Fact: In 2011, the American Academy of Pediatrics declared that exposure to screens is detrimental to children under the age of two. The Millennium Cohort Study, which tracked the development of UK children born between 2000 and 2002, found that by age five children who spent more than three hours a day in front of a screen were more likely to engage in antisocial behaviors such as fighting and stealing than their peers.
Fact: Heather Kirkorian, a developmental psychologist, published a slightly more nuanced and potentially conflicting piece of data. She taught two groups of children new words: one group just watched a video, the other had to touch a screen to produce an outcome. “For kids under 30 months old, they learned more when there was an interactive component. And so I think that shows the potential touchscreen devices might have as educational tools, especially when compared to television.”
www.nydailynews.com
There is a lot of debate in the field of developmental psychology right now about the potentially different developmental paths “digital natives” — kids who grow up using interactive electronic devices like computers – might take from their ancestors. No consensus has yet been reached, but there does seem to be a prominent line of thought that is growing in influence: interactive screen-time is far, far healthier than passive screen-time.
So watching TV is more likely to scramble your brain than playing a computer game or using an iPad app.
[with thanks to this excellent article]
Does that ring true for you? What are your house rules for screen-time?
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Sarah Forrest is an Reading Specialist for the Easyread System, an online literacy program for children with dyslexia, auditory processing disorder, poor memory and more. www.easyreadsystem.com
