Yay ha miy and the Colonization of Childhood
Yãy hã mĩy and the Colonization of Childhood
Human Behavior Map: from DNA to Body-Territory
Every child is born learning from the world.
Before explaining, the child observes.
Before arguing, the child imitates.
Before choosing, the child participates.
Childhood is the first great laboratory of life.
The Maxakali concept Yãy hã mĩy can be extended here as:
imitating-being in order to transcend-being.
A child imitates to form body, language, attention, gesture, affection, courage, fear, rhythm, belonging, and imagination. Later, with safety, bonds, and territory, the child begins to create a unique way of existing.
So the deepest question is not only:
What does the child learn?
The deeper question is:
Who is teaching the child how to be?
Childhood as Body-Territory in Formation
A child does not grow only inside a house.
A child grows inside a living field of influences: family, school, neighborhood, screens, music, food, sleep, play, teachers, nature, religion, social media, consumption, advertising, violence, care, and absence.
All of this enters the body.
All of this shapes attention, language, empathy, memory, emotional regulation, and the capacity to live with others.
The Human Behavior Map sees childhood as Body-Territory in formation.
The Colonization of Childhood
The colonization of childhood happens when living models of learning are weakened and replaced by systems of capture.
A child needs presence, faces, human voice, body movement, free play, nature, available adults, other children, and time without constant selling, performance, or attention capture.
Today, many childhood territories are occupied by algorithms, consumption, screens, advertising, fear, social comparison, and adult polarization.
Technology itself can serve development.
The key issue is proportion and mediation.
When screens replace the living body, Yãy hã mĩy changes teachers.
The child imitates less from people and territory, and more from digital flows designed to capture attention.
Algorithms as New Colonizers of Imitation
An algorithm does not need to love a child to teach something.
It only needs to capture time, predict behavior, and maintain engagement.
That is why childhood has become a strategic territory.
Markets dispute attention.
Politics disputes emotion.
Advertising disputes desire.
Polarization disputes fear.
Platforms dispute habit.
Meanwhile, the child’s body is trying to form language, empathy, focus, sleep, movement, and belonging.
Decolonial Neuroscience asks:
What kind of “being” is the child being taught to imitate?
A consumer being?
An anxious being?
A comparative being?
A being dependent on approval?
A polarized being?
Or a being capable of playing, thinking, creating, cooperating, and belonging?
Play as Cognitive Sovereignty
Play is one of the most sophisticated forms of childhood research.
Through play, children test roles, regulate emotions, imitate gestures, create rules, negotiate conflicts, measure strength, experiment with language, and discover possibilities.
Play is a full-body laboratory.
When children play with other children, they train Jiwasa: they learn that the “I” needs the “we” to build a world.
When children play in the territory, they train APUS: they feel space, distance, risk, balance, direction, texture, and movement.
When children play with present adults, they strengthen Yãy hã mĩy: they imitate living models and then transcend them.
Childhood, the Secular State, and Gestational Care
The minimum unit of a secular democratic state must be the Body-Territory.
This begins before school.
It begins with pregnancy care, maternal health, early bonding, family mental health, nutrition, sleep, economic security, and the environment where the child is born.
Without turning abortion into a political battlefield, we can affirm something essential:
Every country that wants a future must care better for pregnancy, early childhood, and early bonds.
Childhood should not be used as a moral display.
Childhood should be protected as a living national heritage.
Human Behavior Map for Childhood
A Human Behavior Map of childhood can integrate:
sleep, screens, nutrition, physical activity, free play, caregiver-child interaction, school, territory, emotional symptoms, attention, empathy, language, EEG, fNIRS/NIRS, HRV, breathing, and movement.
Instead of asking only whether a child “has a problem,” we begin to ask:
What ecosystem is forming this child?
Scientific References and Experimental Pathways
1. Borja et al. (Brain 2026) — screen use and internalizing symptoms at 36 months
This study analyzed internalizing symptoms in 36-month-old children and found significant associations with screen-use frequency, type of content, interactivity, and total screen-use score. Frequency was the most consistent domain associated with symptoms.
Connection to this blog: digital territory enters the child’s Body-Territory early and may compete with living Yãy hã mĩy.
Experimental question: when screens take the place of live interaction, what changes in attention and emotional regulation?
Experiment: EEG/fNIRS in children during caregiver interaction, physical play, outdoor play, and interactive screen exposure.
2. Rosa et al. (Brain 2026) — routine, emotions, and cognition in elementary school
This study with 228 children aged 6 to 11 showed associations between sleep, physical activity, nutrition, screens, focus, impulsivity, apathy, and social integration. Sleep quality was associated with impulsivity, apathy, and social integration; physical activity was related to focus and behavioral regulation; higher screen use correlated with increased apathy.
Connection to this blog: routine is the invisible territory shaping the child’s brain every day.
Experimental question: can school routines involving movement, sleep guidance, and conscious screen use improve prefrontal oxygenation and focus?
Experiment: prefrontal fNIRS during attention tasks before and after a school intervention involving routine, physical activity, and screen reduction.
3. Macarini, Pozzi & Bastos (Brain 2021) — electronics and physical activity in children aged 0 to 6
This study with 517 children showed increased screen time during the pandemic, early onset of screen use in part of the sample, and reduced daily physical activity.
Connection to this blog: when bodily territory shrinks and digital territory expands, childhood changes its models of imitation, movement, and belonging.
Experimental question: does less free bodily movement alter attention, sleep, and emotional regulation in early childhood?
Experiment: actigraphy + fNIRS + family questionnaires comparing children with high and low screen exposure and different levels of bodily play.
4. Oliveira et al. (Brain 2025) — early screen exposure and child cognition: meta-analysis
This meta-analysis included studies from 2020 to 2024 with 2,195 children aged 0 to 6 and found an association between early screen exposure and poorer cognitive performance, with a combined effect size of SMD = -0.49.
Connection to this blog: childhood needs balance between technology, body, bond, and living territory.
Experimental question: do passive content and interactive content produce different patterns of prefrontal activation?
Experiment: fNIRS during passive content, interactive educational content, and face-to-face play with an adult.
5. Bortolucci et al. (Brain 2025) — screen use and empathic skills in children and adolescents aged 7 to 14
This study discusses how excessive screen use may reduce face-to-face interactions, impair emotion recognition, and favor social isolation, investigating its impact on empathic skills.
Connection to this blog: empathy forms through presence, face, voice, body, and coexistence; this is Jiwasa in development.
Experimental question: does greater face-to-face interaction increase neural responses associated with emotion recognition?
Experiment: EEG/fNIRS during emotion-recognition tasks, comparing children with different screen-use profiles and levels of face-to-face interaction.
6. Brain 2025 study on ADHD and screen use
This review suggests that prolonged electronic-device use may aggravate inattention, impulsivity, hyperactivity, sleep difficulties, and social skills in children and adolescents with ADHD; it also highlights outdoor activities, non-digital play, and active family supervision as protective factors.
Connection to this blog: children with greater attentional vulnerability need more living, regulating, and predictable territories.
Experimental question: can outdoor activities reorganize prefrontal patterns in children with ADHD symptoms?
Experiment: fNIRS during executive-function tasks before and after an intervention involving outdoor play, light sports, and reduced screen exposure.
7. Schreiber et al. (Brain 2026) — video modeling and emotional self-regulation in autistic children
This pilot study investigated video modeling to teach problem-solving and emotional self-regulation strategies to autistic children aged 6 to 10.
Connection to this blog: imitation can also be used carefully and therapeutically when technology serves development rather than attention capture.
Experimental question: does video modeling with human mediation improve self-regulation more than non-mediated video exposure?
Experiment: EEG/fNIRS + behavioral measures during frustration tasks before and after video-modeling intervention supported by a therapist.
8. Busatto et al. (Brain 2023) — hospital playroom and child development
This experience report describes the hospital playroom as a space for health promotion, interaction, play, creativity, imagination, autonomy, and emotional regulation for hospitalized children and adolescents.
Connection to this blog: even during illness, play preserves cognitive and emotional sovereignty.
Experimental question: does structured play in hospitals reduce stress and improve social engagement?
Experiment: portable fNIRS + HRV before, during, and after playful sessions in pediatric settings.
9. Brain 2023 studies on childhood trauma and pregnancy
Brain 2023 works associate childhood trauma and domestic violence with psychiatric suffering and outcomes related to pregnancy and care.
Connection to this blog: caring for childhood begins before childhood, through gestational, family, and territorial care.
Experimental question: does gestational and family support improve bonding and emotional regulation during the first year of life?
Experiment: longitudinal follow-up with bonding scales, mother-infant HRV, sleep, mother-baby interaction, and fNIRS during simple social tasks.
How to Transform This Evidence into Public Policy
If you are running for President of Brazil
Propose a National Yãy hã mĩy Program for Early Childhood, integrating SUS, schools, social assistance, culture, sports, science, DREX Citizen, and digital protection so every child has time, body, bond, play, and living territory to develop.
If you are running for the Senate
Propose a Legal Framework for the Protection of the Child Body-Territory, recognizing pregnancy, early childhood, sleep, play, nature, family bonds, digital care, and mental health as strategic foundations of the secular democratic state.
If you are running for Governor
Create State Centers for Child Development and Human Behavior Map, connecting universities, schools, children’s hospitals, EEG/fNIRS laboratories, parks, and municipalities to study and strengthen healthy routines, play, physical activity, and conscious screen use.
If you are running for Federal Deputy
Allocate resources to multicenter research on screens, childhood, sleep, physical activity, emotional development, neurodevelopment, empathy, play, and self-regulation, using EEG, fNIRS, HRV, and territorial assessment.
If you are running for State Deputy
Support pilot projects in schools, daycare centers, pediatric hospitals, and communities to create childhood territories with more play, movement, coexistence, nature, digital safety, and belonging.
Sentences for a Government Plan
Every child needs to imitate real life before being captured by algorithms.
Protecting childhood means protecting the first Body-Territory of the nation: where Brazil learns to feel, think, coexist, and create its future.
A mature childhood policy integrates pregnancy, care, school, territory, science, DREX Citizen, and digital protection so every child can imitate, belong, and transcend-being.
Plan de Gobierno para Todo Cuerpo-Territorio
Government Plan for Every Body-Territory
Plano de Governo para Todo Corpo-Território
Human Behavior Map y Juventud 2026
Human Behavior Map and Youth 2026
Human Behavior Map e Juventude 2026
Enmiendas, Partidos y la Corrupción de la Pertenencia
Earmarks, Political Parties and the Corruption of Belonging
Emendas, Partidos e a Corrupção do Pertencimento
Tekoha, APUS y el Derecho a Vivir Donde el Cuerpo Respira
Tekoha, APUS and the Right to Live Where the Body Breathes
Tekoha, APUS e o Direito de Viver Onde o Corpo Respira
Jiwasa: Cuando el Yo Solo Existe en el Nosotros
Jiwasa: When the I Exists Only Within the We
Jiwasa: Quando o Eu Só Existe no Nós
Cuerpo-Territorio como Unidad Mínima del Estado Laico
Body-Territory as the Minimum Unit of the Secular State
Corpo-Território como Unidade Mínima do Estado Laico
Créditos de Carbono y Bosque en Pie como Economía Viva
Carbon Credits and Standing Forest as a Living Economy
Crédito de Carbono e Floresta em Pé como Economia Viva
DREX Ciudadano como Metabolismo del Estado
DREX Citizen as the Metabolism of the State
DREX Cidadão como Metabolismo do Estado
De la Patria de la Obediencia a la Patria de la Pertenencia
From a Homeland of Obedience to a Homeland of Belonging
Da Pátria da Obediência à Pátria do Pertencimento
El Solsticio y la Colonización del Calendario
The Solstice and the Colonization of the Calendar
O Solstício e a Colonização do Calendário
Yãy hã mĩy y la Colonización de la Infancia
Yãy hã mĩy and the Colonization of Childhood
Yãy hã mĩy e a Colonização da Infância
La Colonización de la Pertenencia
A Colonização do Pertencimento
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