June 08, 2006

Night Off

I'll be live blogging from the Take Back America Conference in DC next week as one of the featured bloggers. I'm going light on posting this week to give my arms and hands a rest: I'm having repetitive motion injuries and the reveres give me a terrible hard time if I don't take care of myself. I've been blogging seven days a week for nearly three years and this is hard on the bod. Only rest works on these injuries, so I just have to take it easy this week.

Treat this as an open thread for whatever is on your mind this evening.

Posted by Melanie at June 8, 2006 06:41 PM | TrackBack
Comments

TV and Young Children

http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/parenting/05/24/tv.tots.ap/index.html

"Almost one child in five under 2 has a set,
even though the American Academy of
Pediatrics advises against any TV watching
at that age."

I think there are a few reasons why such
a large majority of parents allow their
under-two children to watch TV despite
what the experts say.

1. Although the American Association of
Pediatricians has come out against TV watching
for children under two, I don't think this
message is reinforced by most pediatricians
in the field. I don't blame the AAP for taking
such a low profile on this position, they actually
were attacked and put under a lot of pressure
for taking such an unpopular (but courageous) stand.

2. The scientific community has not done a good
job explaining why TV is so destructive to growing minds.
For example, TV is said to "over stimulate" young children.
Well everyone knows that stimulating children is very important,
so how bad could over stimulating be? But actually TV
over stimulates the brain into going into an Alpha brainwave state.
Which is actually the brain in a slower than normal state.

http://www.wu-wien.ac.at/usr/h99c/h9951826/television.PDF

Is it just coincidence that ADD is also associated slow Alpha brainwaves?

http://www.virginia.edu/insideuva/2000/09/adhd.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2004-04-05-tv-bottomstrip_x.htm

3. Videos such as Baby Einstein and the Sesame Street Beginnings
give the impression that TV is good for babies (kind of the like music and the
Mozart effect).

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/20/AR2006032001801.html

4. There has been a huge amount of scientific studies on the effects of
TV violence, but very little on the effects of TV (regardless of content).
Thus it is understandable that parents mistakenly believe that TV is ok
as long as it is age-appropriate and educational.

For more info see:

http://www.tvsmarter.com
http://www.trashyourtv.com/node
http://www.whitedot.org
http://www.turnoffyourtv.com

Posted by: Terry on June 9, 2006 03:03 AM