’s parents are increasingly turning to devices to soothe their children, and even at the tender age of 6 months we see babies in front of TV’s, iPads, and computers. In 2010 the Kaiser Foundation reported that 25% of the 0-2 age population had an entertainment device in their bedrooms. Regulating infants, toddlers and children with a device is wholly detrimental to self-regulation, and in fact will ensure that the child never learns how to regulate their energy or behavior states. Children need to learn how to relate to other human beings, not devices, and it is this very relationship with other human beings that will sustain them when all else fails. Life is full of disappointments and things not going the way that a child thinks it should. Coping with these disappointments requires an inner stealth and ability to feel confident and reliant that eventually something good will happen…if they can just wait their turn things will come their way.

When a child is taught that they constantly are in need of a device to entertain them, they will never learn how to entertain themselves, which is a necessary reality in all daycare, pre-school or elementary school settings. With one kindergarten teacher for every 25-30 children, student self-regulation becomes a necessity if they are to succeed. Children can be taught how to self-regulate by using simple language and concepts. I developed the Zone’in Program for school and home settings to promote self-regulation of children ages 5-12 years. Based on a body energy model, children learn how to identify their body energy, and use different tools and techniques to optimize their energy and get it in the Zone to Learn. By watching a DVD and using a Zone-O-Meter, children learn how to first “Know Their Zone”, and later use Zone’in Tools and Techniques to “Tone Their Zone”. At the end of the Zone’in Program, the teacher simply points out to the children that their energy is all over the place, and needs to be in the Zone to learn, and then allows students 2 minutes to get their energy Zone’in to Learn.

For those parents and daycare/pre-school staff of younger children, you can still teach self-regulation concepts. In a home based setting, it’s important for parents to provide a period of time where they strive to meet the needs of the child, both physically (food, sleep, exercise) and emotionally (attention, caring, reading). Only when the child can build a trust base with the parent, can the parent then start to expect the child to wait and regulate themselves for increasing periods of time. For daycare and pre-school staff, visual schedules (check out Easy Daisies) offer predictability and control to a young child who rarely knows what is going on next. Warning children 2-3 times prior to a transition from one task to the next is imperative for the child to be able to prepare themselves. When wanting the child to balance their body energy states, and not be too hyper or too sleepy, understanding the need for adequate movement, touch and human connection will help that child toward eventual self-regulation needed for school entry.

Self-regulation game predicts kindergarten achievement

Science Daily June 8, 2009

Early childhood development researchers have discovered that a simple, five-minute self-regulation game not only can predict end-of-year achievement in math, literacy and vocabulary, but also was associated with the equivalent of several months of additional learning in kindergarten. “The evidence strongly suggests that improving self-regulation is directly related to academic achievement and behavior,” McClelland said. “If we can make a difference early in a child’s life, they have that much more of a chance at success.”

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090608162547.htm

This article was written by pediatric occupational therapist Cris Rowan, CEO of Zone’in Programs Inc.

Students experience virtual nature.

Cris’s subsequent Letter to the Editor “Wow Factor”

Your December 21, 2011 article “Students tour virtual rainforest – complete with all the bugs – without leaving class” certainly meets the “Wow Factor” for advances in education technology, but do children actually learn anything from this experience, or is it just a really cool technology application? Studies also show that increasing exposure to technology impairs attention and learning by short circuiting the frontal cortex. Exposure to nature’s “green space” is attention restorative and enhances learning, but what about virtual nature? Maybe the attention restorative aspects of nature will counteract the attention deficits aspects of technology, but then what’s the point if the child doesn’t learn anything. Answering the salient question “Can technology teach?” with evidenced –based research, might be a fiscally wise endeavor for educational institutions.

Research

Studies show relationships between internet porn use among young people and the following sexually related behaviors:

• sexual compulsion and/or addictions
• early sexuality
• sexual abuse of others (assault, rape, molestation)
• sexual abuse by predators

In the March issue of Sex Roles researchers found a link between the type and explicitness of sexual media the teens saw and their tendency to view women as sexual “play things.” The more explicit the material viewed, the more likely young people were to see women in these ways. Researchers have found that children and adolescents who frequent porn sites are more likely to view sex as a purely physical function and to view women as sex objects. Another study found a relationship between porn use and the feeling that it wasn’t necessary to have affection for people to have sex with them. Aggression toward women, lack of empathy, and difficulty developing intimacy with sexual partners are common problems of adults who view pornography. What happens when children start using pornography as young as ten years of age, and how will their future relationships with their partners be affected? For years a widely accepted concept in addiction theory is that one of the underlying factors in addiction, especially child addition, is a failure or dysfunctional primary attachment between child and parent(s). Also found in addiction/attachment research is that children who overuse technology have increased incidence of isolation, depression and more problematic relationships with their parent(s). As child pornography use escalates, tolerance to sexual stimulus develops, making the child more prone toward a sexual addiction. In teen years, what was once a pornography addiction can now escalate toward engagement in risky behaviours, as the need for increased intensity of stimuli builds, resulting in the purchasing the services of prostitutes. Does the type of life parents and teachers envision for the New Millennium Child include prostitutes? Likely not, yet adults are continuing to ramp up the use of unrestricted and unsupervised technology by young children in schools and homes, without providing the most basic media literacy education.

Red Flags

1. Excessive use of the internet (pediatric experts recommend no more than 1-2 hours of total technology use per day)
2. Isolation and/or depression
3. Seeking mood-altering experiences (drugs, alcohol, high risk behavior)
4. Few friends and difficulty with interpersonal relationships
5. Low pursuit or engagement in social activities
6. Substance abuse and delinquent behaviour
7. Sexually deviant behaviours

Solutions

Addressing child addictions, whether to technologies in general or pornography, is going to be a long, arduous and costly journey for parents, as well as the education and health professions. As research continues to discover problems associated with technology overuse by children (see Virtual Child – The terrifying truth about what technology is doing to children www.virtualchild.ca), parents, teachers and health professionals need to team together to create educational programs for managing balance between technology and activity (see Balanced Technology Management slide show www.zonein.ca). The following list of solution-based initiatives are to serve as a guideline for parents, education and health professionals.

1. Improve Primary Attachments

Parents and teachers alike could look at ways in which they can improve their relationships with children, and hence improve the primary attachment. Children learn about healthy relationships from viewing how the adults in their lives interact with them, as well as each other. All pornography should be removed from the home and from parent’s computers. If children view their parents using pornography, or even pursuing relationships with virtual avatars, this supports the idea that these type of relationships are normal and should be condoned. Primary attachments can be improved by parents spending more quality time with their children, engaged in non-technology related activities. The new “Unplug’in” game helps children and families develop interest and build confidence and skills in alternate activities www.zonein.ca under products.

2. Education

Children require formal education on both the healthy forms of expressing human sexuality (talking intimately, holding hands, hugging, kissing), as well as unhealthy expressions (abuse, aggression, humiliation, and human degradation) which are portrayed in pornography. School-based media literacy programs (see Live’in Resource Guide www.zonein.ca) seem to be the most efficient and effective initiative to address the growing problems associated with technology overuse by children. Children should also understand that child use of pornography is illegal, and that they could be arrested.

3. Restriction and Supervision

All technologies should be kept in a place where adults can view what the child is doing, in home and in school-based settings. One teacher supervising a class of 30 students using a variety of technologies is impossible to monitor. While using filters and tracking devices might work for some children, others are very tech-savvy and will be able to disable these programs as fast as they are downloaded.

Future

Technology is like a train going a hundred miles an hour toward an unknown destination. What is now very clear to researchers is many children are falling off this train with devastating consequences. Until research catches up and provides adequate information for education and health professionals on the impact of pornography on children, we should proceed with the utmost of caution and strive to educate, restrict, and supervise technology usage. Determining risk vs. benefit is essential when attempting to reduce the use of technologies, especially in the educational system where there minimal to no studies that report any educational benefit at all. Researchers require a more detailed look at the effects of internet pornography on children, more longitudinal studies, and a closer look at how inadvertent exposure may affect the young.

References

Ybarra ML, Mitchell KJ. Exposure to Internet Pornography amoung Children and Adolescents: A National Survey. Cyberpsychology and Behavior. 2005; Vol 8, No 5, 473-482

Wolack J, Mitchell K, Finkelhor D. Unwanted and Wanted Exposure to Online Pornography in a National Sample of Youth Internet Users. Pediatrics. 2007; Vol 119: No 2, 247-257

Freeman-Longo, RE. Children, Teens, and Sex on the Internet. Sexual Addiction and Compulsivity. 2000; Vol 7:75-90

DeAngelis T. Web Pornography’s Effects on Children. American Psychological Association. 2007; Vol 38: No 10, 50-51

Author

Elementary Pornography was written by pediatric occupational therapist and child development expert Cris Rowan, and can be reproduced with permission from author.

Cris Rowan, BScOT, BScBi, SIPT, AOTA Approved Provider Status

CEO Zone’in Programs Inc.

6840 Seaview Rd. Sechelt, BC V0N3A4

604-885-0986 p, 604-885-0389 f, 604-740-2264 c

crowan@zonein.ca

www.zonein.ca, ww.suncoastot.com, www.virtualchild.ca

Author of “Virtual Child – The terrifying truth about what technology is doing to children”

Curiosity about why children spend so much time engage with electronic devices, would offer valuable insight toward what to do to help them reduce the use. Child technology overuse in and of itself is not the problem, it’s a symptom of something far more worrisome, and much harder to address. As parents (and teachers!) become more and more connected to technology, they are disconnecting from children at a rapid pace. Parents report they find playing with their child “boring”. In the absence of parental care and attention, children will default to attaching to devices, and for the first time in the history of humankind, we now have children with addictions.

Sedentary, isolated, and neglected, Canadian children are suffering, and their very sustainability is now in question. One in three children now enters school developmentally delayed, one in four are obese, and one in six have a diagnosed mental illness, many of whom are taking dangerous psychotropic medications. With 5000 children now taking antipsychotic medications in BC alone, one has to ask why so many children are so mentally ill. It’s time to disconnect from technology and reconnect with our children. Unplug – Don’t Drug our children, before it’s too late.

I’ve summarized the research profiled in the December 2011 Child Development Series Newsletter in order to offer readers a comprehensive view of the impact of technology on children. This is just one month.

• Parents are preferring their Second Life avitars to real-life relationships
• Tablets and smartphones are the top requested Christmas gift by young children
• Screen time by children is higher than ever
• Problematic video game use is linked to poor mental and physical health
• Teenage video game players showing brains ‘like gambling addicts’
• Media profanity and substance abuse result in increased use of both, along with escalating aggression
• Illiteracy is rising, with boys’ poor results in reading feared to be spreading to math and science
• Effects of EMF radiation is underestimated in children, and in pregnancy, is linked to asthma in offspring, autism and adhd in children, as well as thyroid damage in adults
• Canadian Children are drugged in record numbers with atypical antipsychotics leading to complications such as long-term depression and apathy
• Health Canada warns public of increased risk of high blood pressure with Strattera (ADHD medication)
• Yet – Canadian Drug Agency supports drugs as first-line therapy for ADHD

Zone’in Programs Inc. offers a challenge this Christmas to families and school throughout the world. Spend Christmas day without technology. Put it in a box, or lock it in a filing cabinet if you have to, but spend time with each other, and especially spend time with your children. Write us a letter and tell us how you’re “no tech” Christmas day went, what DID you do, and we’ll post them in our January 2012 newsletter. Best story gets a free Unplug’in Game. Come on…it will be a blast!

Cris Rowan, BScOT, BScBi, SIPT, AOTA Approved Provider Status
CEO Zone’in Programs Inc.
6840 Seaview Rd. Sechelt, BC V0N3A4
604-885-0986 p, 604-885-0389 f, 604-740-2264 c
crowan@zonein.ca
www.zonein.ca, ww.suncoastot.com, www.virtualchild.ca
Author of “Virtual Child – The terrifying truth about what technology is doing to children”

Twas the night before Christmas, and all thru the house, glaring noise from cell phones, TV’s and video games, was impossible to douse.

My parents were nestled all snug in their beds, while visions of their 3-D avitars danced in their head.

My Nannybot stood next to me, attentive, and pure as a monk, while my parents slept fitfully, sedated and quite drunk.

I had earlier awakened to the sound of a mouse, sat bolt upright in bed, and excitedly ran through the house.

As Nannybots were not especially programmed for mice, she stood silently by and pretended to be nice.

Surrounded as we were by an invisible shield, the entry of the mouse to our house was especially weird.

Hermatically sealed in our dark, virtual tomb, a live creature was as rare as a flower in bloom.

I chased and I chased the mouse but to no avail, as he quickly and smartly escaped me – minus his tail.

My parents were useless in matters like this, as their many technologies captivated them in a world of mindless bliss.

I knew it was up to me to get the mouse safely outside, and free him from this world full of electronic pride.

I tiptoed down the stairs, being ever so careful, and bumped into St. Nick, who was especially cheerful.

“You’re the first human I’ve seen in years” old Nick said with a sigh, “Those Nannybots really all should die”.

“Gone are the real trees, the tinsel and bobbles…now all you have is fake trees and strobe lights that give me the wobbles”.

Santa told me a story, that went back years and years, about how Christmas used to be, with his eyes full of tears.

He said before Nannybots, Moms and Dads were all the rage, and that long ago they weren’t drugged, and their children they raised.

The parents played games with their kids, and got down on the floor, giving piggy backs and tickles, and much, much more.

I was shocked and amazed at the stories he told, and a feeling came over me that was really quite bold.

I asked Santa to help me get my parents out of bed, so they could listen to an idea I had dancing in my head.

But first Santa and I, we prepared the scene…for something so magical, real and serene.

We unplugged all devices, and along with the Nannybot, threw them out into the snow…that’s as far as they got.

When everything was ready and we slowed down our pace, we woke up my parents with snowballs to their face.

“What’s going on?” my Dad said with a roar, “Who took my cell phone, computer, iPad and X-box, and what is that on the floor?”

My Mom looked quite quizzical, as she gazed all around, and said “Johnny…what have you and Santa hidden under that mound?”

I showed them all the stockings and decorations so gay, and all the games hidden underneath the blanket that Santa had found deep in his sleigh.

I pleaded “Let’s do a day without drugs, or Nannybots, or things that plug in. Let’s jump on the bed, cut down a tree, and let the magic begin!”

My parents were in shock, but soon got excited, and my Dad screamed “Let’s just do it” as he grabbed me elated.

“From the mouth of babes” my Mom looked at me with delight…”Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night!”

Cris Rowan

The following ten step plan was designed by pediatric occupational therapist Cris Rowan for elementary school environments to enhance student attention and ability to learn. Supporting research can be located on the Zone’in Fact Sheet.

Click here to download the ten step plan.