A few months ago on Instagram, we ran into a ton of posts about how you can’t parent Gen A kids like they did in the 90’s because they have a different nervous system.

We thought it was an interesting claim; despite that when “influencers” copy the same material word-for-word, it’s usually a sign of clickbait. They even referred to kids having a “Digital Nervous System”, living in a high-speed brain environment.

So we thought about what the goal of these posts could be:
Do they mean that an entire generation of kids are pretty much shaky chihuahuas?
Do they want us to go full analog?
Is this another parenting style subgroup? One article called it the “SmartPlow Parent”.
Is something wrong with their actual nerves/nervous system, or are they trying to tie everything back to stress response and self-regulation?
How much of this is blame vs. a cautionary tale?

Like all things OT, all of these are connected. They talk about the neuro effects of screentime, ripple effects on behavior and physical development, coping and building resilience, emotional intelligence, going outside, unstructured and risky play, and so on.

So on our ever-growing list of parenting to-dos, do we need to add “keep our kids from becoming rabid adult chihuahuas”?
Maybe instead of setting our kids up for success in the traditional sense, we focus more on being a good human.

Shaky Chihuahuas

Some people joke that Gen Alpha is on overload: wired, alert, and easily overstimulated.  While it’s exaggerated, it reflects how their nervous systems run hotter in a fast‑paced digital world. The reason is because their nervous systems are developing in a world of constant digital stimulation, which research shows is reshaping their regulation, attention, sensory processing, and stress responses.

Generation Alpha, born between 2010 to 2024, is the first cohort whose nervous systems developed entirely in the presence of smartphones, tablets, streaming, etc. This matters because the nervous system is most plastic from birth to age 7, and the environment during those years literally wires the brain. In this case, their brains are adapting to an environment that is fast, bright, interactive, and always “on.”

But adaptation has trade-offs. Studies have highlighted several consistent patterns:

• “Visually hyper-stimulated and vestibularly under-challenged”. Coined by optometrist Dr. Sam Berne, so much of Gen A’s daily experience happens in near‑screen focus rather than through whole‑body movement, their nervous systems adapt accordingly. This combination is associated with a narrowed peripheral visual field, a heightened arousal state that keeps the body closer to “fight‑or‑flight,” shallow upper‑chest breathing, and a greater tendency toward sensory overwhelm when demands stack up. Remember our older post on Cocomelon?
  
  
• Conditional attention.  Gen A’s brains have been shaped to expect immediate feedback, a feeling of agency, and opportunities to actively participate rather than simply receive information. That means they can hyperfocus for long stretches when a task is interactive and gives them a sense of control, like Minecraft or Roblox, but their focus drops off quickly with passive content or non‑interactive teaching.
  
  
• Easily disrupted executive function. Rapid, non-interactive screen input temporarily throws off the brain’s executive skills, making it harder to plan ahead, control impulses, and adapt to changes.
  
  
• Language and social-emotional circuits develop differently. This is true when screens replace real interaction. They cut down the natural back‑and‑forth conversational turns that fuel early language development, and as children get older, social media exposure is associated with higher anxiety, weaker emotional regulation, and greater difficulty interpreting nonverbal cues.
  
  
• Higher stress levels and dysregulated sleep. Chronic near‑screen focus and limited time outdoors keep the sympathetic nervous system more activated, raising baseline stress. Evening screen use disrupts melatonin production and sleep quality. This cascades into challenges with mood regulation, learning consolidation, and the body’s overall stress response.

While this sounds like all sorts of bad, Generation Alpha isn’t “broken”.  They’re neurologically adapted to a digital world that previous generations were never shaped by. Their brains are tuned for high pattern recognition, fast processing, creative fluency, and remarkable tech adaptability. At the same time, this same environment leaves them more vulnerable to sensory overload, anxiety, fragile executive function under stress, and a reduced tolerance for passive, non‑interactive learning.

A Different Type of Nervous (System)

Gen Alpha’s nervous systems are being wired differently, but not because their biology changed. If you want to feel better/more empathetic about it, our systems would adapt the exact same way if we were brought up in this environment. It’s a reflection of the time period, not necessarily the parenting.

The nervous system wires itself according to the environment it grows up in, and every generation’s brain adapts to the inputs it experiences most. Boomers were shaped by outdoor play, boredom, and long stretches of unstructured time. Us Millennials grew up with early internet access and constant multitasking. And for Gen Alpha, the current environment is literally shaping sensory thresholds, attention patterns, stress responses, executive function, and social‑emotional wiring. Thus, we have an entire generation of Boomers constantly wondering why everyone is going so fast.

But for such a claim to say that Gen A’s neural system is wired differently, there must be some sort of scientific evidence, right? Turns out, there are peer‑reviewed studies showing measurable brain changes in children with high screen exposure, and these findings support the idea that Gen Alpha’s nervous systems are wiring differently.

MRI studies show that when young children have high and frequent screen exposure, their brains develop differently in ways that match the type of input they’re getting. Instead of “damage,” researchers saw adaptations: differences in the white‑matter neural pathways that support language, attention, and executive function, along with thinner cortex in areas tied to impulse control and sensory processing. Some children also showed changes in reward‑center activation. These patterns were linked to challenges with language, self‑regulation, and sustained attention — especially when screen time replaced movement, play, and back‑and‑forth interaction.

This aligns with what we see clinically: Gen Alpha tends to be more visually driven, more reactive, more novelty‑oriented, and more sensitive to overload.

It’s important to note that none of these studies suggest that screens “damage” the brain. Instead, they show that the effects depend on how much, how often, and what kind of screen use a child gets. Interactive use looks different from passive watching, co‑viewing with adults improves outcomes, and regular movement, nature time, and social interaction help buffer any negative effects. Taken together, the nervous system differences we see are environmentally-shaped adaptations, not deficits.

Maybe a better way of looking at it is that their brain hardware is the same as yours and mine, but their iOS software is a different version, still in development and working out the bugs.

Analog Parenting

As research continues to highlight the downsides of an always‑on digital world, many parents are returning to a more “old‑school” approach by prioritizing real‑world play, movement, and face‑to‑face connection. This shift (now trending as analog parenting) means intentionally giving kids the kinds of experiences that build their nervous system through hands‑on exploration, boredom, nature, chores, and conversation rather than relying on fast‑paced digital input.

Analog parenting calls for:

• More outdoor play and unstructured time
• More face‑to‑face interaction and conversation
• More movement, sensory play, and real‑world problem‑solving
• Letting kids experience boredom so creativity can kick in. You don’t need to be the cruise director all the time.
• Using screens intentionally, not as the default

There’s even a resurgence of 90s toys and games, and the increasingly popular Tin Can corded phone.  At this rate, we’re just waiting for Blockbuster to make its comeback.

Additionally, schools are beginning to scale back one-to-one tablets, laptops, and digital textbooks in favor of print materials. This shift is partly driven by reports showing that Gen Z is the first generation in nearly a century to score lower on standardized cognitive measures than the generation before them. It’s the first documented intergenerational drop in almost 100 years, and it has prompted educators to reconsider how much digital learning kids actually need (more on that in a future post).

Because Gen Alpha is growing up in a world where digital input is constant, analog parenting helps protect the parts of development that screens cannot replace, including sensory integration, emotional regulation, executive function, and social skills.

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Sources:
Generation Alpha & the Nervous System: Why the Eyes Are the Gateway to Regulation | Dr. Sam Berne – Holistic Eye Care
Gen Alpha Behavior: Understanding the Digital Native Generation
The First Humans Raised by Algorithms : Generation Alpha | by Behavioral Psychologist | Medium
Pedersen, J., Rasmussen, M. G. B., Sørensen, S. O., Mortensen, S. R., Olesen, L. G., Brønd, J. C., Brage, S., Kristensen, P. L., & Grøntved, A. (2022). Effects of Limiting Recreational Screen Media Use on Physical Activity and Sleep in Families With Children. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(8). https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.1519
Gen Z’s IQ Scores Are Lower Than Millennials. Are Screens to Blame? – RELEVANT