NDD can influence the way children think, act, and feel, which can be more broadly categorized as psychological factors. They may be overthinking about minor issues, behave fussily, or feel like they are always moody. Toggle below to read more about these psychological effects of NDD.
The constant need for stimulation
When a child stays indoors and spends too much time on video games, their threshold for stimulation is increased. This overstimulation from the fast-paced and bright lights of video game visuals creates a constant need for attention-grabbing stimuli. Video games also activate children’s reward pathways, which have been generally associated with substance addiction. This can result in addictive behavior towards highly stimulating visuals.
Given the increased need for stimulation and immediate rewards, a child might become fussy or impatient when they go out in nature (or just practically anywhere without access to their computers) because they may find it boring and lack interest. Parents then keep their children indoors with their video games, which unfortunately perpetuates the increasing need for stimulation.
Anxiety and depression
The rates of childhood anxiety and depression have been on the rise, and it is quite possible that spending too much time indoors with technology contributes to this problem. Individuals who are constantly juggling between multiple websites, apps, programs, or other digital stimuli tend to have less grey matter in parts of their brain involved in thought and emotion control. This weakens the ability to control the thoughts and emotions that are building up.
Additionally, if children are being cooped up indoors for too long, they do not reap the relaxing benefits that nature could have provided for them, and they instead fall down into a spiral of thoughts, become easily irritable over minor things, or feel restless.
Lower self-esteem
Children who do not spend enough time in nature do not encounter as many challenges that the outdoors can provide for them to practice and feel competent about their skills. Multiple studies have shown that children who played in indoor settings and not engage in nature activities were less likely to report an increase in their sense of autonomy and self-confidence in their capacity to take action and be decisive.
When they eventually do have to encounter challenges in their daily lives without any practice, they may feel less competent about their abilities to tackle such challenges and may experience a decrease in self-esteem.
Moodiness
Not enough time spent in the outdoors under the nice, bright sun could result in moodiness among children. Exposure to sunlight helps to increase the regulation of serotonin, a mood-boosting neurotransmitter. However, children who lack exposure to sunlight may have lower levels of serotonin, and this is exhibited in mood swings and feelings of depression.
Every now and then, check up on your child to see how they are doing. It is always worth spending a bit of time outdoors to see if they feel better afterwards.