Television Viewing and ADD
Is There a Link Between Excessive Watching and Attention Deficits?
Jan 5, 2009
While ADD, which can cause a child to be inattentive, restless, forgetful, impulsive, hyperactive, and talkative, is a disorder with several overlapping causes. Television has sometimes been reputed to exacerbate symptoms.
Television Viewing Does Lead to ADD Symptoms
According to White Dot, a campaign devoted to shedding light on the negative aspects of television viewing, TV produces several rapid scene shifts that cause the child’s developing brain to consider such shifts as normal. This can actually change the neural passageways and suppresses a child’s ability to think problems through quietly and in his own mind.
White Dot cites a study in which 2,000 children are observed. It was found that for every hour of television watched between the ages of 1-3, the child had a 10% higher chance of developing ADD by age 7. Higher amounts of television viewing corresponded with more pronounced attention problems.
Corresponding with this theory, ADD has in fact increased, first when television was introduced, and later when the VCR and DVD became commonplace. However, this may not necessarily be due to only the television, but to a general public awareness about ADD and a higher propensity for pediatricians to diagnose the disorder.
Television Viewing Does Not Lead to ADD Symptoms
According to an American Academy of Pediatrics study that was published in 2006, the link between television viewing and ADD symptoms was not so clear. The AAP stated that while children with ADD may have a prolonged history of high television viewing, the amount of viewing might not cause ADD. The AAP suggests that parents flip on the TV due to struggling with already inattentive children.
While the AAP in no way recommends television viewing for children and in fact suggests that no children under the age of two watch television, they say that there is no established link between the amount of television watching and ADD symptoms.
What Should Parents Do?
While television viewing may or may not cause ADD symptoms, it can certainly exacerbate them. When a child who has already been diagnosed with ADD spends hours in front of the TV, he is losing the opportunity to think for himself, to be physically active, and to practice activities that enhance patience, learning, and skill.
Parents of small children must decide for themselves how much television viewing is proper. Parents of children who have already been diagnosed with ADD might find their child’s symptoms to be controlled more productively by nutrition, exercise, medication, therapy, and assistance in school than by the television set.
Related Articles:
Television for Children under Age Two
Getting ADD Kids Attention at Home and in School
