Monday, May 9, 2011

Screens and ADHD- the chicken or the egg?

I think most people know where I stand on screens.

We do not yet have a video game system.  We have computers and some screen gadgets. We have a TV. (We watch it and we admit we watch it.) During the week, we are pretty busy with school and playing and dinner and baths and stories.  Days are full and screens are dark for the kids.

But really, there are so many screens: phones, computers, TVs in stores and restaurants, video games, computer games...It's pervasive. There's even a TV at our teeny neighborhood Kroger.

Today there were some musings about screens and ADHD in the NY Times. It's a chicken and the egg thing: Is increased screen time a cause or a consequence of ADHD?  Or both? Do people with ADHD get more gratification from screens than those without? Although there aren't definitive answers, more and more continues to be learned about brain functioning.

Regardless, it's a good reminder to pull screens from children's rooms, manage content on screens (violence, frenetic activity, etc), and to balance screen time with real-life experiences.

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