The Art of Balance: Fostering Comprehensive Growth in Early Childhood
"Balance" is a powerful word we often hear today, especially when the topic of living a healthy life in a changing world comes up. What does it mean to create a balance between the natural world and the digital one? How does this balance shape our role in our children's play and development? And what does it say about the role of screens in the early years of life?
Research on bees has revealed that electromagnetic radiation from cell towers can disrupt their ability to navigate, weaken their immune systems, and hinder their role as pollinators, upsetting the delicate balance of nature.
Unlike bees, humans have the power to set boundaries, make informed choices, and guide our development through knowledge and awareness. By taking conscious action, we can reduce the negative effects of screens on our personal, physical, emotional, social, and mental well-being. This way, we can enjoy the best of both worlds—embracing the natural gifts that support our growth while also benefiting from the innovative advancements of technology.
Do Infants Benefit From Screens?
Before making decisions about screen time for infants and children, it’s important to ask a few key questions to raise awareness:
- Is the content they are watching suited to their developmental needs?
- Does the amount of time spent in front of screens offer any real benefit?
- How does screen time support their overall development?
Early childhood is a crucial period for holistic development. During these years, the nervous system lays down its broad and intricate foundation through the infant's active engagement. By exploring the environment, engaging in experiential and repetitive actions, using signals from the sensory system, and matching stimuli to the current level of nervous system development, motor, cognitive, social, and emotional skills are acquired step by step. A broad understanding of the world develops, and essential life skills are gained.
Research indicates that exposing infants to screens, including programs explicitly designed for them, does not support and may hinder their comprehensive development, encompassing physical, cognitive, and social aspects.
There is extensive research literature showing that learning through active engagement is essential for brain development and motor skills in infants. Studies suggest that hands-on learning, which involves physical interaction with the environment, helps form crucial neural connections in the infant brain. When infants engage in physical activities, they develop motor skills, coordination, and spatial awareness—processes that cannot be achieved simply by watching screens.
Additionally, learning through active engagement supports cognitive and emotional development, strengthening the connection between the child and their environment. Therefore, it is recommended to encourage infants to participate in diverse physical activities, rather than relying on screen time, in order to support their overall development.
Why Screens Fail to Promote Early Childhood Skills
Brain research conducted on babies shows that watching or, more precisely, staring at screens before the age of 18 months does not benefit the infant’s development in any way. The neural foundation that connects what the eyes see with the brain’s ability to translate that data into action has not yet been developed. Even if a show slowly and repetitively demonstrates age-appropriate actions—like stacking blocks, fitting one block inside another, or threading rings—a baby staring at the screen cannot translate what they see into action in real life. The brain hasn’t yet developed the capability to connect the two.
How are playfulness and creativity connected?
Every baby comes into the world with the instinct and passion to examine and explore its surroundings. The ability to imagine emerges as the brain develops and the baby accumulates enough concepts and understandings about the world.
Play is a powerful tool through which infants, toddlers, and children learn about the world. Play, curiosity, and exploration are mental muscles, and like any other muscle in the body, they remain stronger the more they are used. On the other hand, if we don't engage these mental muscles, they get dormant and weaken over time.
Cultivating creativity from early childhood involves creating an environment that allows young children to move freely but safely in open-ended play and multi-sensory experiences. This includes exposure to different materials and objects and the opportunity to experiment with them independently in an age-appropriate environment.
Beyond the fact that the world of play may seem to belong exclusively to children, as adults, we hold a crucial role beyond simply facilitating opportunities for exploration and play. We are the gatekeepers to these opportunities and mediators of the rich, educational content within the play.
Through our active involvement, we help guide infants, toddlers, and children in uncovering the lessons embedded in their play, teaching them valuable cognitive, social, and emotional skills.
Play is not just an activity—it’s a powerful learning tool. Children engage in problem-solving, practice communication, and explore emotions through laughter, creativity, and role-playing moments. But this process is most beneficial when we, as parents and caregivers, are present to guide, encourage, and help them make sense of these experiences. Engaging in play provides opportunities for vital social interactions, helping them learn how to cooperate, express themselves, and understand others.
As we navigate the world of play with our children, we also model important behaviors: patience, empathy, and understanding. In doing so, we foster emotional intelligence and resilience while teaching them how to regulate their feelings and navigate social dynamics. This joint play process is not just about entertainment—it's about development, connection, and laying the foundation for future learning.
By being intentional and present in these moments, we help children enjoy the fun of play and gain the skills they need to thrive emotionally, socially, and cognitively.
The Negative Impact of Screen Time on Creativity
Extended screen time can harm and diminish a child's natural connection to experiential and free play, during which creativity and the use of imagination flourish. We often encounter shelves full of toys, yet children don’t always engage with them. Sometimes, they even complain of boredom, saying they have nothing to do.
The habit of being in a screen-dominated environment disrupts the place where exploration, imagination, associative thinking, and the desire to animate inanimate objects merge with great power. Therefore, controlled exposure to screens and setting limits are necessary if we want children who choose on their own to spend extended periods away from screens.
Creating an exploratory space that doesn't overwhelm but gradually exposes children to a rich and wide range of materials and tools allows the mind to enter the realm of imagination and become deeply engaged in developmentally supportive activities for an extended period. These activities harmonize with the body's needs, fill the soul with joy, and truly embrace the essence of childhood!
Ways to Foster Creative Thinking and Imagination from Early Childhood
The confusion that exists among parents today is understandable. The world has been filled with new and attractive products that seem to match the development of the modern child and are even needed to raise children well adapted to the changing era.
However, human evolution can never keep pace with technological progress. Environmental factors that supported the development of babies and children 100 and even a thousand years ago are still wonderfully adapted to their developmental needs today. Past games, simplicity, and fundamental nature continue to comprehensively support children's physical and emotional needs, even in today's modern era.
Therefore, the most basic, unrefined stimuli of the past—such as nature and its many treasures, playing with various materials, walking on textured surfaces, or exposure to different types of physical activity—continue to do an excellent job promoting body and brain development.
Our role as parents and caregivers in a changing world
In conclusion, creating a balance between the natural and digital worlds means thoughtfully integrating both environments to support children's development. Our duty as parents and caregivers is to guide them through this balance, ensuring they experience physical play, social connections, and creativity while managing screen time responsibly. In the early years, screens should be used mindfully to complement, not replace, essential developmental experiences. Ultimately, our responsibility is to create an environment where technology enhances their growth, allowing them to thrive in both worlds.
