Brain Studies: Limiting Screen Time (Internet, TV, Games) Crucial for Reading, Health, Learning.

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Brain Studies, from The Pediatric Partners, P. A.

There is no Substitute for Reading or Listening to a Book with your children.

Two Students Not Reading Core Knowledge Books

Despite advertising describing how babies can learn to read by watching certain DVDs or kids can learn to read with computer software, research shows that this is not an effective means of promoting language development, and might be detrimental. These “educational” DVDs and computer software have the following problems:

  • When parents and kids interact with electronic console books, parents are less likely to use the kind of verbal interactions that promote literacy. They tend to talk more about behavior (“can you click on this?”) and less about responding to content (“what is the boy going to do next?”)
  • When children read from electronic console books, they spend more time pushing buttons than reading the story, which results in poorer character identification, less story comprehension, and more impoverished parent-child interaction than reading from traditional books.

Limiting Total Screen Time (Internet, TV, Video Games) is Crucial.

  • Before age 3… the amount of TV viewing before age 3 has been associated with new yorker Kill Your TV coverproblems in reading recognition, reading comprehension, and being able to remember sequences at age 6.
  • Children… who spend less time watching TV in early years tend to do better in school, have a healthier diet, be more physically active, and be better able to engage in schoolwork in later elementary school.
  • Teens… who watch 3 or more hours of TV daily are at especially high risk for poor homework completion, negative attitudes about school, poor grades, and academic failure.
  • Boys… who spend more time playing video games spend less time on academics and have lower reading and writing scores.

Victoria L Dunckley, M. D., states:

  • “Neuroimaging research shows excessive screen time damages the brain. Taken together, [studies show] internet addiction is associated with structural and functional changes in brain regions involving emotional processing, executive attention, decision making, and cognitive control.”

–(Lin & Zhou et al, 2012)

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