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TV, ADHD and Doing Useful Things
WebGangsta writes "USAToday (and others) are reporting that too much TV, at an early age, can cause ADHD in children. They say that there should be no TV watching for children under 2. Every added hour of watching TV increased a child's odds of having attention problems by about 10%. Kids watching about three hours a day were 30% more likely to have attention trouble than those viewing no TV. The researchers accounted for many factors beside television that might predict problems concentrating, but the TV-attention link remained. I imagine that in 10 years we'll be seeing studies about how too much Internet/computer/video game use will also result in ADHD. See PEDIATRICS magazine for more information."
The Yahoo article cut off the entire bit about the limits of the study from the second page of the Reuters posting:
... (and) our findings suggested that preventive action can be taken."
STUDY LIMITED
The authors said the study had some limitations.
The television viewing data came from the parents and may not be completely accurate. Also, there is no way to know whether the children already had attention problems early on that attracted them to TV viewing, though symptoms don't appear that early, it said.
It was also possible the parents who allowed excessive TV viewing were themselves distracted and neglectful, creating a household that fostered attention problems in the children. Attention deficit-hyperactivity disorder has a high heritability level, the study said.
And the study did not look at what kinds of programs the children watched.
"Despite these limitations our results have some important implications if replicated in future studies," it said. "First we (have) added inattention to the previously studied deleterious consequences of excessive television viewing
ADHD is a myth? Invented by drug companies and shrinks? That sounds rather paranoid. In the medical field, it is commonly accepted that it exists. To disregard all the research that has been put into it is silly. Do you think migraines are a myth as well? Your objection seems to be to the way ADHD is dealt with. You propose that children "learn" to have a 30 second time span via exposure to the rapid topical changes on television. One aspect that is common in many people with ADHD is an ability to "hyperfocus" on a task. These tasks need not be television or other "eye-candy" type activities. It could be art, reading a book, legos, tasks you may think an ADHD person couldn't do. From my experience with ADHD, the attention given seems to be extreme or nothing at all. Put in the right situation, someone with ADHD can flourish. I think the problem is that ADHD'ers think differently than "normal" people.