Too

Restlessness and attention deficit in the little ones. Here's what we can do

There are countless teachers who complain of having healthy and intelligent, lively and curious pupils in the classroom, but unable to concentrate, follow an explanation, reason calmly on a concept in order to be able to apply it in solving a problem

The enormous amount of information that reaches our minds every day with the help of the network and literally floods our lives is so pressing that it leaves no room for reasoning and reflection. In fact, every day we receive thousands of news (and hundreds of fake news!) that come from all over the globe and we don't have time to "metabolize" them sufficiently because we have to archive them as soon as possible to make room for the next ones.

The risk is therefore that in many cases it is a rain of useless data, which flow within us without leaving a trace. Or perhaps they leave a trace that is too fuzzy and light, which gives us the illusion of having learned or understood something new, but in reality it simply adds to the sum of all the previous traces, failing to affect deeply. Furthermore, it becomes a common feeling that the recent past immediately seems remote, memory becomes useless and the future does not exist: slowly the conception of time changes in us. After all, a time without breaks for reflection and without "thought" is a time that does not exist.

Some studies hypothesize that all this is particularly misleading for the youngest and even for children: many of them actually show difficulty nowadays in acquiring a sure temporal orientation so yesterday, a week ago, last year or grandmother's childhood seem to take place in an indistinct and vaguely distant era. For everyone it becomes increasingly tiring to live the present time with awareness, characterized by a succession of rapid fragments. But what is more worrying is the fact that the continuous flow of incoming stimuli seems to have the power to "invade" and bully our mind and that of our little ones, overloading it and therefore temporarily putting it out of order, just like a motor "engulfed".

Perhaps it is possible that the restlessness and instability, the attention deficit and hyperexcitability so widespread among the children of our schools derive from this too. There are now countless teachers who complain that they have undoubtedly healthy and intelligent, lively and curious pupils in the classroom, but absolutely unable to concentrate, follow an explanation, reason calmly about a concept in order to be able to apply it in solving a problem. After all, we know that - similarly - too much time spent by children in front of screens has a significant impact on their development and health: just think of eye and vision problems (including the so-called "Computer Vision Syndrome", which manifests itself with various symptoms such as eye fatigue, fluctuating vision, headaches, dry eyes), to those related to incorrect posture and above all to psychological and cognitive ones (from attention problems to sleep alteration, from problems of memory to gratuitous and traumatic exposure to scenes of violence of all kinds).

In short, too much information or too much time spent in front of a screen: the common denominator is too much, excess. But how do we defend ourselves and defend our children from too much? I think we need a critical spirit, responsibility and will. That is, we need to recognize the problem and know how to reflect on possible solutions, be convinced of the urgency of implementing the chosen solution and, finally, have the ability to give ourselves and give clear and shared rules and to respect them. Far from easy, I know. But the stakes are too high to give up…

Gabriella Delpero

NP Marzo 2023