TV's Medical Effects on Children

"Seattle, WA -- Early television exposure in children ages
1-3 is associated with attention problems at age 7,
according to a study from Children's Hospital and Regional
Medical Center in Seattle published in the April issue of
PEDIATRICS. The study revealed that each hour of television
watched per day at ages 1-3 increases the risk of attention
problems, such as ADHD, by almost 10 percent at age 7. The
study controls for other attributes of the home environment
including cognitive stimulation and emotional support."

"Study Finds Link Between Television Viewing And Attention
Problems In Children" sciencedaily.comsciencedaily.com
2004/04/040406090140.htm

This report only shows coincidence, statistically
determined. Somewhere in the report it suggests that the
faster-than-life action of TV shows is hyperstimulating,
and I definitely agree with that suggestion (as I observed
the effect in myself, even as a child, and I wondered about
it as a child). However, I also believe that there may be
more than one reason that television may cause adverse
mental effects.

I have read that a newborn infant has such sensitive hearing
that he can detect the sound of a mosquito outside a closed
window. Some people also hear sounds that other people
cannot. I have always been able to hear extremely high-
pitched sounds that most other people cannot hear,
particularly the sound of the electronics in television
equipment. I can hear the LCD display on the back of my
digital camera. I can hear the sound of television
electronics from a TV set that is inside a house while I am
driving by on the street. Just tonight, I returned home from
shopping at Wal-Mart, where I noted how excruciatingly-
painful is the sound of the television displays that are
placed all around the store.

I have observed that I feel disoriented after I have been
exposed to this ultrasonic squeel for a long period of time.
Might an infant also find this noise disorienting?

There are other effects, as well. I don't have a TV, but I
have spent a lot of time in front of a computer monitor for
several years. There is something disorienting about looking
at computer screens for long periods of time, even though
they don't necessarily change as frequently as the display
on a television.

When I heard those tv reports I thought the topic was brain
development, not some high-frequency squeal from a cheaply
made tv set.

For example, some years ago I noticed a study to effect
children raised in rooms with rectangular framing see things
differently as adults than do children raised in primitive
structures with irregular or random framing overhead.

It's well known children learn two or three languages easily
and speak them like natives, if they hear them from
different people when they are very young. But an adult
finds this task difficult or impossible.

Also it's well known feral children do not learn facile
language use if they do not hear spoken language before age
14 or so. And most remarkably, this deprivation has
observable *physical* consequences.

So when I hear the reports on early childhood television
exposure consequences, I think this wants attention and I
wonder why does this come along so late, namely now and not
20 years ago?

If you look at a newborn baby, maybe getting that head out
was hard for the mother but the baby's head is surprisingly
small. Which means, a lot of brain just isn't there yet. But
if you look at that same child four years later, you see a
nearly adult size head. So it must be, over those years, a
lot happened inside that head. What is it? Surely it's much
more than myelination! So what happens as the developing
brain tries to develop networks to deal (or cope) with all
that flickering chaotic, jumping-around input from tv?

In fact, isn't tv a very good model for hyperactivity and
attention deficit disorder? So I can't feel at all surprised
by this news -- just a little *appalled*.

Cheers -- Martha Adams

TV's Medical Effects on Children

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