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Exposing the Damage: TV and Kids
by Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC
Dynamic Vision
There are millions of young children in this country who are being horribly mistreated by their
parents.
These parents aren’t physically abusing their young children, and they may not even know that
they’re mistreating them.
The mistreatment?
Millions of kids under the age of two are watching TV in this country. In fact, according to a study
by the Kaiser Family Foundation of over 1,000 parents, about 65% of kids under age two are
watching TV, and they’re averaging over two hours of watching a day.
They’re watching even though the American Academy
of Pediatrics recommends no TV for kids under age two. They’re watching even though this is a
crucial period for their cognitive development, at an age when their brains are still being formed.
And the news for these kids just got worse.
Scientists at Children's Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle who studied over 2,500
children found a link between early TV watching and attention problems at a later age.
Specifically, the chances of one and three-year-old kids developing attention problems at age seven
increased by 10% for every hour of TV watched each day.
The information from these two studies creates a chilling picture of what’s happening to millions
of toddlers in this country. It’s unfair, immoral, and unjust, and it needs to be addressed.
If you’re the parent of a young child, you need to know this information.
There are about nine million children who take prescription medication for ADHD in this country.
The number of kids who take ADHD medication has been doubling every two years. And while TV
certainly isn’t the culprit in all of these cases, the link between the number of attention problems
and the amount of TV watched is undeniable.
The days of the “harmless” argument for TV and kids needs to be put to rest. Parents need to be
educated about the very real possibility of causing future attention problems with their kids.
And young kids across this country need to be given a fighting chance.
Mark Brandenburg MA, CPCC, coaches men to be better fathers and husbands. He is the author of
“25 Secrets of Emotionally Intelligent Fathers” http://www.markbrandenburg.com/father.htm.
Sign up for his FREE bi-weekly newsletter, “Dads, Don’t
Fix Your Kids,” at http://www.markbrandenburg.com.
This article provided by the Family Content Archives at: http://www.Family-Content.com
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