Nearly one in five children in North America under the age
of two has a television in their own room, according to a study by the Kaiser
Family Foundation.
“Electronic media is a central focus of many very young
children=s lives, used
by parents to help
manage busy schedules, keep the peace, and facilitate family
routines such as eating, relaxing, and falling asleep,” said the foundation.
Babies and toddlers parked in front of the TV have a much higher risk of
developing ADHD by age seven.
It has been found that “for each hour per day that a child
spends watching TV, the odds of that child developing ADD or ADHD increases by
a factor of 10%.” The variety of TV shows available would result in your kids
being more focused on TV and less focused on studies and his/her surroundings.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children
under two years old should not be allowed to watch television because it
affects brain growth and the development of personality skills. TV watching “rewires”
an infant’s brain but doesn’t show up until age seven when children have
difficulty paying attention in school.
In a typical day more than 83 percent of American children
under age six watch some sort of media, averaging about two hours a day. Some
say that children watch an average of 43 hours per week while most of their
parents are working only 40 hours per week.
Parents, we are concerned about feeding our children
nutritious, healthy meal so they will become healthy adults. We need to also be
concerned about what they learn and see. What goes into a child’s mind is just
as important as what goes into his or her mouth.
“Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old,
he will not depart from it,” Proverbs 22.6.
AToo
much importance cannot be placed on the early training of children. The lessons
that a child learns during the first seven years of life have more to do with
forming his character than all that it learns in future years,” Child
Guidance, p.193.
By Margaret Anderson, Family & Consumer Science
Specialist
Sources: Adventist Review; Kaiser Family Foundation; National
New, Channel 11, WXIA in Atlanta; www.whitedot.org /issue/issstory.aspslug=ADHD%20
Toddlers; www.drday.com/attentiondefecit.htm; www.articlesnatch.com/Article/Are-There-Any-Direct-Links-...
Georgia-Cumberland Conference Mission for
Spiritual Life
:
Intimacy with God is nourished by prayer, study and application of the Word,
public and private worship, and faithful stewardship that strengthen a personal commitment to serving
Jesus as Savior and Lord.
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