Kids in car seats. Unintended consequences.

I’m in Queretaro, Mexico this week, visiting a world-class Neuroscience Insitute that is a part of the great Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). I am struck by the beautiful, happy children in the 17th-and 18th-Century old city center where my wife and I are staying. We’ve seen many children out in this beautiful, old city having great fun with their parents and grandparents and other kin. We’ve also seen lots of children playing together, making up their own games and fun on the spot. One great change that has occured in child-rearing in most of North America over the past several decades has been the gradual assumption of a planning role for childhood activities and play by parental authority. 50 years ago, kids were still largely in charge of organizing their games and activities. Kids made up the rules. Social interactions in play were kid-controlled. Kids operated on a largely flexible schedule of game play. The child car seat provides a nice example of how rigidity in the organization of child activities has gradually crept into the average child’s life and brain. A hundred years ago, children spent little or no time in cars. Fifty years ago, a substantial time was spent in cars; the child was a captive, somewhat passive rider, but they were unrestrained within the car, and were commonly engaged by what was happening inside and outside, as the car moved across the landscape. In the present era, to protect them (and our insurance companies), t...
Source: On the Brain by Dr. Michael Merzenich, Ph.D. - Category: Neuroscience Authors: Tags: Brain Fitness Childhood Learning Cognitive Impairment in Children Language Development Reading and Dyslexia Source Type: blogs