Kids Are Protected Everywhere Except...
Where It Matters Most
Happy New Year! A new year always brings reflection on what we want to protect, what we want to change, and what kind of future we’re quietly building for our children. As calendars reset and resolutions roll in, I keep coming back to one question: Are we protecting kids in the places that matter most for how their brains and nervous systems are actually developing?
As parents, we protect our children in so many places. We make sure they have car seats, bike helmets, follow seatbelt laws and vaccination schedules, and try our best to ensure they don’t get sick. However, when it comes to how children see, perceive, and understand the world, we’ve been oddly silent.
Kids Are Protected Elsewhere… Why Not Here?
Since 1993, Denmark has required every child aged 6–16 to learn empathy in school. Not as a soft skill or optional lesson, but as a core part of development.
The results?
➤Improved emotional resilience
➤Healthier social behavior
➤Lower bullying rates
➤Better mental health
➤Stronger attention and awareness
What Denmark understood decades ago is something neuroscience is only now catching up to:
Empathy strengthens the brain’s spatial and social awareness systems.
Empathy isn’t just emotional, it’s perceptual. It requires reading faces, sensing tone, tracking movement, and understanding another person’s position in space — literally and emotionally. That’s spatial awareness at work.
Meanwhile, the World Is Acting
At least six countries have already created laws limiting or regulating social media use for children. Not to punish kids or control them, but to protect:
➤mental health
➤developing brains
➤attention systems
➤identity formation
➤spatial awareness
Other nations are watching their children struggle and choosing to intervene. Meanwhile, we’re still debating whether screens are really a problem.
What These Countries Understand (That We’re Ignoring)
Chronic screen use doesn’t just affect attention, it changes how the brain maps space. Research increasingly shows that excessive near-screen engagement:
➤shrinks peripheral visual awareness
➤weakens dorsal-stream development (the “where/how” pathway)
➤disrupts how kids understand movement, distance, and social cues
In my clinical work, I see this every day. Kids who can read early but struggle to catch a ball. Kids who excel academically but feel overwhelmed in busy spaces.
Kids who are bright, sensitive, and anxious, yet can’t explain why the world feels too much.
This is part of what I call Spatial Awareness Processing Disorder (SAPD) and screens are only one piece of the puzzle. Countries that combine empathy education with screen regulation aren’t waiting for perfect data. They’re responding to what they’re seeing in real time.
The Hard Truth
Some countries are intentionally building:
➤emotionally intelligent children
➤spatially aware brains
➤resilient nervous systems
Meanwhile, we’re handing kids iPads and hoping for the best.
This isn’t about guilt, it’s about awareness. If we redefine what healthy development actually requires, we can change course. The way children see the world shapes how they:
➤move through space
➤regulate emotions
➤connect with others
➤feel safe in their own bodies
Empathy, movement, and spatial awareness are not “extras,” they are foundational. The cost of ignoring them is showing up in classrooms, clinics, and homes everywhere.
Want to Go Deeper?
If you want more on:
➤kids’ brain development
➤spatial awareness
➤digital overstimulation
➤empathy as a perceptual skill
👉 Become a paid subscriber for more expert guides and practical ways to help our children.
Because the way kids see the world shapes the way they grow.
— Meenal 🤍