4 tips to increase your child’s intelligence and mental health in the digital age | Health

Childhood is the best time to learn new things and improve your brain skills. However, in the digital age, the constant use of devices and gadgets can make this process more difficult, reducing the challenge our brain needs. The use of digital devices can shorten children’s attention spans, making it difficult for them to focus on tasks for long periods of time. The instant gratification of constant internet access can limit critical thinking and problem-solving skills as children rely on quick answers rather than solving challenges. (Read also: Childhood obesity on the rise: 6 effective ways to combat junk food addiction in children)

Constantly being glued to gadgets also affects children’s social skills development as they lose interest in face-to-face interactions, which are essential for building emotional intelligence and empathy. Exposure to blue light from screens can also disrupt sleep, which can impact brain function and learning ability.

Author Neha Hiranandani, author of the parenting book – iParent: Embracing Parenting in the Digital Age shares tips for parents that can help increase their children’s intelligence in the digital age and improve their mental health.

“Screenagers” aren’t the only ones affected. Nine- and 10-year-olds who spent more than two hours a day in front of screens performed worse on tests of thinking and language. Some children noticed premature thinning of their cerebral cortex as they spent time on screens – their gray matter literally disappeared! But living in a technology-free world is not an option, so how can you improve your child’s mental health and intelligence in the digital age?” says Hiranandani in an interview with HT Digital.

He shares tips for parents on how to improve their children’s intelligence.

1. Minimize multitasking

Our children often insist that they are perfectly capable of doing homework while sitting with a phone in one hand and a tablet in the other. Using their devices as integrated supercomputers, slot machines, pornographic websites, dating search engines and messaging services, they frantically multitask. However, research shows that multitasking is virtually guaranteed to degrade performance.

The suffering can be trivial, like getting a few marks lower on a test, or it can be catastrophic, which is what happens in most texting and driving accidents. Our brains weren’t designed to constantly juggle balls like circus performers, so having three tabs open while writing a paper is simply not what we were designed to do. Encourage children to stop multitasking. We weren’t made for this – it’s like asking a fish to climb a tree.

2. Learn from the Dutch

As modern parents, we have become adept at reworking our children’s schedules. Mandarin classes must be balanced with piano lessons and, of course, each child should learn at least two sports. “Team sports build teamwork, but solo sports build leadership,” we insist breathlessly as we drag our kids to both soccer camp and tennis lessons.

Living over-scheduled lives with a laptop in one hand, a tablet in the other and a phone to their ear, kids live at a crazy, crazy pace. So when they are advised to put their phone away, they wonder what to do instead. Do nothing, says “niksen” – a Dutch practice that is gaining popularity among psychologists around the world. Do absolutely nothing. Put down your phone and enjoy the pause. Look out the window. Lie down in bed. Watch the grass grow. Every artist will agree with this: creativity is usually born in moments of nothingness. That’s why your best ideas often come to you when you’re taking a long shower or stirring a pot.

For too long, we have assumed that busy children are on their way to success, when in fact, endless activities can actually hinder progress. So the next time your child asks you what to do, answer clearly: “Don’t do anything.” It’s not laziness, it may be the most important skill they will ever learn.

3. Relief selectively

From sending reminders to call their mother to doing their math homework, our kids’ phones can do it all for them. But in a world where they can surrender their entire brain to technology, our children need to consciously decide how much of the load they want to lighten. For example, in a museum, you will remember a painting more easily if you actually look at it than if you take a photo of it.

Remind kids to take time to experience things that are truly important – beauty, art, full moons – and not just quickly download them to their phones and post them on Instagram. If you want something to live forever, it’s safer to keep it in your heart instead of in a photo album on your phone.

4. Find your flow

Recently I went to a violin recital. When the violinist placed her bow on the instrument, everyone in the audience forgot about their phone and sat back, stunned. The performer, an older woman in black trousers and her hair tied in a low bun, was completely lost in the music of her strings. She was in progress. Technology has given us a cognitive gift, freeing up some of our mental abilities.

Using this space just to view cat videos would be a waste. Instead, what if we could intentionally use them to build real expertise and dig deeper into something that really matters? Letting go of the ego, letting time pass, achieving a zen state where each movement flows seamlessly after the previous one. It’s true that most of us won’t become concert violinists, but I realize that fluency can be achieved even when washing dishes.