Infant Brain Under Construction Poem by Denis Mair
Infant Brain Under Construction
Please, the baby's brain is being wired
Don't flood it with images from a screen
His fears and feelings are still unformed
His sense of self has no clear boundaries
Let his desires link up with his surroundings
Dr. Piaget calls this a time for 'rapprochement'
When the child learns to connect inside with outside
The infant's embryonic brain has excess neurons
Which are whittled away by programmed cell death
Which is called apoptosis, and all this happens
As proper reflex arcs are inscribed in nerve tracts
And perceptual templates lay the groundwork for thought
So when he sees Mama come out from behind a door
He learns that a warm embrace is soon to come
When something enters a box, then re-emerges
He learns the principle of containment in space
Which underlies thinking about inclusion in sets
So he needs stimuli from his natural setting
To knit his desires with his vision of the world
He'll learn cause and effect from life around him
So don't hit him with bursts and splashes of color
Don't bombard him with cyborgs shooting ray guns
Don't plunk him down in front of a screen
His brain is being wired, so please
Cut down on the baby's screen time!
...I first heard about the concept of rapprochement from the child psychologist Joe Chiveney while we were driving to the Cascadia Poets Gathering in Cumberland, B.C.
(cont.) it's true, when i was a child, our home had BLACK & WHITE TV, NOT color, and NO computer etc. and we had no cyborgs shooting ray guns [i don't think]. BUT there were violent cartoon characters and events, AND killings in cowboy and gangster movies on TV and at 'the movie theater'. BUT LITTLE if any BLOOD WAS SHOWN. certainly i did NOT see bodies of humans blown or cut apart on screens! (cont.)
(cont.) Bri thinks MANY 'things' heard and seen while staring at a 'screen' have been good, or at least not bad for most infant brains (which i assume are infant even long after the 'owners' of the brains are no longer called infants. [ i don't think PH is giving me a full 300 characters sometimes for my comments! ! ! ]: ( (cont.)
(cont.) NO, Bri did not pull all the information for these comments out of his incompletely-developed brain. I had some help from Google et al as i faced a SCREEN! HA ha. surely examples of good AND bad have been around during the development of human brains/nerve tracts long before humans created and became used to watching screens! (cont.)
(cont.) I do not condone parents using screens as babysitters under all circumstances, but i watched my share of TV as a kid, and i'm not TOO WARPED (mentally) , am i? AM I? ? ? ! ! ! Necrosis is caused by factors external to the cell or tissue, such as infection, toxins, or trauma which result in the unregulated digestion of cell components. In contrast, apoptosis is a naturally occurring programmed and targeted cause of cellular death. (cont.)
Cont/..I like sitting my baby near a window and oh how he chuckles and chatters at the birds and admires nature. He loves TV but the CD player is not working so he's absorbing more nature and psychologists say green is a soothing color so staring at the greenery outside does seem to pacify him. Kudos for the poem.
My hubby is very vocal about limiting baby's telly time as we have another our own baby now and you have most awesomely said it in poetry that a baby needs to perceive his natural surroundings rather than pain his eyes with flashes of artificial colours on TV. A brilliant poem that focuses well on how not to impair the developing brain with unnatural stuff. Babies need to be wired to nature that's all.
Please, the baby's brain is being wired Don't flood it with images from a screen His fears and feelings are still unformed His sense of self has no clear boundaries Let his desires link up with his surroundings- - Thanks for sharing this wonderful poem that is so informative and useful for all people.Little do I know what damage we do to a baby's mind when we expose him to T.V., computer and Video games etc.
This poem has not been translated into any other language yet.
I would like to translate this poem
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12/5/2025 3:05:03 AM # 1.0.0
(cont.) i guess i've said enough. but perhaps you could give a time in months for when a brain and a baby are infants? bri :) p.s. i don't feel that the poem looks or sounds like a poem, but it is worth parents' consideration.