Why Kids Are Struggling

Something has shifted in childhood, and you don’t need a research paper to see it. Teachers feel it, pediatric providers see it, and parents are living it at home: more attention problems, bigger emotional swings, sensory overload, clumsiness, anxiety, and a constant sense that kids are struggling to regulate. I’m Dr. Enrico Dolchkori, and I walk through a nervous system centered way to understand what’s happening without blaming parents or labeling kids as broken. 

We dig into early childhood brain development and why the first seven years matter so much. The human brain is wired through movement, sensory input, and real-world play, yet modern childhood has fewer chances to climb, run, balance, explore, and even get bored. Then we layer in the modern environment: heavy screen time and digital stimulation, overscheduling and chronic stress, and sleep deprivation that quietly erodes attention, learning, and emotional control. If you’re searching for answers around ADHD, anxiety, autism, or sensory processing challenges, this conversation helps you connect the dots back to regulation and development. 

We also get practical. We talk primitive reflexes and what retained reflexes can look like, plus simple movement-based strategies that support coordination, focus, and mood. You’ll leave with clear, doable priorities: daily activity that PE can’t replace, reducing screen exposure especially before age five, protecting consistent bedtimes, and getting outdoors because nature supports attention and emotional health. 

If this helps, subscribe, share it with a family who needs hope, and leave a review so more parents can find it. What’s the one change you’re willing to try this week?

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Transcript

Why Childhood Health Is Shifting

SPEAKER_00 0:29

Something is changing in childhood health. Teachers see it, the pediatricians see it, and parents feel it. Today we're talking about what's happening with children's nervous systems and why so many kids are struggling. Welcome to another episode of Living a Full Life Podcast. I'm Dr. Enrico Dolchkori. And this week we're talking about the kids and this generation and raising kids. This isn't about blaming parents at all. It's about understanding the environment kids are growing up in. It's coming to the surface in the last probably 12 months of all the things we've been talking about for the last 30 years, the things that may have been stressing our children. And I hope it continues to surface because parents are starting to see it. And we want to help our kids. We all do. I think as a society, everyone wants to help children be the next best generation. So kids are facing challenges, and these challenges are rising significantly. ADHD prevalence. I remember growing up in the 80s and 90s, and ADD was talked about. And children, it's increased to about 11% of kids between the ages of 3 to 17. One in 10 children are having being diagnosed with ADHD. Anxiety, depression among children increased dramatically during the last 10 years. And autism prevalence is now approximately 1 in 36 in the United States. Whether you're a parent, a teacher, a healthcare provider, it's clear that more children today are struggling with attention, emotional regulation, sensory processing, and motor development. And it all comes from understanding the developing brain. Such a tender time in our lives that can never be bought back. As humans, and when I teach my classes and workshops and seminars and guests speak about the nervous system at schools or wherever I may be, I always start off with talking about how the human brain develops compared to our mammalial friends. When an elephant or a zebra or a horse or a cow or any type of mammals you can think of give birth to their offspring, they will fall to the ground. Pretty amazing. A giraffe. I mean, if you watch any of the Discovery Channel, you'll see this. That's something we sacrifice as humans. We sacrifice that ability. Because our brains take 24 months to develop motor function. Meaning from the time of conception to nine, 10 months when we're finally birthed, that's the first nine to 10 months of development of the brain. And then we still have another year, another 14 months of development to get motor function and coordination down. This is why we don't start to move or crawl until about six months. And we're definitely not walking until about a year old. So we're more susceptible as men as humans than our other counterparts of being prey. I mean, a little infant baby can't do much. A predator could come in and take us at any time. So that's a small price we've paid in our development and history to have a larger frontal cortex and be one of the smartest, if not the smartest, beings on earth. It's uh it's a pretty good thing because we're smart enough to protect our young. So I like to teach that because we have to understand how the brain develops. And the brain develops rapidly in the first seven years of life. We're not done when we start walking. That's motor function. That's just to follow mama. It takes us 24 months just to learn how to follow mom and be safe behind her with motor function. It takes seven years for the human brain to develop into full perplexity. Movement plays a major role in this brain development. And sensory input shapes the neural pathways. Early brain development and the environment, from Sean Kauff and Phillips in 2000, from uh Neurons to Neighborhoods, the science of early childhood development said a child's brain is incredibly adaptable, but it's also highly influenced by the environment. That is the undertone of today's podcast. The environment we grow up in is plays a critical role in how our brains develop. What has changed in the last 25 years compared to all the other generations before us? Well, let's let's do 50 years because I had technology as well. Oh, I just gave you the answer. Um, growing up. So over the last 50 years, compared to the last 2,000 years, what has changed? Technology. Technology has changed, it's completely changed our environment. Uh, for all the generations before us, from the baby boomers before some of you have grandparents that still are alive, that they grew up in this in this world, an ancient world of you wake up, you tend to the farm. You had a backyard, a huge yard, your house, small house, big yard. Now we have big houses, small yards, and you'd grow stuff, you'd have animals, like you'd be responsible because you have to eat and you have to do something, you have to sell stuff. And it was typically meat, produce. Uh, that was what most people did was sold, sold produce and and meat. It was the major thing, or you had a specialty, or you were a mechanic and you fixed stuff or or whatever it may be. The world has changed. So the modern lifestyle factors that are affecting kids now that we don't have before is that we didn't have to go out there and move. We had to go out there and move. We had to go out there and milk a cow. We had to go out there and get the chickens. We had to go out there and you know, herd a few sheep. We had to we had to do stuff. We had to go get the eggs. We had to, we were told to do stuff at like three years old, four years old. Go out there, go grab some eggs, go get your hands dirty. Um, so the average kid now spends four to seven hours a day on screens. It's so hard being a pediatric chiropractor. It is so difficult in this day and age combating this epidemic of screen time. I don't know what to do, I don't know what to say, I don't know what to blow up, I don't know who to assassinate. I have no clue. I don't know how to fix this. Excessive screen time is linked with attention and behavioral problems. The data is in, there's really no more reason for us to do any more research on this. It is unanimous that the excessive screen time is linked to behavioral issues, which means it's affecting the brain's synaptic potentials. In 2018, interactive media use and young children from Chris Stakus uh et al. That was done about eight years ago. The brain evolved to learn through movement, interaction, and real-world play, not constant digital stimulation. Right? There was a major shift in these last two generations to this constant stimulation. Our brains are completely changed in how we develop. Children move way less today than previous generations. They're taking out of the PE system. I used to have in the late 80s and early 90s, and through the 90s, a rope in the gym. You had to climb this rope. No one thought about a kid falling. Like they were like, that wasn't even a concern. They're like, why would you fall? You got to climb the rope. Like, don't fall, climb the rope. They don't have ropes anymore. We had to do chin-ups. Remember, we had to count and do how many push-ups and chin-ups you had to do, like in like fifth grade. Stuff's not there anymore. We had to run laps, you had to do this stuff. My kids come home and complain all the time. They made us run laps. Like, good. How many? 50, 60? They're like, three, three laps. Go run another 30. And they just look at me. So children move way less, and movement is so crucial for balance, coordination, and brain development. Uh, a great one. This is outdated now. I mean, 2008 uh article I remember referencing in my studies was the revolutionary new science of exercise in the brain. It's 18 years old now, revolutionary science. Uh, at that time, I guess, in the in the 2000s, but Ratley, JJ, and Spark wrote articles on how movement directly affects the brain. And even though the research has been out there for 50 years before that, they were tying it back into kinesiology and movement and how kinesiologists changed. So, up in most parts of the world, use physiotherapists in Canada and Europe. And many of them are trained in kinesiology with full body motion. And it really revolutionized how we started to move that and brought pediatrics into physical therapy. And ever since then, I mean, you see athletes, young athletes in physical therapy all the time now for movement, mainly for injuries. But still, that's where the research kind of led to that movement and then turning movement into therapy. We've moved so little that we now have to go to physical therapists or hire personal trainers to help us move. Move what your body was designed to do. You have to have someone tell you how to do it. Interesting. Um, children are experiencing the most highest levels of stress now than ever before, and it's only getting worse. Chronic stress is a real thing in our in our children. They're overscheduled. These kids are busier than some adults. Academic pressure on top of that, family stresses in a household that you know may have some stress and digital overstimulation. And these kids don't even get a break to be kids. And this chronic stress affects brain areas like the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala. Stress effects on brain structure and function long term can happen with chronic stresses on these parts of the brain. If we start to stress the amygdala, the fight or flight center or the fear center of the brain, we can have major issues with fear and anxiety around that. And that can happen between the ages of two and five. Those stressful years can happen that. And then the prefrontal cortex can help, can stagnate or diminish the child's ability for academics, for reading, writing, and then reverbalizing. So testing. And long story short, testing. So prefrontal cortex testing, amygdala anxiousness, and this is all from the lack of movement and chronic stress. So that's how important these two things are: minimizing the stress in our kids, letting them choose the things that they want to do, not forcing them to do these things, not overbooking them. Um, my what my youngest does five nights a week of dance. And I my wife and I always look at her, I was like, she enjoys it. She truly does. And she's thriving academically. And from what I can think of, from my parent lenses, my kids are perfect, right? Of course. All of our kids are perfect. But we think about that. We're like, is that a lot compared to my other two who do one night a week of uh stuff? Um, so you you got to keep your finger on the pulse with your children on that and make sure we're not over-stimulating them. The TV is on uh, you know, uh more than I like. Uh iPads are not allowed, you know, these these screens we try and minimize these things. And we do a lot of hands-on stuff. As much as I hate the slimes and the play-dows and the glitter, and it keeps them busy. And boy, using their hands is way better than screen time. So I'm all about cleaning up messes if that helps their brains. And they're parents, they have two chiropractors as parents. I mean, they're they're lucky kids on top of that. We'll get into that in a minute. Sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation. You think kids sleep like babies, right? But many kids are sleeping one to two hours less than the previous generations in all the time frames. Under the age of five, children should be getting 12 to 14 hours of sleep per day under the age of five. So once they start getting to VPK in kindergarten, their schedules start to change a little bit. They should be getting about 10 to 12 hours. And then as they increase through elementary, um, they still want to be aiming for that 10 hours. But by the end of elementary and junior high, they want to be getting that eight to 10. So they can go down to eight. Kids are getting six in like third grade, going to bed late, waking up at 6 a.m., go to bed at 11 p.m. They're just not getting the right sleep schedule. And what ends up happening with poor sleep is that it affects their attention, their emotional regulation, and their learning. Insufficient sleep in adolescence, and that's from Owens uh from JAMA in 2014. Primitive reflexes and neurological development. Now you're talking my expertise. Primitive reflexes are autonomic movements present at birth. So when a baby's born, you can do these cool little reflexes with them. You can do the cheek reflex where you rub their cheek really quick and it's a rooting reflex, and their mouth will root towards their thinking it's the nipple or food. And that usually disappears by about six months. You can stroke the bottom of their foot almost like a tickle, and their toe will go into like their big toe or all their toes will go into like this extension, and that's the Babinsky reflex, and that's gone by about six months as well. You can stroke their back if you hold them on their tummy and quickly stroke their back, you get the moral reflex, uh, or sorry, the gallant reflex. And if you clap your hands, you get that startle reflex where their hands go up uh and they're get startled. And that's usually gone by about three months. And we use these reflexes to monitor children as they age. So once they're older. So once they're one year old, I still do all those things. They're two years old. I just did it on a 13-year-old uh yesterday. Uh, I do it on adults, 40-year-olds, I'll be adjusting their back and I'll quickly touch and they'll have the startle reflex still there that should have been gone 40 years ago. These retained reflexes, these retained primitive reflexes, um integrate as the brain matures. But if they persist, children and even adults, children will show poor coordination, difficulty focusing, sensory sensitivity, emotional dysregulations. We'll get parents that have two, three kids, and they'll be like, hey, my middle one's clumsy compared to my other two athletes. They're not clumsy, they've got retained reflexes, poor coordination. So reflexes give us a view into the learning and behavior trajectory of our children. And and therapies can help integrate these reflexes. So, and guess what the therapies are? Movement-based exercises to help the brain prune and create new synapses and new trajectories for balance, coordination, learning, emotional control, emotional regulation. Then the list just keeps going on. So, what can parents do today in this day and age for for their children and for hope that you know things are gonna be a-okay? Number one is encourage more movement. It's the biggest restriction in this generation right now is movement. PE does not suffice. They have to be doing daily activity. Now, do you have to sign them up for everything? Tennis, dance, karate, everything. No, you don't. But they do have to play outside after school every single day. They have to go ride their bike, ride some scooters, do something, play in the house. If you live up in the winter areas, something inside the home, um, a gym, whatever. You gotta you gotta make space for this. They have to move. They absolutely have to move. Climbing, running, balance activities. You can have some uh balance beams in the house, you can have some jungle gyms, you can have some uh spinners, you can have some bosu balls, you can have some make it fun, uh rebounding trampoline, the small ones that are about four foot wide. Um, and they have to get on those things and they have to move every single day. Reduce screen exposure, especially before the age of five. These you get these kids that are like nine months old sitting in their stroller, and there's the phone mount right there, and they're looking at bright colors from an iPhone or or a smartphone at nine months old. Why? What happened to the little rattler that just hung from there and they could try and reach and and rattle it? Um these screens, the I'm telling you, it's the it's the burden of this generation. Prioritize sleep, consistent bedtimes. This is a non-negotiable. My 11-year-old is now starting to give us a little bit of pushback. Uh, probably over the last year, ever since she turned 10. She's like, Dad, my friends go to bed like at 11. I'm like, we we go upstairs at 7 p.m. and get ready for bed. We do bath time, and by the time we're in bed, it's eight. She's like, I know, but they're they're going to bed like at 10. I'm like, they must, I don't know, they must not have read JAMA from 2008 about primitive reflexes. Their parents must not know what's going on there. And so since the day she's born, uh 7 p.m., we go upstairs. And it's just been her every single day. Every single I probably count the amount of days that we were either traveling or doing something else where she stayed up late. Uh, and so that means our nine-year-old is the same and our seven-year-old is the same. 7, 7 p.m. We go upstairs, it's bath time, brush teeth, read a book, go to bed. And we don't break that because once you know this information as a parent, it's almost like a little bit of a burden. It's like once you know, it's like, uh-oh, knowledge is power. I can't ignore that. If I do, I'm ignoring it's not ignorance as a parent now. It's like, I find but I know what's right. And if I don't do it, I will be doing wrong. So I can see why some people ignore information, but ignorance is bliss, and there's a reason for that. So let's not be blissful, let's be smart, especially with our children. So outdoor time, you got to make time for it. Nature improves attention and emotional health. There's so much out there. It's it's amazing watching them play at these ages. You know, I've been watching them play for 12 years, and each and then the little things that the 12-year-old will still do with the seven-year-old. They'll find some acorns, they want to crack them open, they want to see what bugs are inside, or if there's any birds, or if the squirrels are getting them. Uh, they want to crush the berries on some of the plants. I mean, they're picking up sticks, they're looking at different leaves and what trees they're from. There's a lot of stuff out there that kids just naturally enjoy. Nature is God's medicine. It's the world's medicine for a lot of people. Nature exposure and improved attention in children comes from a lot of research out there. And the spine and nervous system play a role in the brain-body communication with this as well. So that's why movement plays such a huge role in this as well. So, lots to think about. But those are some rules that we have to stick by with screen exposure, bedtimes, sleep, and movement that we need to implement back into children's lifestyle. If we sit here and depend on the government, the government has failed us for the last 30 years with the food pyramid, with the movement guidelines, with the exercise guidelines, with the cafeteria food in all the schools, they continue to fail. Uh, just because a couple things have changed recently gives us a little bit of hope. They're still failing us. It's up to you to do this. You can't put this all on the teachers and on the system. Uh, they're the teachers are not the children's parents. You are. And yes, they care for your kids, and but they can't care for your kids more than you. So it is our our duty as parents to know these rules. And now that you've listened to this podcast, you now know. So you can't let your kids be on screens for five to seven hours a day. That is ludicrous. But remember, kids are not broken. Our kids today are not broken, they're treated as if they're broken. Everyone's coming in looking for a diagnosis. I'm like, what? There is no diagnosis. Your kid's fine. Most of the time, your kids are fine. The nervous system, their nervous system is simply developing in a very different environment than previous generations. We have to accept that. It's our fault for allowing this. We need to encourage connection, movement, outdoor play, and nervous system support. Yes, we adjust kids. Why do we adjust kids? To help their nervous system regulate better. If their nervous system regulates better, they regulate better. Emotional regulation, motor function, sensory function, all these things start to happen a lot quicker, along with movement therapy. So many kids regulate so much better. And I believe half of the parents and families that we help, when they come in and have a discussion like this, they're like, oh my gosh. The hope that comes to them and the understanding that, oh, kids are not broken, brings such an ease on the entire family that they walk out better because of the emotional stress that they were all going through, thinking that something was wrong. Like, oh, it's not. It's our environment is super stressful. Just living life in 2026 is stressful. Like, holy smokes. What can we cut out and replace for our entire family to make our lives less stressful? And just that. I didn't even touch them. I didn't even adjust them. We didn't even do anything. And the hope that we bring helps them be better on that. Thanks for tuning in. Share this with families. Families that you know may need to hear this. And our nervous system regulation programs that we have in our office have helped so many kids. If you need any information, info at fulllifetampa.com. Reach out to us. If you're in the Tampa area, we'd love to help you. If you're anywhere else, email us and say, I'm in Baltimore. Do you know anyone up here? Yes. We will find you somebody and send it to you within 24 hours. You can give them a call. Sometimes I give you two or three clinics you can choose and pick the best one that fits your family best. We love doing that because then we know you're getting the right attention that will help you and your family. So we're here for you for a whole bunch of things. Thanks for tuning in. Stay well, stay healthy, and I'll catch you next week.