interesting piece from USA Today...
Three studies suggest TV hampers kids' academic skills
By Greg Toppo, USA TODAY
You've just purchased that gleaming huge-screen TV at a Fourth of July sale. And now the kids are begging you to haul the old set into their room. Just say no, three new studies suggest.
Researchers say too much TV viewing in childhood has long-term effects on learning. In one study, they found that simply having a TV set in a kid's bedroom can be linked to lower academic skills.
In another, researchers in New Zealand tracked 1,037 children for nearly 30 years in the first long-term follow-up measuring childhood viewing and educational achievement.
They say those who watched the most TV from ages 5 to 15 were least likely to graduate from high school or college by age 26.
A third study, from University of Washington researchers, finds that very young children who watch a lot of TV have diminished reading comprehension and other academic problems when they're 6 and 7.
None of the studies, in the July issue of Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, out Monday, looks at content. The journal notes in an editorial that the authors largely ignored the work of others "who have found positive associations" between children's educational TV viewing and academic skills.
In the New Zealand study, researchers found that, whether bright or not-so-bright, rich or not-so-rich, children who watched more TV were less likely to end up later with an academic degree. And watching more TV as a very young child, they say, had a closer correlation than teen viewing habits.
"This suggests that excessive television in younger children has a long-lasting adverse effect on educational performance," says Bob Hancox of New Zealand's University of Otago.
In the bedroom study, Dina Borzekowski, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health, and Thomas Robinson, a Stanford University professor and pediatrician, surveyed 386 third-graders in the San Francisco Bay area in 2000.
They found that those with TVs in their rooms had much lower reading, math and writing scores on standardized tests.
They factored out parents' education levels, which generally serve as a proxy for family income.
Borzekowski is careful not to draw conclusions about the findings; she says it's possible that kids who do better in school simply aren't as interested in TV.
Sam Goldstein, a University of Utah neuropsychologist who studies media and kids' brains, says the findings aren't surprising.
But he cautions that other variables come into play, such as parents' attitudes about school and self-discipline. He notes that his children had TVs in their rooms and both became National Merit scholars who attend good colleges.
"We placed a lot of emphasis on education by exposing them to a lot of intellectually stimulating activities," Goldstein says.
Responds Hopkins' Borzekowski: "I'm not saying get rid of television. I'm not saying never watch. I'm just saying keep it in the living room so parents can have a little more control over it."
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Exactly Kristy.
