August 7, 2007

Study: The ADHD Comes/ On Little Bear's Feet


University of Washington pediatric researcher Dr. Dimitri Christakis made news today when a study he co-authored revealed that 1yo kids fall behind on their vocabulary development by almost 10% for every hour of Baby Einstein videos they watch each day. That Impairment/Hr metric turns out to be a favorite point of reference in Christakis' work. In April 2004, Christakis published a study in the journal Pediatrics that suggests TV viewing in kids 1-3 yo is linked to ADHD:

Great, great, but what if you just can't sit still long enough to read the whole article on MSNBC? No problem! Just get a load of the beat poet-y goodness of the subheadings:
What's to blame for the rise in ADHD?
Researchers point fingers at TV, genetics, overdiagnosis
Study finds increased risk from TV
Real life becomes slow and boring
Genetics may play key role
What's a parent to do?
Cool, man! Cool! [Everyone in the audience starts snapping their fingers]

What's to blame for the rise in ADHD? [msnbc]


So... you are saying it is still okay to let my daughter watch my Animaniacs DVDs?

Screen time in general is all good, of course. That's why we're so pleased that our 3 y/o is so fond of adaptations of Jane Austen...

I think it was from your site that we learned of the Sesame Street Old School DVDs; assuming you've watched them, isn't it striking how much slower, and more gentle all around they were? I'ma kinda thinking the contemporary stuff is toxic-and I don't need research to confirm it.

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