Creating ADHD...

April 5, 2004

http://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=518206

Toddler TV Time May Shorten Attention Spans

Early exposure linked to focus problems by age 7, study finds

By E.J. Mundell

HealthDay Reporter

MONDAY, April 5 (HealthDayNews) -- Experts know too much TV is bad for older

kids, but it may also harm the attention spans of children as young as 1

year old, a new study suggests.

" We found that watching television before the age of 3 increases the chances

that children will develop attentional problems at age 7, " said study author

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, of the University of Washington, Seattle.

The study appears in the April issue of Pediatrics.

Experts estimate that between 4 percent and 12 percent of U.S. children may

be affected by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Many parents

may believe their children are just " born that way, " but the home

environment can also play a key role in the development of the disorder,

Christakis said.

" Nurture profoundly influences nature -- you're born with genetic

predispositions, and then your environment really shapes them, " he pointed

out. " There's every reason to believe that early experiences can profoundly

affect the brain. "

In most American homes, part of that " early experience " involves television

viewing. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation survey found an estimated 30

percent of U.S. kids under 2 years of age had a TV in their bedroom. And

more than a third of families -- 36 percent -- said they had their

televisions switched on " all the time. "

In their study, Christakis and his team examined data on nearly 1,300

children from a major government survey of children and youth. They compared

rates of TV watching during the first three years of life to the later

development of attention problems at age 7.

The researchers found that " for each additional daily hour of television

that young children watched on average, the risk of subsequently having

attentional problems [by age 7] was increased by almost 10, " Christakis

said. This means that 1- to 3-year-olds who watched eight hours of

television a day " would have an 80 percent higher risk or attentional

problems compared to a child who watched zero hours, " he explained.

According to the study, the average 1-year-old is exposed to about two hours

of TV a day, and that number rises to about 3.6 hours a day by 3 years of

age.

Christakis stressed the study could not conclude that children who watch TV

in infancy or as toddlers were at increased risk for ADHD because teacher

reports -- a key part of an ADHD diagnosis -- were not part of the

government data available. However, the results of tests used in the study

to diagnose attention problems tend to mirror those used to diagnose ADHD,

he said.

The study was also unable to dismiss the possibility that " even at age 1,

children who are predisposed to developing attentional problems are drawn to

television, " Christakis said. But he believes that hypothesis is " unlikely,

because we don't think of 1-year-olds as having attentional problems,

certainly not a clinically detectable one, " he added.

The question remains how television influences the developing mind. " Our

hypothesis is that it's the rapidity of image-change that's potentially

damaging to children's brains, " Christakis said. " They are experiencing

events unfolding in a surreal fashion -- this is not how life unfolds. "

And the trouble may extend beyond what parents think of as just " bad " TV.

" Even children's programming is not immune, because it exploits rapid

image-change to keep children engaged with the screen; it is part of what

makes it interesting, " Christakis said. " The question is -- is it good for

them? Our study suggests that it very well may not be. "

Christakis, a pediatrician at Seattle's Children's Hospital and Regional

Medical Center, tells all of the parents he works with that " they should not

let their child watch television during the first two years of life, and

subsequently they should exert extreme caution both with respect to the

amount and content. " That advice coincides with current guidelines issued by

the American Academy of Pediatrics.

There are plenty of other reasons to keep kids away from the TV, Christakis

said. " We know that for older kids, watching TV is associated with

aggression, with obesity, with inactivity, " he said. " And now we know that

for very young children, it may predispose them to attentional problems. "

Every year, the American Academy of Pediatrics tries to get children and

their parents off their living room sofas and away from the TV by launching

" TV-Turnoff " week, which this year is scheduled for April 19-25.

SOURCES: Dimitri Christakis, M.D., MDPH, Children's Hospital and Regional

Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle; April 2004 Pediatrics

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April 5, 2004