U.S Kids Spend Nearly as Much Time Around a Switched-on-TV as They Do in School

Children from ages 8 months to 8 years watch an average of 80 minutes of television each day. When you add to that the average of 232 minutes a day that the television is droning in the background, you have kids averaging more than 5 hours a day of interaction with the television. The consequences of screen time on young brains is still not well understood, but researchers caution there may be a toll on a toddler’s development.  Matthew Lapierre of the University of North Carolina at Wilmington led the study which interviewed nearly 1,500 parents.  Lapierre found that the distraction of television background noise curbed children’s playing time with friends, and interacting with parents even if they were not actively watching it.  “We definitely need to rethink this sort of exposure,” he said…… Chicago Tribune 10/2/12