Empowering Women in Chiropractic - Trapped in a Tech Brain

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Hello everybody. It's Dr. B and Elizabeth here. Wishing you a happy spring day. We are gonna party in a trap in tech brain. But we're gonna unwrap the tech brain. How's that? ChiroSecure, thank you again for this awesome opportunity to share with the world the beautiful message of chiropractic and what we can offer those little fiddle FARs out there to lead a healthier more constructive.

Life. So Elizabeth, time for a nap. No technology. You hear that? No technology. So what are we gonna talk about today? First of all, there was a study that just came out in JAMA Pediatrics talking about technology. And this is something I think we really need to understand in order to help educate our practice members and our communities a little bit more wisely on some choices.

First off, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics, little fiddle farts from 18 months or younger should not be involved in screen time at all, and that includes tv. Okay, so when we're talking about screen time, we're talking about digital devices and television. Unless they say with the com, American Academy Pediatrics, they say unless it's like face to FaceTime or Zoom or something like that with relatives out of town that is that's, that connection is more advisable than, negating them or not allowing them to have that experience.

No technology under the age of 18, Matt. The thing is most little kiddos between the ages of two six and 18 months are getting two to three hours of screen time a day. And of course that includes television, but this study that came out is a wee bit or a lot, a bit alarming. It's not that we didn't know this, it's that we are now seeing the effects of screen time, not just on the little foot of farts at 12, 18, 24 months, but the long-term effects.

To the age of nine years old and how it's affecting them in school. So let's visit that a little bit and then we'll throw in a couple things, but then I wanna leave you with some really fun considerations to unwrap your practice members. That are trapped in tech brain. That's a mouthful. Okay.

So the study that just came out, they looked at little kiddos between the ages of 12 and 18 months. They found a dose dependent exposure at 12 months. So the more time they spent on technology at 12 months, the more struggles I had with executive functioning at the age of nine. Now the, it's interesting cuz the study was done out of Singapore, where traditionally little ones have less access to technology, devices, games and such, and they primarily were getting their hits, their exposure via television.

One of the limitations of this study was they didn't gather information of what kind of. Technology that child was exposed to in a given day. So what device they were on. Okay. So that is one limitation of the study, but what they did find is they did EEGs at 18 months and at nine years of age, and they found that the more time that child had exposure to technology at the age of 12 months.

The more deficit in areas of the brain that are involved in executive functioning, which is pretty alarming because remember, executive functioning, that is our, that's the c e o of the brain. , right? That is our impulse control, our self modulation and self-regulation being reasonable, being rational.

That is part of the brain that's so critical for mental health disorders, which are seen skyrocketing around the world, especially in the United States. It's the area that's gonna be in charge of bringing on the anti. inflammatory arm of the vagus nerve. So there's a lot of things we need to think about here.

So essentially what they're finding is that the term out there is video deficit. What happens is on technology, we are being exposed to a two-dimensional image, two demi, two-dimensional information coming into the brain. where especially in the early years, the first thousand days of life, that's fetal development.

The first two years, postnatally brains need three dimensional live experiences in order to foster proper sensory input to the brain. and proper sensory input and integration of in the prefrontal cortex. So what happens is, in a two dimensional screen, you're getting information deficit, i e, they're calling it video deficit, where that sensory input coming in essentially is getting stuck in the brainstem.

and that's another reason we're seeing so many little fiddle farts and older kiddos having continual active primitive reflexes because that sensory input's coming in and it's firing up in the brainstem, but it's not being modulated by higher areas of the brain. One being our executive functioning control our prefrontal cortex, and so we are staying in this primitive.

Defense strategy mode. Part of our brain, and this is prolonged again, they saw it up to nine years of age and how it interfered with school aged children. So that's not a great thing to understand, to know. A couple other studies what they found one was at a Vanderbilt in 2019 and it was really interesting.

, they gave kiddos Some were 24, they had two groups of kiddos. One was 24 months, one was 30, 30 months, and they gave him this toy this weird shaped object, and they named it Okay. So it was something the kids were never exposed to before and they broke them up into groups. And what essentially what they found is with the group, the 24 month old group, , there's four, four ways they could learn about this toy and the name of the toy as a Modi.

Okay. Was either live interactive with a person, live, not interactive, or what they call unresponsive, where the modulator the moderator would be in the room with them, but not engage with the child, but they would be live with the object and the person in the room. Then the other two forms were via technology, via video and responsive, where that mod moderator would engage with a child or on the screen and unresponsive the moderator stood there just blank face and wouldn't engage with a child.

Okay? So they could either be live and interactive with the person, live and not interactive with the person. Via video and interactive with the person and the object, this toy or on video, and not interactive. Those are our four choices. What they found was a younger group, the 24 month olds were able to learn the name of the toy and respond to it in a live interactive paradigm.

The brain needs an experienced, dependent, live 3D interaction at that age. In order to learn. What they found with the 30 month old group is they learned best live in a UN with an unresponsive, interactive paradigm. Okay? So they did not, they were not able to learn the name of this toy. What this toy was from a screen device.

They did another study, which is fun. Was they hid an object under a blanket or under something, right? And they found that kiddos, I believe they were 12 months old, 12 or 18 months old, they were able to find that object when it was live. Okay? 3D dimensional live experience. They were not able to be able to find that hidden toy when it was on a screen device.

So bottom line is brains do not need screen time. Brains need real time. They need interaction. They need 3D space. They need to move through 3D space in order for optimum neuroplastic development to happen. Not getting that foundation. In those early years, disrupts essentially creates pivots and potholes in development to the point that higher centers of the brain that are involved in executive functioning, the c e o control of the brain, it's gonna modulate vagal tone that will have weaknesses.

And that is, we're seeing that now up to age of nine years old. So this is important information, especially if you want to optimize your practice members, their, your little fiddle farts, ability to learn, grow and mature healthy brains. Okay. So a fun little task that I put this up on our on our dashboard, on our Intersect for Life dashboard for our members.

And we created four different campaigns to help your practice community decompress. , okay. Get out of being trapped in tech brain. So I wanna share one of them with you, and that is a tech-free vacation. It's pretty fun. So first couple things to think about. One, get HIPAA consent. Okay? If you're gonna do some of these activities.

So start right there. One if you have family that's going on vacation, they're planning, you can start asking Now school's getting ready to go out. Are you planning anything fun for the summer? Are you going on vacations? So one challenge is having them send you a postcard from one, wherever they're at, first off.

you're giving them a social and academic experience because so many kiddos don't even know about snail mail anymore. Don't even know about postcards or writing, or they don't even write hand write things. Okay? So say send me postcard from wherever you're at. We're gonna take your postcards, and you might do this over a three month period, over the whole summer, whatever you decide, anybody who sends us a postcard, We're gonna put your, that postcard in a drawing, in a hat into something for a drawing of something.

Whatever you decide, okay? Whatever you decide, they make it small or big as you want, right? So anybody that sends you a postcard their postcard goes in a drawing and you get to choose that drawing when they get back, okay? Before school starts, whatever. You can get those, you can get some twine.

Okay, just go the go to the hobby store or whatever. Get some I twine. And these are the cutest little clothes pins. Okay? And you can string these up along around your office and clip the postcards on there if you want until the drawing Show people and make it fun. Jazz up your office a little bit, right?

Then the other idea is to get some swag for your office. Get some hats, some shirts. water bottles, whatever. Okay. Chapsticks, whatever. Have your patients take the swag with them on the vacation? George Clooney, I think in that movie was up in the air or something. I think he took a little Nome with them and wherever he went, took pictures with his Nome.

All right. They take pictures wherever they're at with your swag. And they can, you can ask them if they feel comfortable. Putting it on your social media site, Hey, thanks Dr. B for helping us be healthy and have this exciting vacation with our family and there got your swag on. Okay, whatever.

All right? But have them, first of all, challenge them all right? You guys are going to Hawaii. You guys are going on a cruise. You guys are going wherever you go when you get to your location. , all technological devices get locked away in a safe or in one person's backpack. If they're out meandering around and exploring, then they're afraid of theft or something.

Okay? And only one phone can come out during your vacation, and that phone is only to be used for somebody to contact them on an emergency basis. Or use it to take pictures or little video clips. Okay. At night when they're done with their day of vacationing, encourage them to sit and recap the day.

Sit as a family. No, don't get on your digital devices. Hang out in the hotel, on tv. One person's playing this or that. Those are locked away. You sit around, you have a nice dinner or whatever, go to a campfire, whatever, and you ask, you go around, what was the highlight? What? What was your favorite thing of the day?

What was your least favorite thing of the day? What was the funniest thing of the day? Recap the days. Share the moments, okay. And one person can maybe journal or capture these highlights, and then when they come back, Perhaps you have them do a little storyboard for you, and you might give them a piece of twine and some of these cute little.

close pins. They're adorable. And they take some of the highlights of their pictures. They print their pictures up of some of their highlights, the funniest moments, the most challenging moments, the most exci whatever, right? And, they string three, five, whatever, maybe pictures along the twine and maybe have 'em put, use a three by five card and just do a little blurb about what that picture meant to them.

And you might string that up along your, in your offices. Again, get hipaa. Consent to do this, right? And you just allow these storyboards through your office and allow people to live and see different parts of the world. Right now, if they're not going on a vacation, if they're not physically going somewhere, they can still have a technology free vacation for a week.

They can put their technological devices away, all right? They put 'em in a little lockbox at home or whatever. , but you encourage them to spend time together as a family. Maybe they have a staycation, a tech-free staycation, and they go to the zoo one day, they go to the park, they go to the water slides, they go help a neighbor that needs help with their yard, and they do the storyboard of the picture based on that.

And or you haven't sit together as a family and say, where would we like to go on vacation? Perhaps we can start saving and maybe our birthdays and Christmases don't have to be so extravagant, but we can save. And where do we as a family envision ourselves to go and they can take pictures of that pla of those places and do a little storyboard?

All right. They don't have to physically go somewhere on vacation. , but your goal is to get them to un, to get their brain de tapped from technology. Get them to sit, spend time together as a family, give them these fun projects. It decorate your office, right? They can wear your swag around town and take a picture at the zoo or at the waterpark or whatever with your swag, thanks Dr. B. Had a great day at the water slides because my body's well adjusted. Okay, so some fun ideas to get your community out of tr being trapped in technology brain. So hopefully you enjoy this and feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions about that. You can find [email protected] and message me.

And until then, ChiroSecure and. Our little girl, Elizabeth, we wanna thank you for giving us this opportunity. I'll see you next. Oh my goodness, it's June already next month. I'll see you in June for more fun and until then, keep being amazing and keep saving lives.

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