2004-4-14
This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English Education
Report.
A new study suggests that very young children who watch a lot of
television may have attention problems later in school.
Children with attention problems cannot sit still or control
their actions. They talk too much, lose things, forget easily and
are not able to finish tasks.
People with attention problems may
suffer a condition known as Attention Deficit Disorder, or A.D.D.
Experts say the cause of A.D.D involves chemicals in the brain.
Teachers say many children in the United States are showing signs of
the disorder. Some education researchers have been saying for years
that watching television at a very young age could change the normal
development of the brain. For example, they say that children who
watch a lot of television are not able to sit and read for an
extended period of time.
The new study tested the idea that television watching by very
young children is linked to attention problems by the age of seven.
It involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred children. There
were two groups of children, ages one and three. Researchers at
Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle,
Washington reported the results in the publication Pediatrics. They
asked the parents how often the children watched television. The
parents also described their children's actions at the age of seven
using a method that can tell if someone suffers attention deficit
disorders.
The children who watched a lot of television at an early age were
most likely to have attention problems. Every hour of watching
television increased the chances of having attention problems by
about ten per cent. For example, children who watched three hours a
day were thirty percent more likely to have attention problems than
those who watched no television.
The researchers say that all the children with attention problems
might not have A.D.D. But they still could face major learning
problems in school. The findings support advice by a group of
children's doctors that children under the age of two should not
watch television.
One of the researchers said there are other reasons why children
should not watch television. Earlier studies have linked it with
children becoming too fat and too aggressive. Other experts say the
new study is important, but more work needs to be done to confirm
the findings and better explain the cause and effect.
This VOA Special English Education Report was written by Nancy
Steinbach. This is Steve Ember.