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Detachment Disorder - Let's call it what it is

 

By Cris Rowan 

  

A distressed colleague recently told me that social media is being used to allure and capture young children, pulling them into cartels who then traffic these children for the sex trade. How can this happen, and where are these children's parents? Every time a child is handed a device and not supervised, they are at great risk for online corruption. Violent video games, pornography, bullying, and sexual exploitation are happening to our most vulnerable with precision and increasing frequency. Parents wouldn't hand 2 year old a knife, yet without a second thought, hand them a far more harmful and extremely addictive device.

  

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Cris In The News

 

Cris Rowan has had a chapter titled "The impact of technology on child sensory and motor development" published in a new book which questions the use of education technology titled "Learning in a Digitalized Age - Plugged in, turned on, totally engaged?" edited by Lawrence Burke, professor with the Higher Colleges of Technology.

 

In The Spot Light

  

Mom's Managing Media 

 

Melanie Hempe is an RN, Mom, and outspoken advocate for "game free" homes. Melanie has recently launched her website http://www.momsmanagingmedia.com/ which is the most comprehensive and excellent resource for families struggling with technology management out there. Melanie has compiled a range of technology reduction strategies, instructional and supportive videos, informative blog, collated research, and for the summer, a daily post of a fun 30 minute activity per day that can be done outside. Melanie is currently working on her book designed to help parents with technology management due out soon. Check it out!

 

Foundation Series Workshop Schedule
 
August 24, 2014 - Kelowna, BC
Workshop for professionals sponsored by Early Learning, Literacy CMOS & UBCO, SD No. 23 

Contact person: Donna Kozak donna.kozak@sd23.bc.ca 250-718-5332

 

September 13, 2014 - Dawson Creek BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by South Peace Child Care Resource and Referral.

Contact person: Katherin Charbonneau kcharbonneau@spcrs.ca 1-866-782-1138 ext 221

 

September 19, 20, 2014 - Hong Kong, China

Workshops on impact of technology on corporate productivity and family life sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization.

Contact Person: Timothy Wong twong@ypowpo.org 

 

September 22, 23, 2014  - Mongolia

Workshops on impact of technology on corporate productivity and family life sponsored by the Young Presidents Organization.

Contact Person: Timothy Wong twong@ypowpo.org 

 

October 1, 2014 - Vancouver, BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by Gatehouse Montessori School

Contact Person: Gretchen van Nostrand gretchen@gatehousemontesorri.com 604-925-1437

 

October 16, 2014 - Roberts Creek, BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by Sun Haven Waldorf School

Contact Person: Sari Cormack saricormack@gmail.com 604-741-0949

 

November 16, 2014 - Squamish BC

Workshop on the impact of technology on children sponsored by Quest University

Contact person: Luce Melancon luce.melancon@questu.ca 1-888-883-7808

 

February 5, 6, 2015 - Rivers Inlet BC

Workshops on self-regulation, literacy, technology balance, and attachment, sponsored by Vancouver Coastal Health grant

Contact person: Kevin Gianakos kgianakos@sd49.bc.ca 1-250-949-8881

 

March 6, 2015 - Vancouver BC

Workshop on school design for success sponsored by Cross Currents Special Education Conference

Contact person: Mary Berg seaspeakers@gmail.com 

 

Research and News Review
  

Instant Messaging Virtual Universe (IMVU)

Be careful and aware of what your kids are doing online. Check out above example of the type of sex your children can engage in while using IMVU. Aside from the addiction component, organized crime, pimps and gangs are luring people into 'fantasy romances' and then luring them into face-to-face encounters with the sole purpose of trapping and coercing people into sex slavery where they are forced to perform 14-18 tricks daily and then service the pimp or gang members after. The gangs and pimps keep all the money! 5 prostitutes generate $900,000 annually for the gangs and pimps.

 

What an IMVU addict says.

See what an IMVU addict says about their experience on Online Gamers Anonymous website. 

 

Alleged pimp busted training teen prostitutes
By Bay City News May 29, 2014
A 17-year-old girl ran away from home after a fight with her parents about two months ago and decided to meet up with 20-year-old Chester Brown, whom she first met a few months ago in Antioch, according to Stockton police Officer Joe Silva. Every year in the US 1.69 Million Kids run away from home and more than 1 out of 3 of them will engage in survival sex (trading their bodies for food or bedding) with in the first 48 hours.

 

Moreno Valley woman accused of sex-trafficking could face 12 years in prison
City News Service May 30, 2014
The 19-year-old is charged with five sex trafficking-related felonies for operating a sex-for-money operation.

 

Safe Online Surfing - New Cyber Safety Website for Teachers, Students

From the FBI

Cyber safety one topic that's on many class curriculums around the nation. The FBI has a program that can help - a free web-based initiative designed to help teachers educate students about cyber safety. It's called the FBI-SOS (Safe Online Surfing) Internet Challenge-and it was developed with the assistance of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and with the input of teachers and schools. 

 

Reflections on an Adolescence and Young Adulthood under Psychiatry's Spell, and How I Woke Up 

ISEPP 2013 International Annual Mental Health Conference: Transforming Mad Science and Re-imagining Mental Health Care 

Watch this moving speech by young psychiatric survivor Laura Delano (who barely survived) at the Occupy Psychiatry event in 2012.

 

Drug cartels are amateurs: here's the real thing

By Jon Rappoport June 9, 2014

The destruction of societies by medical drugs goes far beyond what some people call "over-prescribing." This isn't just a tilt in the wrong direction. It isn't simply errors of judgment compounded by the number of doctors dispensing medicines. Countries of the world are literally being assaulted by pharmaceutical companies and their foot-soldier doctors. It's chemical warfare.

 

Anatomy of an Epidemic Down Under - Psychiatric disability numbers rise in Australia and New Zealand
By Robert Whitaker September 16, 2011 in Mad in America
Speaking about my book Anatomy of an Epidemic, I find the same questions being asked. Why, everyone wants to know, is mental illness becoming such a big problem in their society? And what are they to make of psychiatric drugs, which are being so frequently used?

 

Brain Structure and Functional Connectivity Associated With Pornography Consumption - The Brain on Porn
By Simone Kühn, PhD1; Jürgen Gallinat, PhD2,3 JAMA Psychiatry. Published online May 28, 2014. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.93
Since pornography appeared on the Internet, the accessibility, affordability, and anonymity of consuming visual sexual stimuli have increased and attracted millions of users. Based on the assumption that pornography consumption bears resemblance with reward-seeking behavior, novelty-seeking behavior, and addictive behavior, we hypothesized alterations of the frontostriatal network in frequent users.

 

Breakthrough Study Reveals Biological Basis for Sensory Processing Disorders in Kids
By Juliana Bunim on July 09, 2013
In a groundbreaking new study from UC San Francisco, researchers have found that children affected with SPD have quantifiable differences in brain structure, for the first time showing a biological basis for the disease that sets it apart from other neurodevelopmental disorders.

 

2014 Active Healthy Kids Canada Report Card on Physical Activity for Children and Youth

By Active Healthy Kids Canada, 2014
Canada's Overall Physical Activity levels are at a D-, clustered near the back of the pack with Australia (D-), Ireland (D-), the United States (D-) and Scotland (F). Even though 84% of Canadian kids aged 3-4 are active enough to meet guidelines, this falls to only 7% of kids meeting guidelines at ages 5-11, and only 4% meeting guidelines at ages 12-17.

 

Why Children Fidget: And what we can do about it
By Angela Hanscom - Thursday, June 05, 2014
In order for children to learn, they need to be able to pay attention. In order to pay attention, we need to let them move.

 

What's Lost as Handwriting Fades

By Maria Konnikova June 2, 2014

Even as the emphasis shifts to the keyboard, experts say that learning to write by hand improves motor skills, memory and creativity. 

 

Classroom Activities and Off-task Behavior in Elementary School Children
By Goodwin, Almeda, Petroccia, Baker, & Fisher, 2013
Maintaining focused attention in the classroom is considered an important factor for successful learning. Loss of instructional time due to off-task behavior is recognized as a significant challenge by both researchers and practitioners. However, there has been little research into the factors contributing to off-task behavior. This paper reports results from the first large-scale study investigating how elementary school children allocate their attention in classroom environments.


Study Shows Classroom Decor Can Distract from Learning
By Kaye Burnet June 2, 2014
It's hard to imagine a kindergarten room without colorful drawings and posters, crafts on display and educational charts and maps covering the walls. But a recent study by Carnegie Mellon University shows that decorations in classrooms may actually hurt the learning process.

 

A Learning Secret: Don't Take Notes with a Laptop

By Cindi May June 3, 2014

Learning involves more than the receipt and the regurgitation of information.  If we want students to synthesize material, draw inferences, see new connections, evaluate evidence, and apply concepts in novel situations, we need to encourage the deep, effortful cognitive processes that underlie these abilities.  When it comes to taking notes, students need fewer gigs, more brain power.

  

Is Some Tech Too Addictive?

By Nir Eyal May 31, 2014

When it comes to potentially addictive products, companies should not wait for users to harm themselves. Companies who know when a user is overusing their product have both an economic imperative and a social responsibility to identify addicts and intervene. 

 

Television Viewing, Bedroom Television, and Sleep Duration From Infancy to Mid-Childhood 

By Cespedes, Gillman, Kleinman, Rifas-Shiman, Redline, & Taveras, April 14, 2014

Television and insufficient sleep are associated with poor mental and physical health. This study assessed associations of TV viewing and bedroom TV with sleep duration from infancy to midchildhood.

 

The Impact of Technology on Young Individuals

By Erika Klenk May 2014

I was interviewed by Erika earlier in the year for her Senior Project. In a recent email to me she said "This project has made me so much more aware of my surroundings and being in the "now". I'm so passionate about this, and I really hope things will get better for teenagers and youth" - One to watch for the future.

 

Seeing Eye-to-Eye:  The Power of Telepresence
Posted by Dominic Keogh November 5, 2013
Whether the setting is a place of business or in the public sector, telepresence can deliver more efficiently face to face communications where and when they are desired-along with the visual nuance and human touch that can more fully satisfy the consumer.

 

Documentaries & Videos

  

Dominic H. White - Available on iTunes Movies
Since childhood we'd been promised that the 21st century would bring us dramatic new technologies like flying cars and utopian cities. Instead it bought us the smartphone, social media and online gaming. And as it turns out these technologies began to transform society almost as dramatically as the moon colonies we'd been expecting. DSKNECTD is a sobering and definitive exploration into digital communication technology, covering subjects ranging from text messaging and social media to online gaming and internet pornography.

Presented by Opal Singleton, CEO & President, Million Kids
52 minute video on how three thousand children each day are lured, tricked, and coerced into prostitution by gangs, drug cartels and pimps of organized crime rings utilizing "bottom hoe's" implanted in our schools, social media channels, Internet gaming, and other methods of preying on kids seeking love and acceptance. That's how many children are trafficked throughout the world. This must stop. And we can do something about it. Our name Million Kids says it all.

10 classic Sesame Street moments we wouldn't show today's kids

By Peter Weber December 27, 2013 for The Week

When the Children's Television Workshop unleashed Sesame Street on the world in 1969, it sparked a revolution in television programming. For the first time, TV was supposed to educate children as well as entertain them - make learning fun, using techniques developed through years of rigorous research. Parents across the U.S. had a TV show they could feel safe letting their kids watch.

When you buy the first season on DVD or iTunes today, though, it comes with a warning:

"These early Sesame Street episodes are intended for grown-ups, and may not suit the needs of today's preschool child." 

 

Safe Online Surfing - New Cyber Safety Website for Teachers, Students

From the FBI

Kids and teens love to use the Internet. But there are risks: online predators, identity thieves, cyber-bullies, and much more. The FBI has a tool that can help. The Safe Online Surfing, or SOS, website helps educate students in grades 3 through 8 about cyber safety. 

 

See also website information above.

 

Put Down That Smartphone! Finding Ways to Disconnect  

NBC News June 3, 2014

Some companies are encouraging workers to unplug and recharge, requiring them to cut the electronic umbilical cord.

 

Boys For Sale (1981 Forgotten Documentary)

Published on YouTube May 14, 2014

Boys For Sale, a 1981 forgotten 1.1/2 hour documentary that is an epidemic today, particularly with the use of social media, websites, and online games to lure, coerce, and entrap young kids into lives of sex slavery. This is a missing "link" to "wake-up" parents in the dangers of online play and online activities to set more boundaries for their kids.

 

Stress, Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal Pathway, and Addictions 

Published on YouTube June 2, 2014

7 minute video on how addictions and addictive behaviours share the same neuroendocrine pathway. Julie and Dr. Doan presented the neuroscience of stress, sin and addictions at the NCAA National Convention.

 

Published on YouTube June 2, 2014

Dr Andrew Doan gives a 1 hour 10 minute talk to Grades One through Six at Horizon Christian Academy. There was nearly 100% acceptance of the message that video games and technology can be addictive and that "too much of anything can be bad!" At the end nearly all raised their hands wanting to be a "Game Changer" with almost none wanting to be "Gamers!" This is definitely the age to educate and reach out to the kids.

 

New Hope: The radical school helping kids with learning conditions rewire their brains

13 minute video published May 31, 2014 on SixtyMinutes in Australia

35 Australian families are in Canada for one last shot at helping their kids with learning difficulties, to read, write and add up. The Arrowsmith School in Vancouver is all about re-wiring the brain, so that kids with conditions like dyslexia can, for the first time, learn how to learn.

 

Resources

 

The Rose Lab

The Rose Lab is located in Peterborough Ontario Canada. It houses the private laboratory of Trent University Professor Dr. Magda Havas.  Her work focuses on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields on the human body.

 

YouTube channel to help Moms balancing technology with childhood.

Great website and resources for parents of infants and toddlers, who want to learn more about the importance of physical and sensory experiences in the early years.

Check out The Children's Mental Health Learning Series, funded by The Government of Alberta, recently broadcasted its eighth session. The sessions posted are:
  • The Core Story of Child Development
  • From Youth at Risk to Kids at Hope
  • Healing the Traumatized Parent and Child
  • Resilience in ADHD: Promoting the Positives in Challenging Children
  • Vicarious Trauma for Front-Line Service Providers and Parents
  • Creating Healthy Relationships and Settings to Prevent Peer Bullying and Victimization
  • Ameliorating psycho-social risk among mothers with intellectual disabilities and their children
  • Baby Steps and Giant Leaps: Infant Preschool Mental Health
Books

 

Learning in a Digitalized Age - Plugged in, turned on, totally engaged?

edited by Lawrence Burke, professor with the Higher Colleges of Technology challenges many assumptions about teaching and learning in the digital age.

Zone'in Products

Sedentary, neglected, isolated, and overstimulated, the new millennium child can no longer pay attention and learn. Zone'in Products are designed by an occupational therapist to enhance child development and learning, ensuring successful futures.

 

Zone'in - enhancing attention, learning and self-regulation.

Move'in - teaches children to print, the foundation for literacy.

Unplug'in - builds skill and confidence in activities other than technology.

Live'in - media literacy guide for home, school and community.

 

Product Preview  

 

Virtual Child - The terrifying truth about what technology is doing to children

Virtual Child

By Cris Rowan, pediatric occupational therapist.

 
Virtual Child documents the impact technology has had on the developing child, and proposes tools and techniques to manage balance between activities children need for growth and success with technology use. 

Need more info? Visit www.virtualchild.ca

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About the Author
Cris Rowan is a pediatric occupational therapist committed to enhancing child health and academic performance. Well known activist, speaker, sensory specialist and author, Cris is the "Go To" expert on child learning, development and technology overuse. Cris has provided over 200 workshops for health and education professionals, and is currently developing the Creating Sustainable Futures Program for a First Nations Community.
  
Training & Consultation
 
Training

Instructor training for Foundation Series Workshops places pediatric occupational therapists on the cutting edge as experts in the field of technology's impact on child development.

Zone'in Training


Consultation
Innovative team-based approach to manage balance between activities children need to grow and succeed with technology use.

Cris Rowan is now offering private phone/Skype consultations. 

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Zone'in Programs Inc. and Cris Rowan are seeking your support and assistance to ensure sustainable and productive futures for our children. Find out more about how you can help us!
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