Your Child’s Brain on TV (16-Minute Important Video)

Your Child’s Brain on TV (16-Minute Important Video)

The average American child spends 40% of his/her waking hours in front of a TV!

This important TED talk by a leading pediatrician and medical researcher describes the dangers of exposure to television for children. Here’s some of his scary findings:
-Each hour spent daily by a child in front of TV raises his/her chance of suffering from an attention-related disorders by 10%
-TV watching can lead to excessive, self-endangering risk taking in children
-TV watching makes children passive in learning environments

FYI, JewishMOM:) If your kids watch TV or DVDs, the safest programs are Mr. Rogers-type educational-style slow placed.

Image courtesy of Flickr.com user Lars Plougmann

8 comments

  1. Very interesting indeed! and the doctor is funny too!
    maybe you jewishmoms from all over the world and you, dear Chana Jenny could give tips to what to do at home apart from watching tv and computer program!!
    especially for 11 years old and older, when reading stories and cutting paper flowers is “not enough”; my daughter loves to bake for example, so i bought her a book and she prepares delicious cakes when she is bored!
    other ideas jewish moms???

    • I just signed up my two older daughters for music lessons, and they are really enjoying practicing. Also, my older daughters love youth group…don’t know if they have Jewish youth groups in your city?

      • great idea music and youth group;i am not living in israel and youth groups here are not the same hashkafa or they are far from where i live; but music… this is great! thank you

    • My eleven year old reads a LOT: the library allows 4 books twice a week, and she often reads that.
      I got her an origami book and a modeling clay book, she does that too sometimes. They aren’t simplistic, the projects there are very complicated. Believe it or not, she sometimes writes letters to cousins. And yes, she often complains that she is bored. I’ve sent her to a family with young twins to help out. She loves that, she feels so good to really make a difference. She often gets together with friends to do some of these things, but we have that easy since she has a friend in our apartment building.
      Did you ever buy a 500 piece puzzle? Those kinds of projects work for a few weeks. So do activity books: word finds, mazes, sudoko, etc.
      I’m glad that we don’t have a TV, because I don’t know that I or she could resist the temptation.
      Lots of luck!

      • thanks Chaya! good ideas! at the moment we have a two week winter vacation here in france so i need ideas! now she is in her room playing the teacher with her 7 and 5 siblings! but it won’t last… she reads a lot too, but i will look for a origami book like you told me! thank you

  2. That is a fabulous video. I am mulling over creating an article on the importance of shared book reading to young children. I will definitely share your article with our readers. Thank you!

  3. We had a TV growing up, but my parents very much limited what and how much we were able to watch. Other favorite things to do: reading, activity books, biking, museums, crocheting/knitting/sewing/weaving/embroidery, music lessons and practice, swimming lessons, gymnastics, and a lot of volunteer work. My mother got me to start volunteering on a regular basis when I was 11 and I got a lot of good experiences that way – not to mention the value of doing chesed!

  4. Thank u! very interesting and educating!

    I’m wondering what to do with children that might have already been over-stimulated by movies…(no TV here,but grandparents have and we watch videos on computer)

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