I still remember my dad yelling those words at dinner time.

A new study showed that children from lower socioeconomic groups who watched more than 2 hours a day of TV had problems with school readiness. They did not develop adequate math abilities , had problems paying attention, and issues with memorizing facts. That’s not good news! Last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended no more than one hour a day of screen time for preschoolers. (It used to be two hours) Why did this happen? And why was there less impact on children from higher income levels? One answer may lie in the content, we all know that there is a difference between Sesame Street and daytime television.  Researchers did not include which programs the children were watching so we don’t know the answer. It also didn’t evaluate what activity the TV watching might be replacing. So we don’t have a lot of answers.

But we still have recommendation…the article says that children should get two hours of activities for every half hour of television. I’ve had other parents say that their children have to ‘earn’ the television with physical activity. Either way, no more than an hour a day of ‘screen time’.

Dr.Badaracco