Watching too much TV can be bad for children

According to researchers at the Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Centre in Seattle, children under two years old should not be allowed to watch TV for any length of time, whereas older children should not watch TV for more than two hours a day.

This is because according to the research, every hour a child spends watching TV can contribute to a 10% increase possibility of a child developing attention deficit disorder. The researchers have observed 1345 children watching TV for three hours a day and concluded it led to a 30% increased changes of developing attention deficit disorder.

According to Dr Dimitri Christakis the brains of newborn babies are constantly developing at a very rapid rate during the first two to three years of life, therefore television can over stimulate the brain of newborns, as it releases too much information during a short period of time.

Over stimulation of the brain at a young age through television can lead to future problems at school, as school activities and homework require much less stimulation, which the child is not used to, as television programs for young children change image very quickly in order to keep children interested.

The research involved asking parents how often their children watch television, then the children’s behaviour at age seven was compared to the diagnose of attention deficit disorders. The children who watched most television at a very early age had 10% more chance of developing concentration problems, impulsiveness, restlessness as well as being easily confused.

The researchers of the University of Washington say that it is not clear how much television children under three can watch safely, but each hour spent in front of the television increases the risk of a child developing attention deficit disorder.

The number of children with attention deficit disorder in the US is between 3 and 5 percent, but the researchers confessed that it is hard to tell if children with attention problems are more prone to be attracted to the television anyway. Also parents’ views of their children behaviour may not be absolute accurate, which can affect the outcome of the research.

Source: BBC website

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