Frankenstein isn’t the only one who created a monster …

Long ago, parents became addicted to using television as an easy, readily available, cheap babysitter. Millions of infants and toddlers have been camped in front of TV screens while mom and dad cooked dinner, put in a load of wash, or talked on the phone.

By choosing TV (and other technology screens, like smartphones with apps) as a regular center of attention for your infants and toddlers, you may have created (or are creating) a monster.

The “monster” isn’t your child, the “monster” is attention and learning deficits such as delayed speech development, ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder), obesity, and even disrupted sleep patterns.

For many years now, from my own clinical observations, I have been concerned with the prevalent use of technology being a chief source of what is so often today diagnosed as ADHD. My concerns have often been substantiated with clinical research. For example:

“By the age of 18 young people have spent 11.000 hours in the classroom and 22,000 hours watching television. They have seen more than 750,000 commercials, each crafted to short-circuit critical judgment and stimulate irrationality and gullibility … My studies have disclosed that the average number of shifts in attention required of the viewer during a typical hour of television programming now exceed 800. That is more than 13 attention shifts per minute! Little wonder that students have difficulty concentrating on schoolwork or that they grow impatient when analysis of an issue or idea extends beyond a few minutes … The disconnectedness and frequent shifts of focus in news programming create an episodic grasp of reality similar to that which … has found to be characteristic of mental retardation.” – Vincent Ryan Ruggiero, Professor Emeritus, State University of New York

Ruggiero finds it ironic that medical researchers are primarily looking for the causes of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) in genes, fluoridation, and food additives, when we should really be looking at modern media as a principal culprit.

So negative are the consequences of toddlers and infants spending time parked in front of screens that the American Academy of Pediatrics has revised its recommendations to parents to allow NO screen time for children during the first two years of life. A lot of research has been conducted regarding the effects of technology among children; following are just a few links to stories that reveal some results from such research:

Why to avoid TV for infants and toddlers click here.

Pediatricians say no TV for children under 2 click here.

How media use affects your child click here.

How TV affects your toddler’s or preschooler’s sleep click here.

Is TV really that bad? click here.

Children who watch too much TV may have “damaged brain structures” click here.

How technology is changing the way children think and focus click here.

Many parents have seen a headline or heard rumblings about technology and its effects on children, but purposely chose to ignore them because pacifying children with technology is just so easy.

It just may not be wise … or healthy for your children.

Do the harder work of parenting by learning, and then making wise choices for how you will allow technology to impact or contribute to the lives of your children.

Scotty