A CranioSacral Approach - compiled by Michele Wolhuter RCST

If you are over the age of 30, then you are one of the last generations to experience your childhood without the influence of current media technology.  If you are American, then you need to be over the age of about 50.  Your childhood was very different from your own children’s, and new evidence is suggesting that your children’s cognitive abilities will not be as complete, or advanced as yours are, even though they have the potential to rise far above you in brain capability.  This is, in part, because of the influence and effect of media exposure on the developing brain of the child.

Television has been in existence for the past 80 years, although the broadcasting of entertainment shows didn’t begin until the 1940’s.  In 1950, 10% of American households owned a TV set.  By 1954 this percentage had increased to 50%.  Since 1970, more than 98% of American households own a TV and currently 66% of household own three or more TVs.

Television is on almost 7 hours per day in an average American home.  A study sponsored by the Kaiser Family Foundation and released in November 1999, revealed that most children between 2 and 18 years old are exposed to an average of 6 ½ hours of daily media exposure, of which television is the most dominant.  A child spends more time watching television than any other activity except sleeping, and by age 18 a child has spent more time in front of a TV than at school. 1

Crying is a very misunderstood subject. Most people do not like to hear a baby cry and will find some way to quieten the baby down, usually one of the above methods. One must realise that just as you have feelings which need to be expressed, so does a baby. A baby who cries is trying to communicate with you. Of course there are physical needs which need to be met, and so a baby might cry when she is hungry, have a dirty nappy, be too hot or cold or need to change position, but she might also be unhappy about something else and need to release stress in order to relax. Just as you would tell a friend about your bad day at work, a baby would want to express her stresses of the day. As I wrote in a previous article, The Mind of a Newborn Baby, babies have feelings. One may think that they come into this world and live a stress-free existence until they grow up and have to earn a living, but in actual fact, being a baby is an extremely stressful and vulnerable time of life. I have heard comments such as "oh, how wonderful it must be to be three months old, just eat and sleep", but being a baby brings tons of stresses of their own, you just can't remember them.