Boggle

[judith_s]

According to a bit on NPR (about TV and ADD), the average one year old watches 2.24 hours of television per day. I'm stunned. Andrew has watched a total of about 45 minutes of TV, 15 minutes oriented toward him and about 30 minutes of being in the same room with a TV at my parents. Apparently, by age three, the average viewing time goes up to 3.36 hours. And 34 percent of 3 year olds have televisions in their own room.

Am I out of touch or is this just scary? Both Charles and I grew up in relatively TV-free households, and we don't plan on exposing Andrew to television for at least another year or so. American Association of Pediatrics recommends no TV before age 2.

Oh, and the study that triggered this showed a 20% increase in ADD-related disorders in kids who watched TV before age 2. Of course, this was a relatively small sample set, survey based study, so it's probably not worht much... but it's an interesting area of exploration nontheless.

Comments

[selkiediver.livejournal.com]

It makes you wonder what parents of old did with their children when there was no television, eh? Well, you know since you do not have a television. (:

Controlling for factors in the violence studies is a challenge. I honestly don't remember how it was done other than trying to get a varied sample. That is to say, children of different socio-economic levels, etc. I know that boys and girls were studied. also, different age levels (kids who started seeing violent tv at 10 did not tend to be more violent later on. Also, girls did not show the same patterns as boys. The other challenge in that study was that it was longitudinal, so they followed the same kids over at least 10 years.

I'll see if I can find the reference again. I read it at least several months ago...