Return to Main Menu
|
Parents urged to turn off media for
sake of children
by Mary Helen
Yarborough
Public
Relations
More than a generation can claim the TV as their nanny, but the
explosion in other media devices has children’s attention spreading
like their expanding waist sizes.
The sedentary lifestyle that excessive TV and computer-use encourages
is a leading cause of obesity and related diseases in youth.
Additionally, research shows that viewing TV and computers for extended
periods of time also interferes with their mental development.
Bill Basco, M.D., a general pediatrician. Basco advocates turning off
TV and all other media, including cell phones, iPods, and electronic
games to allow children to focus on tangible interactions and
experiences.
“We’ve been doing this in our house since my oldest child was in
pre-school,” said Basco, which totals about seven years now. “There was
a lot of gnashing of teeth for the first few days, and we had to get
the children through withdrawals. But after a week, no one seemed to
know there wasn’t a TV on in the house. And this continued for an
entire month. …The whole house was less chaotic, and the children
started discovering things like their own toys.”
Basco was introduced to the idea of turning off the TV when in response
to a push by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to reduce screen
time through his child’s school. Since, his family participates in the
annual national Turnoff Week in April, which began in the 1970s to
combat too much TV-viewing by children. Turnoff Week now includes all
forms of media that have grabbed children’s attention.
The theme of this year’s program is “We Can! (Ways to Enhance
Children’s Activity and Nutrition),” a science-based national education
program from NIH to help children ages 8-13 stay at a healthy weight.
We Can is working with the Center for Screen Time Awareness (CSTA) and
other national and community organizations to raise public awareness
about the negative impact of excessive screen time. CSTA is a leading
nonprofit organization focused on the impact of electronic media on
society, health, education, family and community.
While children will discover their toys, siblings and parents during
this period, they also may become more physically active and exhibit
better behavior.
“Behavior pro-blems and poor academic performance have been linked with
increased media exposure by children,” Basco said, citing a University
of Washington—Seattle, study.
Stephanie Aston-Jones, the admini-strator for Basco, also has noticed
an improvement with her grandson when the focus is turned away from the
TV and other electronic distractions. She recalls an early interest in
children’s response to TV viewing during college.
“When I was in college, I wrote a paper on the affects of excessive TV
viewing by children. Research proved that TV interfered with a child’s
cerebral development causing the brain’s right and left hemispheres to
form improperly,” said Aston-Jones. “The study concluded that children
should be prevented from watching TV at an early age.”
Meanwhile, according to NIH, children and teens who spend more than an
average of two hours a day in front of a TV, video, or computer screen,
are more likely to be overweight than their peers who limit their
screen time.
NIH and MUSC are urging parents to turn off the screens and get active
with their children.
Although the Turnoff Week awareness campaign formally lasts only seven
days each year, NIH is encouraging parents to regularly limit
recreational screen time to fewer than two hours a day.
The Department of Health and Human Services’ Childhood Overweight and
Obesity Coordinating Council is working with communities to foster
programs such as We Can!
For information, visit http://wecan.nhlbi.nih.gov.
Friday, April 25, 2008
Catalyst Online is published weekly,
updated
as needed and improved from time to time by the MUSC Office of Public
Relations
for the faculty, employees and students of the Medical University of
South
Carolina. Catalyst Online editor, Kim Draughn, can be reached at
792-4107
or by email, catalyst@musc.edu. Editorial copy can be submitted to
Catalyst
Online and to The Catalyst in print by fax, 792-6723, or by email to
catalyst@musc.edu. To place an ad in The Catalyst hardcopy, call Island
Publications at 849-1778, ext. 201.
|