Kids’ tech ‘detox’ and 6 other practices that will boost students’ academic performance, say experts

  • Experts explain which are the three responses that technology offers to our nervous system – rewarding, immediate and repetitive – that make children become technologically insatiable, affecting their school performance.
  • Hyperfocus and dependence on devices limits the attention we pay to our immediate environment and to ourselves, which directly affects learning and study capacity.
  • Experts offer parents several techniques for their little students to learn to “dose” technology and other practices that will increase their academic performance

Barcelona, August 28, 2018.- The technology-infancy relationship awakens continuous conflicting feelings in parents. And now that it is time to go back to school, we rethink again whether they are more harmful than beneficial, or vice versa. Undoubtedly, as experts point out, technology is essential to enhance children’s learning and intellectual abilities. However, there are risks, usually determined by the (mis)use of electronic devices and tools, which end up affecting attention span and concentration. Why is it so difficult to control? Where is the balance? Top Doctors, Dr. Manuel Antonio Fernández, specialist in Pediatric Neurology, treatment of behavioral disorders and learning disorders and member of, explains the effects of the three responses that technology offers to our nervous system – rewarding, immediate and repetitive – and that makes children become technologically insatiable, unable to think about anything else, thus affecting their school performance.

Insatiability, the kryptonite of the youngest children

The incorporation of new technologies into the daily lives of young children produces changes in their brain structure and functioning. “This means that it can have both positive and negative effects, just like any other experience they develop,” explains Dr. Fernandez. “Therefore, it is necessary to have a knowledge of the most relevant positive aspects and the main risks that they entail, in order to make a correct use”.

New technologies have a series of characteristics that make them get along very well with our nervous system and with what are called executive functions. What they do is stimulate our brain’s reward system. “How, by giving him what he asks for and making him insatiable”:

  • Reward response. It is a variable type of response in each person, time or age, and therefore, each child has his preferences. The amount of options (computer, mobile, Tablet…), their omnipresence and the easy access to devices, makes children and young people have a response at their will without the need for effort.
  • Immediate response. The immediacy of electronic devices intensely and directly stimulates our brain’s reward (gratification) mechanism. Impatience and impulsivity are typical of young children because their immature self-regulation mechanism makes it difficult for them to have proper self-control over themselves. Tolerance to waiting develops with age.
  • Repetitive or unlimited response. This is what produces the most dependence. A search on youtube can be repeated as many times as you want without problems and we can watch whatever we want over and over again. “If we combine this with immediacy, we understand the transcendence of the situation: we can give our brain what it wants immediately and indefinitely so that, if we do not control it properly, we may be creating a dependent brain that isolates itself from the environment”.

This children’s technological detox and other practices that will increase study skills

Experts warn that hyperfocus and dependence on devices produces a hyperstimulation of our brain reward systems that limits the attention we pay to the environment and to ourselves, which directly affects learning and the ability to study. And that is why they recommend a technological detox in the youngest children as well. “It is not about relegating the role of electronics to the background, but the ‘dosage’ of technology should not be a temporary or exceptional measure. The goal is for children to learn to manage it and to use it correctly”. How is this done? By taking the following measures and establishing routines to inculcate in our children from an early age:

  • If you study, technology out of reach: Interruptions caused by calls, messages or temptations to look at social networks produce a drop in performance and, in addition, having them within reach results in that, at the slightest sign of tiredness or boredom, you try to contact friends and classmates. Goodbye to concentration and effort.
  • Minimize and relativize the ‘feeling of loss’: the anticipatory anxiety that occurs in the young person who feels a “loss” if he/she does not connect, must be corrected with rational information and emotional education. This is a fundamental aspect that parents have to work on with their children on an ongoing basis.
  • Time for everything, and to each his own: a good way to educate children in the use of new technologies is to make them understand that there is time for everything by establishing specific schedules. “That is to say, the console is played for an hour on Saturdays and the cell phone is put in the drawer when entering the house and is only taken out for a while before dinner, for example. And of course, no exceptions. This will make them experience the effort and the reward of having managed to accomplish everything, and will also help them to reduce the feeling of loss mentioned above.
  • Encourage effort as a rewarding response: this is a strategy that needs to be implemented early in children. Inculcating the dynamics of effort and setting an example with one’s own actions is not always easy in our society, and requires a lot of willpower on the part of parents. “It is based on explaining to children the importance of effort over results as a parent. For example, valuing the time dedicated to study above the results and rewarding the former over the latter.”
  • Developing tolerance to waiting: the specialist recommends points programs. These programs establish a series of rewards through points, which can then be exchanged by the children for rewards. In this way, if a well-developed system is established, it delays the positive response in exchange for the expectation of achieving them with the accumulation of points, and at the same time it can be used to enhance the effort to achieve a result.
  • And if you make use of technology, better shared: the social use of technology has less negative repercussions than the individual. “It’s the same as with board games. It is in itself a very intellectually enriching activity.”
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The constant flow of information between devices and our brains dramatically enhances productivity and our ability to learn, thanks to the integration of our senses with electronics. Properly controlled, the possibilities offered by new technologies are positively unimaginable.