Toddlers and TV: Early Exposure Has Negative and Long-Term Impact

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/05/100503161229.htm

ScienceDaily (May 8, 2010) — Want kids who are smarter and thinner? Keep them away from the television set as toddlers. A shocking study from child experts at the Université de Montréal, the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and the University of Michigan, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, has found that television exposure at age two forecasts negative consequences for kids, ranging from poor school adjustment to unhealthy habits.

"We found every additional hour of TV exposure among toddlers corresponded to a future decrease in classroom engagement and success at math, increased victimization by classmates, have a more sedentary lifestyle, higher consumption of junk food and, ultimately, higher body mass index," says lead author Dr. Linda S. Pagani, a psychosocial professor at the Université de Montréal and researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center.

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According to the investigation, watching too much TV as toddlers later forecasted:

* a seven percent decrease in classroom engagement;
* a six percent decrease in math achievement (with no harmful effects on later reading);
* a 10 percent increase in victimization by classmates (peer rejection, being teased, assaulted or insulted by other students);
* a 13 percent decrease in weekend physical activity;
* a nine percent decrease in general physical activity;
* a none percent higher consumption of soft drinks;
* a 10 percent peak in snacks intake;
* a five percent increase in BMI.

"Although we expected the impact of early TV viewing to disappear after seven and a half years of childhood, the fact that negative outcomes remained is quite daunting," says Dr. Pagani. "Our findings make a compelling public health argument against excessive TV viewing in early childhood and for parents to heed guidelines on TV exposure from the American Academy of Pediatrics."

Since TV exposure encourages a sedentary lifestyle, Dr. Pagani says, television viewing must be curbed for toddlers to avoid the maintenance of passive mental and physical habits in later childhood: "Common sense would have it that TV exposure replaces time that could be spent engaging in other developmentally enriching activities and tasks which foster cognitive, behavioral, and motor development."

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