Boy, I really love this quote:
“They didn’t grow up getting this part of their brains dirty … Your hands are your brain, just not as mushy.” (Nate Jones)
What he means is, when kids grow up in a society where devices are ubiquitous they grow up in a 2-dimensional world, and this means they miss out on growing “the neurological connections that come from working with one’s hands”.
This is one reason why what Jonathan Haidt calls the transition, which we’ve unthinkingly accepted and normalised, from a play-based childhood to a phone-based childhood is a massive experiment.
Those neurological connections Jones refers to are crucial — they help kids develop a sense of and feel for things because their experiences become 3-dimensional, their thinking rooted in the manipulation of things in the real world.
As Jones and numerous others have realised (eg, NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, SpaceX) kids whose childhood is ‘play rich’ get that crucial part of their brain dirty all the time. They live in a world rich in multidimensional sensory information. They are better at problem-solving. They are better thinkers.
Today’s message from Pluto:
I use my paws all the time when I play with my ball; that helped me think of a possible solution to the problem of not being allowed on the couch. Woof!!!
Something to try that might make a difference
Got kids who struggle or are hesitant to write?
Give them some magnetic poetry tiles.
Let them play around with word combinations. Watch how the hands bring their feelings to the surface.
Challenge them: Can they bash words with contrasting meanings together? Can they keep a mood going?
Have a go yourself.