O.K. Now that I have your attention, a new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics shows a correlation between how much "media exposure" a child has and their school performance.
I don’t think that this comes us much of a surprise to most of us, especially parents. Sometimes I have a hard time getting my six year old to turn off Lego Star Wars and do his spelling homework.
The study was done on 4,500 children from 9-15 years old in the Northwest United States. Researchers use the term “media exposure” to include TV watching, video game playing and movie watching, so the exact correlation between video games and grades still isn’t clear which is probably the most interesting facet about the report. The researchers claim this is one of the first scientific studies of its kind to try and establish a correlation between “media exposure” and grades. So, were my parents lying to me when they said, “Turn off the TV, it will rot your brain.” ?
The study basically finds the more media exposure the child has during the week, the worse the grades. Only when the child spent more than four hours per day exposed to media over the weekend, did it have any negative affect. Interestingly, the study didn’t actually look at test scores, but relied upon students to evaluate their own grades.
The solution to this, according to the AAP, is to limit your child to no more than two hours of "quality" programming per night and to keep televisions out of their room. I think that two hours per night is plenty of TV. Of course, my kids will have the same rule I grew up with. No TV until your homework is finished.
Source: America Academy Of Pediatrics
The study was done on 4,500 children from 9-15 years old in the Northwest United States. Researchers use the term “media exposure” to include TV watching, video game playing and movie watching, so the exact correlation between video games and grades still isn’t clear which is probably the most interesting facet about the report. The researchers claim this is one of the first scientific studies of its kind to try and establish a correlation between “media exposure” and grades. So, were my parents lying to me when they said, “Turn off the TV, it will rot your brain.” ?
The study basically finds the more media exposure the child has during the week, the worse the grades. Only when the child spent more than four hours per day exposed to media over the weekend, did it have any negative affect. Interestingly, the study didn’t actually look at test scores, but relied upon students to evaluate their own grades.
The solution to this, according to the AAP, is to limit your child to no more than two hours of "quality" programming per night and to keep televisions out of their room. I think that two hours per night is plenty of TV. Of course, my kids will have the same rule I grew up with. No TV until your homework is finished.
Source: America Academy Of Pediatrics
