There is a doctor from Hopkins (I can’t remember his name right now) who has written books detailing his feelings that television is a major contributor now over television in the past. I am paraphrasing this but he has done research with respect to color and how FAST the images flash with cartoons etc.. now vs the old cartoons (like the road runner etc.. the ones we grew up with). His premise is that it affects the brain of young children and doesn’t believe they should watch it at all OR very limited and their viewing is limited as well. (I’ll find the name and send it to you!)
My long 2 1/2 cents worth :-)
1) There’s a book by Marie Winn, The Plugged-in Drug, which discussed (a) the physical effect on the brainwaves of young children (the “flattening out”) that watching TV even for short periods has and (b) the need for children of alone time, for imaginative play directed by themselves, not parents. This book was from the late 70’s, early 80’s I believe
2) Watching my 18 month old grand-nephew watching Nick Jr cartoons, even those intended for toddlers, is quite disturbing. He’ll be happily playing, but once his dad turns on the big screen babysitter, this little guy zones out like a zombie. He stands perfectly still, eyes rarely blinking, mouth open. He’ll stay like that for almost the entire program. If I block his view of the screen, it takes several seconds for him to react to me; you can see his “normal” mind kick in, starting him to blink, then frown, then focus his eyes on my hand or body that’s blocking the boob tube.
3) Had a pastor say that children were like dogs — you need to let them run for a good bit every day to help them get focused. Cesar Milan the Dog Whisper should appreciate that!
4) A major point that’s been overlooked in the original article is that the 10-year-old was on anti-depressants! There have been many, many warnings that these drugs have never been tested on or intended for anyone younger than a grown-adult, let alone a child. There have been many reports of suicides by children on these drugs.
I’ve not seen his study but my Dh’s best friend’s father was a neurologist and always told us to never let a child watch children’s programming ever.He said that the attenion span is taught and when someone watched somethign like Sesame Street where there was flashing and 30 second spots of things jumping from subject to subject that you were teaching the child to think like that.He alwyas avocated childrens music over those.Repetition not high speed TV.