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[http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=676&e=4&u=/usatoday/20040 405/ts_usatoday/shortattentionspanlinkedtotv] Short attention span linked to TV Mon Apr 5, 6:44 AM ET By Marilyn Elias, USA TODAY The more television infants and toddlers watch, the more likely they are to have trouble paying attention and concentrating during their early school years, a study reports Monday. Although there has been other research on how many hours of TV very young kids watch, this is the first study on how early viewing might affect attention span. (Related story: Experts weigh in) Young children often are mesmerized by the TV screen, says study leader Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician at Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle. The possible link between watching TV and attention problems is of great concern because so many infants and toddlers are frequent viewers, he says. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no TV for children younger than 2 and no more than two hours of high-quality programming for older kids. Many children watch much more TV. Christakis used a government database to see how much TV 1- to 3-year-old children watched, as reported by their mothers, and then related that to their scores on a behavior checklist showing attention problems at age 7. His report on about 1,300 kids is in Pediatrics. Frequent TV viewers in early childhood were most likely to score in the highest 10% for concentration problems, impulsiveness and restlessness. Scoring within that 10% doesn't mean a child has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but many would have it, and the others could face major learning problems, Christakis says. Every added hour of watching TV increased a child's odds of having attention problems by about 10%. Kids watching about three hours a day were 30% more likely to have attention trouble than those viewing no TV. The researchers accounted for many factors beside television that might predict problems concentrating, but the TV-attention link remained. In the first few years, human brains undergo "huge and very swift development," says Elizabeth Sowell, a UCLA neuropsychologist. Animal studies show that stimulating environments can change young brains. The rapid-fire stimulation of TV might do the same. The change isn't necessarily bad, Los Angeles media psychologist Stuart Fischoff says. As media exposure grows, "these kids could be expressing 'the new brain.' They could be an advance guard that suggests we may need new ways of teaching children exposed to a lot of media stimulation." But some experts are concerned. "This should be a wake-up call that we need to take a closer look at how early media use affects children," says Vicky Rideout of the Kaiser Family Foundation. "We know hardly anything about it." _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
