Electronic Screen Syndrome
02/04/2022 Since Reducing Screen Time...
Back in September I came across something called The Reset Program. I began to educate myself on Electronic Screen Syndrome and started reading the book "Reset Your Child's Brain". I had never found something that more accurately described my son and his struggles. It was truly eye opening and from that point on I knew something had to change. Plus, what bad could happen from turning the TV off, what did we have to lose?
Electronic Screen Syndrome (ESS) is the overstimulation of a child's nervous system caused by excessive screen time that influences behavior, mood and focus. Some of the typical signs and symptoms include irritability, depression, poor self- regulation, low-frustration tolerance, disorganized behavior, poor eye contact and much more. ESS can even mimic or exacerbate virtually any mental health related disorder. And in our case, it certainly was.
After getting through a good part of the book I was confident enough to begin our reset, I prepared, planned and took a leap of faith. I had a few key behaviors in mind I wanted to reduce but within just one week of no television, I could not believe my eyes. My son was looking at books, engaging in open ended play, completing tasks he previously never had the patience for. His overly rough behavior was diminishing and things that used to send him into a full blow tantrum were now a minor inconvenience. I saw a new interest and joy for life in his eyes, he was no longer "out of it" like he used to be. He laughed more, his relationship with me grew and his language was blossoming. Nico was now a much calmer, happier little boy.
Fast forward to now, and it has been over 4 months with this philosophy! We do moderately use the television now, but it does not look anything like it previously did. I refuse to look at TV the same way ever again. I will also add that I do notice an increase in his previous behaviors directly following any over stimulating screen time. Since removing screens I was able to differentiate between what types of programs were too much for Nico, and what types of electronic use was more easily viewed. Generally speaking, the super fast paced, bright colored cartoons of today are just WAY too much. Instead we try to choose something a little dated or preferably no animation and I will pick something about animals or anything with real life people. These types of entertainment typically don't push Nico to the state of overstimulation or hyperarousal.
This simple change has been life changing for us, I encourage any parent out there to research ESS if you are suspecting it could be impacting your family. I am in the works of creating a downloadable guide for successfully completing a reset program that includes tips, tricks and any information I found beneficial for my family. If you are questioning, I challenge you this, for one week reduce your child to no screen time one hour prior to bed and record your results, you won't be disappointed.
06/08/2021 Healing Diet Progress
We are still going strong with a healing diet with some exceptions, like special occasions, bday parties etc. Though for the most part we are only eating real foods majority of every day meals.
Nico is doing incredible, he is flourishing. We joined a 2’s program at a local church where he would go two times a week for 2.5 hours. Best. Decision. Ever. I encourage any other parents to do the same if they are able. I am now believing that experiences and exposure to new environments are more valuable than any form of therapy for us.
When we hear these labels professionals assign to our children (we have had a few added to the list lately) and we immediately put them into a bubble without even realizing. We make excuses for why they can’t handle things and then begin secluding them to avoid conflicts. Which is ironic because this could not be more detrimental to their success. How can we expect our children to get better at something without practice?
This month my son was a ring bearer in a wedding, graduated his church school program, and became potty trained!!!! People looked at me as if I was CRAZY when I told them he was in a wedding out of town, and that I was up for the challenge. My husband even tried to talk me out of it the week prior! If we don’t have faith in our kids, then what is that teaching them? That they aren’t capable, to avoid challenges and overall a huge lack of confidence.
I also didn’t tell anyone at school about his labels, I am not suggesting anyone to do the same. I am simply sharing my own experiences. The reasoning for this was because I KNOW he is capable and was tired of people making excuses for him. In my eyes, Nico is Nico. And that is it. This photo below is from our successful, incredible month...
Does this look like child with asd, spd, dyspraxia, and hypotonia to you?
Our perspective is everything, if we see them as capable, everyone else will see it too.
I will also add with the exposure of new environments, I had ZERO expectations. I supported him in every way possible during the events, and tried to prepare him before hand. For example; the wedding- we practiced trying on our suit 5-10 times the month before the wedding. I had my mom bring him to the venue hours before it started so he could get acclimated with all of us and the environment. Set them up for success in every way we can, and watch them thrive.
2/13/2021
The past few days have had highs and lows, as expected. We did start introducing our homemade yogurt which has been going great. It has been about a month of a healing diet without gluten and I believe it is a huge step in the right direction.
I stumbled upon learning about neuroplasticity the other day, and I feel compelled to share it with anyone who will listen. Especially anyone with a child in need of healing. Neuroplasticity is basically a way to reprogram our brain. Our brains have the ability to constantly change throughout our lives.
A quick break down; A neural pathway is created each time we learn a new skill or have a new thought. Strengthening these skills/thoughts strengthens that neural pathway. If we focus on strengthening a new pathway, the older or potentially less desirable pathway will become weaker and eventually forgotten if we are diligently working towards this goal. Habits are simply well traveled pathways. We can apply this concept in all areas of learning, both for us and our children.
"We have the ability to rewire ourselves and these children, given we provide the body proper nourishment and environment for healing.
We have the power!"
I am applying this with non-functional playing or shuffling of toys. I admit that it is time consuming because I am actively watching and engaging in all play now and since I have been doing so, I notice a direct response in my son’s behavior. I have been cognizant of strengthening his purposeful play skills all day, whatever it took. When I noticed things were heading towards a non-functional pattern (when I use this language I am explaining things like, stimming or shuffling toys), I immediately set up a new fun activity and was demonstrating playing by myself. Or if he began to shuffle blocks I would simply just begin building a structure and he would follow suit, usually. Some situations were more challenging than others. I also was encouraging back and forth play with the cars or balls pushing them towards each other. This is a basic play skill, but one that could be strengthened for us.
We have the ability to rewire ourselves and these children, given we provide the body proper nourishment and environment for healing. We have the power.
2/10/2021
For these past few months I have been living, breathing, walking & talking healing, and sometimes I am reminded that my son is just on his own trajectory.
I incorporate many healing practices throughout our daily life. Aside from diet, I research acupressure and touch therapy techniques for healing him. I also play 528hz healing frequency music every night at bed time. And now we are starting to research natural detoxification bath ingredients, and plan to start adding those into the mix. My point in saying all of this is, even with doing all of these things I found myself incredibly broken last night. Especially after a day of a lot of disruptive and frustrating behaviors. I was devastated, defeated and was shutting down. It was like someone was laughing at my pain. I found myself sitting on my sons bed waiting for him to fall asleep holding back the tears, asking God why he did this to us. Why he did this to me. Why he did this to my son. I was hurt, I was weak and I was letting the darkness win. That dark place was crippling my wisdom, my thoughts and most importantly ALL our progress.
Eventually my son fell asleep and because I was feeling so sad I decided to do something proactive. So I started our first batch of homemade yogurt at 11:00pm. Lol. Anyway while making it I was thinking, this is our path. For whatever reason this is what we are dealt and there is something good to come out of it.
The morning came and we had one of our virtual weekly therapy sessions. Our instructor was going through our session and while my son was playing with me she stopped us and asked me a question. She said “is he making eye contact right now!? Christina he is looking right at you!” I have been so engrossed in his healing and a few key behaviors I completely disregarded a HUGE win!!!! His eye contact lately is incredible! On our healing journey we have increased my sons eye contact and engagement immensely. Yes, we still have a road ahead of us, but we have also come quite a distance so far! It is so easy to doubt ourselves during those tough days, but our healing journeys are complex. There are several components all working together, and when we stop to take score we are often missing the point. Something like this does not get immediate gratification and that is what makes it hard, but that is also what makes the wins so incredibly amazing! If I can offer any advice it is healing begins deep down in our roots. Picture a tree, just because the changes are not visible above ground yet doesn’t mean they aren’t present. They are real and they are powerful, we just owe it to ourselves to trust the process.
2/3/2021
As a family we have been going through many changes recently, so I am using this as an opportunity to revamp our entire lifestyles. Everything I am currently about is based on healing and detoxifying. What we put into our bodies is either preventing disease or contributing to it, when I started putting things this way I had a new found motivation. That being said I recently started growing broccoli sprouts to help heal my family, I will add info for that as well, totally recommend if you are considering! I also have significantly reduced our microwave usage. Our diets are all real foods, and extremely limited processed foods. My son and I are following a more strict (gluten and dairy free) diet currently to help aide in healing and reducing inflammation.
I have been made aware that some of my sons behaviors may fall under the umbrella of "sensory processing, "I also have never been one for labels nor do I intend to start. This is solely a tool for me to combat whatever is off balance inside of him. A diagnosis is just a word, it is up to us if we let that word dictate our futures. We attract more of what we focus on, so focusing on a label with limitations is only going to bring more of that into our lives. Focusing on health and a healing lifestyle is going to bring exactly that. I am focused on health and wellness. Whenever I find myself starting to fall into that dark space I call myself out, stand up and go do something! It is our jobs to pull ourselves out, those little souls are counting on it. If you want to feel sorry for yourself that's fine but give yourself 5 minutes and then GET OUT OF THERE! No healing happens there, in fact when we are there that label is winning. We all owe it to ourselves and more importantly these kids to stay away from that place.
Each moment is a new opportunity to change, remember that next time your thinking "why can't they be normal?" Normal is absolutely boring! The most beautiful and precious things in this life are far from normal! Who wants to be normal anyway?
I want to start this by introducing myself: my name is Christina, and I am a mother of 2 awesome babies. Our 2 kids are 2 and under, it has been the most rewarding yet challenging thing ever!
If there is anything I have learned in my life, it is that we always have the power to take something incredibly ugly and make it unrecognizably beautiful.
Somewhere over the past year, we started having concerns about our son. He was still young so I attributed some of the behaviors to that. Things like language delay, non functional playing, as well as some other behaviors. His diet wasn’t great, he preferred milk over most foods and was drinking around 50oz a day. He would eat some foods, luckily he loved steamed broccoli, lots of chicken too but overall he wasn’t interested in eating many new things. And he often preferred to eat processed carbs.
We lived this way for a while, I mean he was our first kid, I thought things were magically going to get better... but they didn’t. In fact, they started to get worse. There was a point when I woke up everyday feeling as though I was preparing for a marathon. I was drowning so bad I couldn’t even recognize it for a while. I knew I had to put my emotions aside and just push through that day, and that was exactly what I did.
Parents are true superheroes. Parents of kids with developmental disorders are a whole other breed. I recently read somewhere, there is no one more determined than a parent of a child with autism. I want to stop and say if that is you right now, you are in the right place. I empathize with you on so many levels, I want you to know, you are not helpless.
When I finally stopped running from the thought, that there could be something wrong with my baby, that was when the magic started to happen. I started to constantly research every free minute I had. I took courses, read books, referenced research studies, you name it. In the midst of all of this I requested evaluations but as most of you probably are familiar with... we are on wait lists. For everything, with no idea of when it will be our turn. I remember thinking so, what do you mean? I'm supposed to do nothing and wait for someone to evaluate my kid hoping that the hour we are there isn’t a total and complete disaster? What if he screamed the entire visit, what if it was a really bad day? What if it was a really good day? Well, I decided to stop putting my energy into that, and start focusing on what I can do. I can change my kids diet today!
I want to share with you our experiences while making these transitions, my strategies for bridging the gaps as they arise, and most importantly our progress!
We are in the process of trying out a new diet for our son, you can read about that under our SCD journey. This diet has made me reconsider everything a million times and then some. To some it makes me seem crazy. The truth is, we are all crazy until we are right.
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