Holidays approach: Hope there's time for being bored!

‘What can I do to keep the kids busy?’ is a concern for lots of parents before the holidays. They think that it’s a duty to find activities throughout the days that will entertain their children. No so. The truth is that being bored is a healthy state for both children and adults. It is when we are bored that our brains have time to recharge and both creativity and problem-solving is stimulated.

What is boredom?

The feeling of boredom is when brains are unoccupied for a time. This causes restlessness and disinterest in one’s surroundings.

While we are focusing on the demanding tasks of school or work or on interacting with the people around us, our brains are busy. After these periods, we might feel tired and look for ways of relaxing. These are usually in the form of some or other entertainment or activities like hobbies, reading or play. Today, much entertainment comes from electronic devices with children spending less time outside or playing with friends or siblings.

The trouble with spending too much time watching YouTube videos or scrolling Instagram and TikTok doesn’t refresh the brain but actually causes greater fatigue. Time spent in these ways may relieve boredom but also causes a different problem. The less people experience boredom, the less equipped the brain is to deal with it.

Refreshing the brain

When your brain is intent on an activity, it exerts a lot of energy. When you finish the activity, it returns to a default stage and rests. This is normal and the way that our brains are refreshed. During this time, several interconnected brain regions are active and working in unison. This is referred to as the default mode network.

When people are in this state, many important things are happening in the brain. Memories are consolidated and lessons are reflected upon; the brain plays through scenarios, applies what was learned and it could be used in the future. Time is spend thinking about themselves and others; they reminisce about the past and daydream about the future.

A creative time

The resting state can also be a creative time, and can lead to finding creative solutions to problems that are bothering people. For example, many people claim to come up with great solutions to problems they are grappling with while taking a walk or a shower. This is because their mind is free to wander while their body is engaged in a mindless task and captive to the task.

Helping kids cope with boredom

Follow these tips to use boredom productively:

It’s not adults’ responsibility to entertain their children every moment of the day. Kids are naturally curious and creative. Being bored helps them strengthen their creative muscles and learn to cope with feelings of boredom as they get older.
Balance activities with rest. The days don’t have to be constantly busy.
Strive for a variety of activities that you or your child enjoy, include spending time with others but leave lots of time for the brain to rest.
Encourage children to try something new, like joining a club, trying a new hobby, playing a board game.
Get them outside. Spending time with nature is one of the best therapeutic ways to ward off boredom. It also promotes creative thinking.
Encourage curiosity.
Encourage reminiscing but also dreaming of current or future goals and wishes.
If children complain of boredom, acknowledge their feelings and ask them to come up with a solution. If they struggle, offer ideas that don’t include an electronic device.
Boredom can be more uncomfortable or distressing for people feeling fearful, anxious or depressed. If this is the case, try to get them professional help to work through their feelings and develop healthy coping skills.
Teach them not to be afraid of feeling bored. It’s a normal part of life that offers an opportunity to restore our brains and create solutions to problems.

This article was originally written by Ashok Seshadri, of the Mayo Clinic.

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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.