What Happens When Toddlers Zone Out With an iPad

[cali]

By BEN WORTHEN

More than half of the young children in the U.S. now have access to an iPad, iPhone or similar touch-screen device. For parents, their children's love of these devices raises a lot of questions.

Kids for years have sat too close to the television for too long or played hours of Madden on family room game players. But pediatric neuroscientists and researchers who have studied the effects of screen-time on children suggest the iPad is a different beast.

IPads can be wonderful, but are they wonderful for toddlers? Ben Worthen on Lunch Break explains why pediatric neuroscientists and researchers suggest that the iPad differs from TV and video games. Photo: Darcy Padilla for The Wall Street Journal.

A young child will look away from a TV screen 150 times an hour, says Daniel Anderson, a professor emeritus of psychology at the University of Massachusetts. His studies over the past 30 years also showed children have trouble knowing where on a TV screen to look.

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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304363104577391813961853988.html

[FLSurfer]

1. "A young child will look away from a TV screen 150 times an hour"

Kids still had a chance at life with a TV. Now, not so much.

[trumad]

2. Barney saved me when my kid was one.

[riderinthestorm]

3. My kids grew up without teevee (my youngest is now 15 yrs old)

We've always lived in a place that had no access to cable or regular teevee (too rural). We could have gotten satellite but it was out of our budget when my oldest girl was born 24 years ago.

Oh I was beside myself with frustration - no teevee! How was I going to get through raising kids without teevee??!!!1111!!

But you know what? Almost right away we just started doing other stuff - outside playtime, walks, pool, library, puzzles, reading, art - whatever. And voila! We have never missed it. Now we could afford it but there's no way in hell I'll ever go back to hooking up to teevee-land again. I've kind of veered away from the Ipad as well for my teen because of some of those same concerns - that she'll become way too narrow. I like that we have all these other things we do. I like that the house is quiet in the evenings and there's no gaming or cacophony.

I do worry that the video-world/teevee-land is going to have unforeseen ramifications on our kids. Intuitively I think there can certainly be a balance but sometimes these kids are so consumed by the electronics I worry....

Great OP Cali....