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By Movieguide® Staff
A new neuroscience paper gives parents another reason to look up from the glowing rectangle and ask what childhood is losing.
“The main takeaway is that there is a critical window of development that goes from birth all the way up to 25 years,” Dr. Julio Licinio, a coauthor of the review and a distinguished professor of psychiatry at SUNY Upstate Medical University, told CNN. What the brain absorbs then can “determine who you are for the rest of your life.”
The conceptual paper, published in the journal Brain Health, introduced the term “criticome” to describe the developmental window when sensory experiences, movement, relationships, culture and environment help shape a person. The authors argued that some early experiences leave deep and sometimes irreversible marks.
CNN contributor Kara Alaimo connected the research to children’s screen habits. The paper does not prove exactly how today’s devices will shape children over decades, but Licinio urged parents not to wait passively for perfect long-term answers.
“Everything else feels boring for a kid,” Melissa Greenberg, a clinical psychologist at Princeton Psychotherapy Center, said of the intense stimulation screens provide. She told CNN that devices can crowd out play, friendship, outdoor activity and the ordinary experiences children need to develop social, motor and sensory skills.
The warning should not frighten parents into panic, but it should nudge families toward action. Children need embodied life: conversations at dinner, games in the yard, books on the couch, chores, music, church, service and time with real people who know their names.
Related: Psychologists Warn Scrolling Can Imitate ADHD-Like Attention Struggles
The US Surgeon General has also warned that higher screen use can connect with physical health problems, mental health struggles, behavior issues, family conflict, weaker academics and poorer peer relationships. That does not mean every screen is evil, but it does mean parents should treat technology as a tool with limits, not as a babysitter with no off switch.
Greenberg told CNN that if a child melts down when a screen disappears, parents should not automatically read the reaction as mere defiance. “It’s because they’ve been given something that’s addictive, and then you’re taking it away,” she said.
That advice offers both challenge and mercy. Parents may need to change course, but they do not have to drown in guilt for decisions they made before the research picture sharpened.
Families can start with a plan instead of a power struggle. Replace screen time with concrete alternatives such as swimming, board games, bike rides, volunteering, music lessons or reading aloud together.
Those replacements matter because children rarely need less of something in the abstract; they need more of something better. A blank afternoon can become a backyard project, a visit with grandparents, a library trip or a simple walk where a parent listens without a phone in hand.
The research also challenges adults to model the habits they want children to practice. A family cannot convincingly praise face-to-face conversation while every adult at the table checks notifications between bites.
Movieguide® has long encouraged parents to think carefully about the stories and media children consume. This research adds another layer: what kids do while they are not watching may shape them just as deeply as what appears on the screen.
Read Next: How Device Overuse, Social Media Harm Learning and Self-Esteem
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