Stop dragging kids away from their screens | Hacker News Reader

Stop dragging kids away from their screens

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12 pointsspdionis11 comments

My wife keeps showing me studies of how a certain amount of hours per day of television correlates with retardation in children. This retardation was measured by being intellectually behind in development by 6 months to 1 year.

My kids don't watch TV. This opinion piece is lacking in facts. It all comes down to an empirical argument about the author's many generations of family always being worried about too much screen time.

I'm not at all refuting what you're saying. I believe it.

I do want to say, however, that from my limited understanding it's more likely not the negative effects of television itself, but more a lack of positive influence. That is, time spent watching television is time spent not engaging in more creative pastimes typical to children of that age. Things like play, exercise, socializing, and testing limits in various ways.

Almost any resource on brain development and function will spell out that the early years of childhood are the most crucial, and development during that time will influence your development throughout the rest of your life.

I mean, without diving deeper and finding real resources, I'll predict that there's no special poison that makes television so detrimental, it's the displacement of other positive stimuli in childhood.

I didn't read your other sources, don't have the time presently -- is this generally apt? Or are they more pointed than my take?

Truthfully I didn't read the source material myself. I just took my wife's word for it, but it's entirely possible that too much TV time is due to apathetic parenting. It is also possible that television somehow delays certain parts of a developing brain.

Certainly. It's probably something worth looking into. Regardless, watching a lot of television will influence the development of a child's brain. This could be in the form of moral instruction, social norms, cultural affectations, and more. Also it takes little physical coordination to watch television (from a high-level viewpoint)

Could you link to the study in question? Right off the top of my head it could be that children who are left to sit in front of the TV all day and night do not have actively engaged parents(reading to them, taking interest in their schoolwork, providing stimulating activities etc) which could easily explain their lagging behind the average.

This page is a good starting point to dive into a number of studies: http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/articles/policy-briefs/in...:

UCI is a non-profit, whose board is composed of very qualified childhood health professionals/researchers: http://www.urbanchildinstitute.org/about-us/board-of-directo...

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"Infant exposure to television has been linked to delayed language development and kindergarten readiness skills."

Christakis DA. Audible television and decreased adult words, infant vocalizations, and conversational turns: a population-based study. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 2009; 163(6): 554-558.

Zimmerman FJ, Christakis DA. Children’s television viewing and cognitive outcomes: a longitudinal analysis of national data. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 2005; 159(7):619-625.

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"Early exposure to TV has also been connected to attention disorders and sleep problems."

Schmidt ME, Pempek TA, Kirkorian HL, et al. The effects of background television on the toy play behavior of very young children. Child Development. 2008; 79: 1137-1151.

Thompson, DA, Christakis DA. The association between television viewing and irregular sleep schedules among children less than 3 years of age. Pediatrics. 2005; 116(4): 851-856.

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"TV use at age three has been linked to behavior problems and to long-term effects on social development, classroom engagement, and academic achievement."

Manganello JA, Taylor CA. Television exposure as a risk factor for aggressive behavior among 3-year-old children. Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. 2009; 163(11):1037-45.

Mistry KB, Minkovitz CS, Strobino, DM, et al. Children’s television exposure and behavioral and social outcomes at 5.5 years: Does timing of exposure matter? Pediatrics. 2007; 120: 762-769.

Pagani LS, Fitzpatrick C, Barnett TA, et al. Prospective associations between early childhood television exposure and academic, psychosocial, and physical well-being by middle childhood. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. 2010; 164(5): 425-431.

I would certainly follow, or even exceed, the AAP guidelines [1] (and I do, with my son). But the arguments about avoiding all screen time are eerily similar to anti-vaccine ones to my ear - in both cases, we have people who grew up as children doing exactly what they are now arguing against.

1: https://www.aap.org/en-us/about-the-aap/aap-press-room/Pages...

I would add that creating a false threshold will only train parents to ignore any warnings of a threshold, which could actually cause more harm.

Apps these days are purposefully design to be as addictive as possible. I wouldn't give my kid unlimited access to screens for the same reason I wouldn't give my kid unlimited access to candy or coffee or cocaine. Should we really encourage letting our children spend the most impressionable years of their lives in front of a screen? Playing computer games might stimulate a kid's brain to some extent, but a developing brain also needs physical activity. It's really not hard to see why ADHD is so prevalent in kids today. Non-stop instant gratification entertainment has a cost.

If I understood the point of the article correctly the author addressed this pretty well. Just like candy store employees were too sick of candy to bother stealing candy, the kids who are raised in an electronic environment are also desensitized to the addictive strategies.

People used to fear that the TV was going to be so addictive, but instead the generation that grew up with TV and was supposed to be so addicted to it never got addicted. Instead it's their parents and grandparents that have the TV playing at all times in the house.

Maybe you don't get addicted to tech that you grow up with because its just normal and routine. But its the previous generation that gets hooked and projects their fear.

There are other benefits to limiting the screens. My daughter is a bookworm due to the lack of TV and limited tablet time in our house, and I wouldn't change that for the world. She practices math for fun and already knows way more about the universe, oceans, music, and comic books than any kid her age should.

I did get her a kano computer recently, and she knows to use it for reasonable periods, and is a pretty good typist thanks to tux type.

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