Is TV affecting your child’s attention span?
Kids who watch more than two hours of TV a day may be setting themselves up for attention problems in adolescence, according to a new study. The research suggests that short attention spans and reduced concentration may be because of too much time spent in front of the box and that in comparison, real life can seen far too boring.
The new study, published in the current issue of Pediatrics, involved a long-term study of more than 1,000 children. It recorded the time they spent watching TV between the ages of 5 and 11 years and then looked at reported attention problems between the ages of 13 and 15. Watching a lot of TV resulted in a 40% increase in attention problems among both boys and girls even after accounting for socioeconomic status, early attention problems and early cognitive abilities.
“Those kids who watched more than two hours, and particularly those who watched more than three hours of television per day during childhood, had above-average symptoms of attention problems in adolescence,” says study co-author Carl Erik Landhuis, from the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. He adds that short attention span, poor concentration and being easily distracted were reported by parents, teachers and the participants themselves.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that under-2s watch not TV at all and that kids over 2 should watch a maximum of two hours
As yet, no study has proven that TV actually causes attention problems – it may be that parents whose kids suffer from them just tend to rely more on the TV to keep them occupied. But one explanation of the link could be that the rapid images might overstimulate the brain of a young child as it develops so that real life, by contrast, seems dreary and unexciting. “Hence, children who watch a lot of television may become less tolerant of slower-paced and more mundane tasks, such as school work,” says Landhuis. Watching TV also takes children away from other activities that sharpen concentration skills, such as reading, sport and playing games.
“Although teachers and parents have been concerned that TV may be shortening the attention span of children, this is the first time that watching it has been linked to attention problems in adolescence,” say another of the report’s co-authors, Dr Bob Hancox. “This latest study adds to the growing body of evidence that suggests parents should take steps to limit the amount of TV their children watch.”