I often get asked at workshops if the increase of media screen time by children causes ADD/ADHD.  I answer this question with a “No, but.”  I am not aware of any brain or media research linking media consumption with ADD or ADHD.  The study that is often cited in this regard is Dimitri Kristakis' study which appeared in the journal Pediatrics several years ago. Kristakis, a University of Washington researcher, found a link between media use before the age of three with "attention problems" when these children reached school age. The attention problems were based on parent and teacher ratings. The media translated these findings into "media causes ADD and ADHD."  The study never made that claim.
 
My own view is that Kristakis' study supports the connection between early childhood media use and distraction. There is a difference between distracted kids and the clinical syndrome of ADD/ADHD. I believe there is abundant evidence that heavy media use is linked to attention problems but not ADD/ADHD.  Interestingly Ed Hallowell, one of the leading experts on ADD/ADHD (author of the best-selling book Driven to Distraction) agrees with this. He and I have presented together and he agrees that we are raising a generation of distracted kids.

Why?  We know that experience drives the neural wiring of children’s brains.  “The neurons that fire together, wire together.”  A brain that is exposed to heavy media use reinforces and wires the reactive attention centers in the brain, the part of the brain that pays attention to movement and sound.  The type of attention kids need for school, however, is focused attention.  This type must be learned and kids cannot learn focused attention from media use.  If kids arrive at school with an over-developed reactive attention center and an underdeveloped focused attention center, the result is a distracted kid.  They just can’t seem to focus on the task at hand and have difficulty staying on task.  

That’s a powerful reason to limit your child’s media use: no media for children under two, one hour a day for preschoolers, and two hours a day for older children.  Make media a fun, but healthy part of your child’s life.

Dr. Dave

The 2008 Video and Computer Game Report Card

The economy is in trouble, but the retailers are valiantly putting up all the decorations.  People will and should be more careful how they spend this season.  Especially for children, spend your money wisely.  Make your gift be one that enriches their curiosity, triggers their imagination, fills a need-not just a want, and wires their brains in healthy, positive ways. 

Along with the report card this year, the Institute has put together a MediaWise Holiday List of award winning (Parent’s Choice and NAPPA) toys and games for the whole family that will give your child hours of alternatives to electronic screens.  Your online shopping supports the work of the Institute.

The National Institute on Media and the Family releases its 13th annual Video and Computer Game Report Card this week.  This report card attempts to hold a mirror up to the video game industry, retailers and parents, summarizing the latest research on how video games affect kids and includes a list of video games to avoid as well as ones that are fun and challenging for kids.  
The video game industry is hoping that it is recession proof.  Many video games are fun and creative – find and buy those that are.  Research the games before you go out to shop.  It’s so easy to impulse buy – it’s just a game, right?   Look at the ratings – they will tell you if the game has gory violence, sex, blood and gore, drugs, crude language, nudity and more…..sounds like just the present for kids at the holidays, right?  Say “no” to your kids if they want an “M” rated (for Mature) game.  Check out the “T” (Teen) rated games and make sure, the content is OK for your adolescent child.  Avoid first-person, shooter games – these often have violent content.

The Entertainment Software Rating Board has added new game summaries and designed an easier website to help parents find information about video game content.   Check out their website.

New international research conducted with teens from Japan and the United States found that over time, kids who play violent video games do become more aggressive.   So choose your gifts wisely this season.   Lots of families are enjoying playing video games together, make video games a healthy part of your family time. 

The folks here at the National Institute on Media and the Family wish you a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Dr. Dave

I knew I was in trouble when a few flakes of snow prompted me to listen my favorite holiday music.  Halloween seems like eons ago and is Thanksgiving really next week?  My excursion to the mall leapfrogged me right into the holiday season.

Whether you enjoy every minute of the holiday season or just the thought of reindeer and bells makes you depressed, this is the time, right now to make your holiday list.  I’m not talking about your gift list or your  usual “holiday to do” list.   Get your favorite pen or colorful marker, some bright paper and gather your family around, if you can.  Headline the paper: What’s Really Important This Holiday.   Underneath this heading make three columns.  Label them: For Myself, With My Family, For Others.   Your paper should look like this:
           

Ask everyone to name one important activity or ritual to do for themselves, to do as a family, and to do for others.   What activities will really make this holiday season special and non-stressful.  What’s really important?  You might find out that your kids really enjoy baking cookies or decorating a tree or deciding on a toy for a local charity.  You might find out that you really want to enjoy a cup of tea, quietly reading the letters from relatives you seldom see.

If you find that your kids can’t think of one family ritual to do together, than take time this season to start a holiday family ritual that everyone enjoys.  It might be making popcorn and watching your favorite holiday movie, decorating together, making gifts together, getting together with one other family and sharing a meal and a holiday story, or taking a winter walk followed by hot chocolate.  Find something special that will mark the season and give your kids a memory to hold for a lifetime.

It’s easy to get caught up in a list of “shoulds” and get overwhelmed and over-stressed.  Practice saying “no”, if saying yes means that you can’t pay attention to this list.  The holidays are stressful, let’s face it, but you can be in control and limit your extra activities, cut back so that you have the time and the energy to do and to enjoy what your family has decided is really important.
How do you handle the holiday stress?

Dr. Dave

A cooperative of four Minnesota school districts launched their Say Yes to No campaign last week.  The districts of Lake Crystal, Medelia, Truman, and Maple River gathered their parents, staff and community members together for kick-off events.   Around 250 staff gathered in the afternoon to hear a Say Yes to No presentation and that night 300 parents and community members gathered to hear what Say Yes to No is all about.  Follow up book reads and discussions are planned all over the four school districts.

I asked the teachers in the afternoon if anyone was surprised that the research shows that self-discipline is twice the predictor of school success as intelligence.  None of the 250 teachers were surprised.  A typical response was that “I’d much rather have a student motivated to learn, than someone smart, but who doesn’t care.”

I also asked the teachers who had been teaching for more than 10 years if it is more difficult to keep kids’ attention today than ten years ago.  Every one of these veteran teachers said “Yes.”

The principals knew that parents were concerned when over 300 people showed up that night.  Parents know that something is out of whack, that their children are distracted.   Say Yes to No struck a chord with these parents, as it is in other communities.   Many of them said they were going to try the “Marshmallow Story” with their own kids.   Self discipline is a key character trait that leads to success in school and in life.  Self discipline helps kids stay on task, helps them finish a task, stay focused, be engaged, take on a challenge, make better decisions and resist the siren call of entitlement: “Gotta have it and gotta have it now!”   Parents who say “no” and use the parenting skills of No are re-discovering parenting strategies that work.

Dr. Dave

This week brought the end of a long, hard fought election campaign.   I, like most of you, was glued to the screen, following the ups and downs of each reported return.   The new media was hopping at our house Tuesday night.  We had TVs, computers and cell phones all spouting returns at the same time. 

When all was decided, I heard a theme, cited by both President-elect Obama and Senator McCain, and echoed on the newscasts.  Our economy is a mess and hard times lurk right around the corner.   The only way out of this situation is for the American people to pull together, make the hard choices and do the hard work it’s going to take.  It amazed me as this theme was echoed by commentator after commentator on the various networks we watched.  The conversation about our national purpose is changing.

I began to wonder if a speech writer hadn’t been involved in one of our Say Yes To No campaigns.   What was really being called for was self-discipline.    The character trait our kids need if they are going to be successful in school and in life.   Self-discipline enables a child to finish a task, put in the hard work needed for practicing a skill, choose work when needed over play, set and accomplish a goal, work independently, work with a group, and enjoy a reward well-earned.  Self-discipline ensures that a child’s self-esteem is built on real accomplishments and the satisfaction of a job well done.   Parents and teachers have been joining Say Yes to No book reads and conversation groups, learning how No gives their kids the gift of self discipline.

Do you have a Say Yes to No story to share?

Dr. Dave

If we were ever wondering about the power of the new media, we have to look no further than this current election.  Voters in unprecedented numbers have taken to the Internet via computers and cell phones to participate in this election in a way never seen before.  From fundraising, to YouTube videos and text messaging, people have created media and influenced news in a powerful new way.  

The immediacy of this media is apparent when billions of people are updated at the moment, before the headline reaches the TV anchors or newspapers.   Campaigns and news outlets have had to adjust to the fact that once their news or campaign videos hit the Internet, videos are cut up, re-worked, and re-used in ways out of their control.   The average voter is in control of content more than ever before in history.

I’ve often said, “Whoever tells the stories, defines the culture.”   The new media has opened the door to powerful new storytellers: you and I.  It’s more important than ever before for people to be Mediawise®.  Rumors fly faster than it takes to hit the enter button.    Videos hitting our emotional centers in the brain make us laugh out loud or tug at our heartstrings.  Mediawise participation with this new media gives us the skills to use all of our brains to make judgments based on the facts and thinking part of our brains along with the emotional centers.  Responsibility is a key Mediawise skill also.  This new media can inform, entertain, and sway our vote, but it can also hurt and demean when used by adolescent cyber-bullies.

I wish I could say that when the votes are all tallied on Tuesday, that we could sit back and reflect on the wondrous new landscape this new media has brought us to, but unfortunately reflection is hard in this split second world.   Reflection is also one of the old media traits we should hang on to.

How has the new media changed the way you get news?

Dr. Dave

There are so many obvious benefits and opportunities in our media world today that I hate to keep sounding the siren call for balance.  Amid all the new technology, we shouldn’t forget that kids’ brains are busy wiring in behaviors.   The wiring of a child’s brain is entirely experience dependent.  Wiring of behavioral and thinking skills will not happen automatically – it happens because of that child’s experience in his or her environment.  To have a fully rich, thinking brain, a child needs exposure to a broad range of experiences that call on him or her to exercise all their thinking skills.  Remember the “neurons that fire together, wire together.”  The ones that don’t wither away.

Now what got me started?   A new study from England landed in my email box that found that the study group of fourteen year old kids today were better at the quick-fire, instant response answers than fourteen year old kids were in 1976, but when it keep to deeper thinking, problem solving, the 1976-ers beat today’s kids hands down.

What’s changed?   Probably the most obvious is the media world our children live in.   What experiences are kids having that are wiring their brains more than anything else? - the quick fire responses of video games.   And if they do not have problem solving experiences requiring more in-depth, complex skills, then those skills will never wire into their brains.

I am not anti-video games.   What kids need though is balance.  Interactive media can take over kids’ lives and make them very skilled at quick responses.   Critical thinking skills that take deeper, more complex thinking may deteriorate if we don’t give our kids practice in these skills also.  The future will belong to creative problem solvers, not to people who deal in only superficial facts.

How do you think kids can develop more complex thinking skills?

Dr. Dave

I recently received an interesting letter from a middle school math teacher.  A few years ago this teacher did an informal survey of his students.  He wanted to find out how many of his students had TVs in their bedroom and other media habits.  What he found correlated with the national average: approximately 2/3 of his students had TVs in their bedroom and 1/3 did not.  Then he went to his grade book to calculate mean grade point averages for each group.  The non-TV in the bedroom group had a grade average of 3.2, the TV in the bedroom kids had a grade average of 2.3.   Now on the surface it looks like kids with TVs in their bedrooms do poorer in school.    Which on the whole I think is true.  But there is a bigger lesson in this little informal study and this teacher went on to find it.

He looked at his most successful students, including those in an honors math class.  What he found was that irrespective of whether they had a TV in their bedroom or not, (although most did not), these kids had parents who said “no”, put limits on their kids media use, enforced homework time and a regular bedtime, and had high expectations.  Unsuccessful kids, also irrespective of bedroom TVs, tended to spend little or no time on homework, frequently stayed up past midnight, excessively played video games, and heard “no” from parents much less frequently, if at all.  He found that many of these kids could succeed, but lacked motivation and the self-discipline needed for school success.

Now researchers could immediately poke a thousand holes in this little study, but that’s not the point.  This teacher resonated with the Say Yes to No message because of what he sees in his classroom every day:  the values of More, Fast, Easy and Fun have, for many kids, overtaken the character traits of self-discipline and the ability to say “no.”   This teacher is worried not only about individual kids’ futures, but our country’s future also.

Dr. Dave