Link to school disruptions
Both video games and tv watching are being blamed for school attention problems, because they work so well at engaging young brains that classroom work is boring by comparison---leading to students not paying attention and often becoming disruptive. That's the finding of a study in Pediatrics which tracked over 1300 middle school students for 13 months, and compared time spent playing or watching, and how their teachers assessed classroom behavior. Kids with over two hours screen time daily had trouble paying attention.
Dr. Rich O'Neill, Psychologist at SUNY Upstate and regular contributor on Weekend Today in Central NY, says denying access to the screens only sets up confrontations. He suggests offering alternatives that include more parental involvement, like book reading or activities, or setting up activities that children and the whole family can get involved in.
