Why does my child get carsick?

Road trips are great ways to explore and teach children about their country. Booking family holidays in faraway places is exciting, especially for inland families who look forward all year to joining the exodus to the sea. But these trips become a nightmare if one of the family is prone to carsickness. In some cases, even a drive to the supermarket is something to avoid. Why do some children suffer from this unpleasant condition? Is it just a passing phase or could it be a sign of something else?

To answer these questions, we need to understand what causes the nausea that characterises carsickness and, of course, seasickness too. It’s all due to our senses and the fact that the human brain needs input from the sense organs to accurately perceive the world. Most of our ability to function in the world relies on being able to interpret the messages coming in from our senses. We are at a distinct disadvantage if our vision, hearing, sense of touch, smell and other sensory organs are faulty, or if our brains are not able to make sense of the messages reaching it from the sensory receptors.

There are, however, more than five senses. Our sense of balance and movement is vital to being able to operate efficiently in the world. The receptor for these senses is located in the inner ear and known as the vestibular system.

We don’t use different senses in isolation. Being able to make accurate perceptions about everything in the world needs cooperation among the senses. For example, although the vestibular system is able to tell the brain that the head (and of course, the body with it) is moving forward, it uses vision or tactile (touch) information to help confirm how and where the head and body are moving.

This knowledge has led to a theory that has not yet been criticised. It concerns sensory conflict and explains motion sickness as a conflict between the sensory messages coming in from the visual and vestibular systems (and possibly other so called graviceptors of the abdomen) about movements of the head[1]. The symptom of nausea is produced by an incongruity between the messages relayed by the sensors of orientation (position) and those of movement. For example, the visual system of a child sitting in the back seat of a car or a sailor below the deck of a ship detects no movement. On the other hand, the vestibular system detects movement. So the brain isn’t able to confirm the acceleration and small shifts in movement detected by the vestibular system and those indicated by vision. This results in what is caused a lack of coherence between sensory information.

Following conflict in sensory information, central nervous system activity produces successive stages of motion sickness, from drowsiness to nausea.

In the case of children under the age of 8-10 years, the nausea may be as a result of the vestibular system being still underdeveloped. Although this system is one of the earliest to develop in humans, it continues to develop through early childhood. For this reason, we don’t need to be too concerned about the possible implications of motion sickness in young children.

If motion sickness continues past early childhood it may signify irregular functioning of the vestibular system (providing there are no visual problems, of course). This is why carsickness is fairly common in children with learning problems. The vestibular system is very often implicated in failure to thrive at school. If vestibular weakness is suspected, there are ways of restoring and improving function.

In the meantime, what to do about the travel sickness? Vestibular-enhancing medications are available, which are effective in combatting the symptoms. We also know that reading in a car or on winding roads or when the driver brakes suddenly is not advisable. Rather have the child focus on the distant landscape so the visual system has the same reference as the vestibular system. This is why sitting in the front seat is often helpful. When on a boat, make sure the child stays above deck, looking at the horizon. This will ensure that the visual system sees the movement of the horizon which will create the exact same reference as the vestibular system. Even better, when standing on the deck, make active movements to remain stable, because these motor commands will add their messages to the other sensory information. When riding in a car, making small movements to coincide with the movement of the car around corners, passing other cars, and so on, will also be helpful.

Hopefully, your child will outgrow car sickness but if not, do consider whether the functioning of his or her balance system might be contributing to the problem. History tells us that Admiral Nelson was seasick when at sea for his entire life. I can’t help but wonder about his vestibular system!

Integrated Learning Therapy (ILT) understands the significance of vestibular functioning for successful learning. If you would like to know more about this approach, visit our website at www.ilt.co.za. We have practitioners listed around this country and others who are able to help you and we offer training to parents, teachers and other professionals to learn more about aspects of our approach.

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[1] Alain Berthoz. 2000. The brain’s sense of movement. Harvard Press.

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Martin Doherty, writing for The Conversation, says that at the age of about four, children reach important milestones in brain development.

One of these is a huge improvement in understanding others’ thoughts and feelings. This is the start of empathy. Another is in spatial thinking—understanding how objects are positioned and related. This is the beginning of the ability to read maps.

Martin and his colleague, Catherine Sayer, conducted a study with 175 two to five-year-olds to explore how children are able to use scale models to figure out where something is in the real world. At about four, children are able to use a scale model of a room to work out where something is. We thought that this might result from children’s understanding of how one thing can represent something else. But we actually found that four-year-olds’ ability to use scale models came from their spatial abilities.

At the same age, children start to understand that someone’s behaviour is due to what that person believes, not necessarily what is really the case. This has interesting consequences.

If you’ve played hide-and-seek with young children, you may have noticed that they aren’t always very good at it. They love the ritual of looking in all the wrong places first, but beforehand they may tell you where they are going to hide, hide in the same place every time, or not be especially hidden.

After their fourth birthday, they get much better at hide and seek. They understand that the seeker looks in the wrong places because they don’t know where the hider is.

At about three to four children also start to tell lies. They realize they can make someone believe something that isn’t true.

Understanding symbols

Martin’s earlier research with fellow psychologist Josef Perner suggests that four-year-olds don’t just start to understand how others’ minds work. Figuring this out is part of the development of an understanding of “representation”—that symbols, like thoughts, words, or pictures, can be used to stand for something else.

Children start to think about how words relate to objects. This means, for instance, knowing that “animal” can refer to something you already have a name for, such as “rabbit”. This might help children learn the new word.

Their ability to use a understand the components of pictures also improves around this age. Very young children use a lot of trial and error to complete a jigsaw, picking up random pieces to see if they fit. By the time they are about four years old, they start to use the picture as a guide, trying to connect lines and match bits of colour, while checking the guide picture on the box lid.

Developmental experiments

Another ability children develop at around four is using scale models. A classic set of developmental experiments involved a model of a regular household room. The real room had typical furniture—sofa, table, cupboard and so on—and the model had miniature versions laid out in the same way.

Children were shown where something was hidden in the model and told to find an object hidden in “the same place” in the room. Children of around four can find the object using the identical layouts. If shown a sticker under a particular chair in the model room, for example, they can go straight to the “same” chair in the other room. This is the fundamental understanding required to read maps.

Adults see scale models and maps as representations. Maps represent a town or a country. A scale model of, say, the Eiffel Tower represents the real thing. At first, Martin suspected children’s ability to use scale models is more evidence of understanding representation at this age.

He was wrong. Instead, the researchers found that this ability is based on a development in children’s spatial abilities that also occurs at about four. This is the ability to think about spaces and where objects are within them. Spatial abilities help with maths skills, and good spatial ability is linked to an interest in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Their experiment was simple. They compared the model room task with a test of understanding how representation works. The two abilities develop around the same age, but they found they were not related. Children who could do one task couldn’t necessarily do the other.

They also had a test of purely spatial ability. Children who passed the model room task also passed the spatial task. So it looks like the model room task relied on children‘s spatial thinking.

They don’t yet know why two important but apparently unrelated abilities arise at the same time. Perhaps it’s related to changes in the growing brain at this interesting age.

Provided by The Conversation.

Image supplied by Freepik.