www.theconnectionsnj.com
Health and Wellness
PAGE 70
Watchung Hills
Physical Therapy
Look, Feel And
Perform Better
At Watchung Hills Physical Therapy
•
We facilitate the restoration of your body’s joints and systems
to an efficient state, allowing you to function optimally.
•
We address the source of your pain/dysfunction not just
the symptoms.
•
We empower you with tools to stay injury free and healthy.
•
We provide individualized one-on-one care.
•
We pride ourselves in being able to help patients that have
failed in their attempts to be successfully treated within the
mainstream medical model.
•
We are the area’s only clinic now with a Certified Functional
Manual Therapist.
908-251-5888
76
Stirling Road
Suite 400
Warren
www.watchunghillspt.com
A sampling of the conditions treated at
Watchung Hills Physical Therapy:
•
Acute & Chronic Spinal Conditions
•
Frozen Shoulder
•
Tendinitis (Tennis & Golfer elbow, shoulder, hip)
•
Foot & Ankle Pain
•
Knee Pain
•
Hip Dysfunction
•
Joint Replacement
•
Rib Dysfunction
•
Core Muscle Weakness
•
Visceral Mobilization
•
Post Surgical Care
•
Headaches
•
Temporal-Mandibular Joint (TMJ) Pain
•
One-on-One Personal Training
James Santillo
PT, MSPT
40
QA00612100
Matthew Holbrook
PT, DPT, CFMT
40
QA01027000
CHILDREN AND TECHNOLOGY
IF YOU CAN’T BEAT ‘EM, JOIN ‘EM
By: Dr. Michael Osit
Recently, someone sent me a cute
YouTube video of what looks to be
about a ten month old playing with an
iPad. The clip is worth taking a look at
so I have provided it for you (http://
www.youtube.com/watch?feature=
player_embedded&v=aXV-yaFmQNk).
The little girl is shown touching the
screen to open APPS and sliding her
hand along the screen to change the
APPS page. She obviously has seen
someone perform these acts on the
iPad screen and enjoyed the fact that
she could have some effect on this
mysterious screen. The next few scenes
in the video show the same infant girl
picking up a magazine and touching it
in an effort to “open” an App. She
tries this several times, of course, to no
avail. She then slides her hand across
the magazine page trying to make the
“
APPS” move to the next screen. To
this little girl, who only knows a world
filled with technology, a magazine is
simply an iPad that just doesn’t work.
A few days later, I received the final
print copy of my
Newsweek
subscrip-
tion in the mail. This traditional icon of
print media cataloguing the week’s
events has now gone completely digi-
tal, only delivering the publication via
email, to smart phones, and tablets. I
felt a little sad as I have offered this
magazine to my patients in my waiting
room for over 30 years. I have no use
for a digital magazine in my waiting
room, so I simply passed my subscrip-
tion on to my son’s email address, who
will gladly read it digitally.
Technology continues to change the
world, whether we like or not-whether
we want it to or not. Adults need to
adjust to these changes, keeping pace
with technological advancements for
many reasons. Navigating through the
adult world (banking, shopping, etc.) is
one important reason to stay in the
tech loop. If you parent or work with
children, it is essential to know tech-
nology in order to have a successful
relationship with virtually any age
child.
As for our youth, like the ten month
old in the video, it is the only world
they know. Toy manufacturers are pro-
ducing tech toys geared to children
even in the toddler years. They have
toy cell phones, simplistic computers,
and bouncy horses that wirelessly
interact with the television screen help-
ing them learn many Kindergarten
readiness skills and basic reading and
math skills. They are starting very, very
young with interactive screens and
high resolution graphics as forms of
play and learning. It behooves parents
and educators to adapt to their expec-
tations as they continue to emerge into
latency and adolescent developmental
stages. We need to use technology as
a medium for learning. Otherwise, kids
will be bored and less engaged in the
learning process. I once had a very
bright, tech savvy 16 year old say to
me, “Dr. Osit, when I go to school I
have to power down.” What he meant
was, that he found the classes so bor-
ing that he had to adjust his brain to a
slower input rate so that he could learn
the material. His brain, like the brain of
today’s infants and children, is being
trained and programmed for stimula-
tion via screen input.
Today’s youth spends too much time in
front of screens and parents certainly
need to set better limits with video
game play, computer and Internet use,
social media time, and cell phone use.
They are all part of the child’s world,
even from infancy. It is what they look
for and expect. It is not realistic or even
prudent to insulate them from technol-
ogy. That would handicap them educa-
tionally and socially. But if we can
guide their use of these tech toys and
vehicles facilitating social life in an edu-
cational manner, we will be meeting
our kids half way. I don’t see that we
have a choice.
Dr. Osit is a psychologist and author of
“
Generation Text: Raising Well Adjust-
ed Kids In An Age Of Instant Every-
thing.”
He has offices in Warren and
Morristown. For questions and com-
ments: Dr.Michael.Osit@Gmail.Com.
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