Statistics show attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) affects up to 12 percent of children in the United States. Research has shown that increased attention problems at age 7 among kids was seen more in children who watched more television as babies and toddlers.The study tracked the number of hours kids watched television at ages 1 and 3. On average, 1-year-olds watched about two hours of television a day. Three-year-olds watched about three and a half hours a week.
By age 7, about 10 percent of the whole group had been diagnosed with attention problems. Results show those who viewed more hours of television than average at the earlier ages were significantly more likely to have developed attention problems than those who watched a normal amount of television.Specialists say early childhood is a time of rapid brain growth in children thus television viewing at this early age may be over stimulating the children’s brains, which could lead to a shortened attention span.
Hence limiting young children’s exposure to television as a medium during formative years of brain development ... may reduce children’s subsequent risk of developing attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) .
