New Report on Children, Teens, and Entertainment Media

Posted on November 9, 2012 at 3:00 pm

Common Sense Media has issued a new research report, Children, Teens, and Entertainment Media: The View from the Classroom. Findings include:

Most teachers think that use of entertainment media has impaired ability to learn and perform in the classroom by decreasing attention span and hurting their critical thinking ability. The greatest area of concern is about the impact of media use on writing ability. The media most often cited as problematic are texting, social networking, video games, and television, depending on the students’ age. While teachers praise the benefits of media in teaching multi-tasking and researching information resources, overall they were concerned about the impact it has, not just on learning but social interaction.

The FTC Helps Kids Understand Advertising

Posted on August 10, 2012 at 1:37 pm

The Federal Trade Commission has an excellent website to help kids be smarter consumers. It’s always a challenge to teach children to identify and challenge the bombardment of advertising messages they get every day. You Are Here’s West Terrace explains targeted marketing and evaluating the claims made in ads. There is also a section that explains how advertising can be helpful to consumers who are looking for products and brands and trying to understand their options. The Security Plaza teaches kids about the importance of protecting their personal information online and being careful about trusting messages that might not be from the businesses they claim. There are also resources for parents and teachers, who can use a reminder on those lessons as well.

Do Video Games Cause Attention Problems? Can They Reduce Attention Problems?

Posted on August 4, 2012 at 8:00 am

Parents of children with attention deficit issues like distractibility often note that their children can become utterly absorbed in a computer game even though they have trouble maintaining focus in other environments. According to the Child Mind Institute’s Caroline Miller:

First, “there is no evidence whatsoever that TV or video games cause ADHD,” explains Dr. Natalie Weder, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute who has treated many kids with the disorder.

That said, super-fast-paced TV shows and video games do have a special appeal for kids who have ADHD. “If you think about SpongeBob, or a video game, there’s never a second when there’s nothing happening on the screen,” Dr. Weder notes. “If you’re playing a video game, you have to immediately respond; otherwise you lose. You don’t have time to think. So kids with ADHD are very drawn to that, because it makes them have to pay attention. There are no gaps for them to start thinking about something else.”

Video games effectively hold the attention of kids who find it very challenging to concentrate in the rest of their lives. “In fact, a child’s ability to stay focused on a screen, though not anywhere else, is actually characteristic of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder,” writes Dr. Perri Klass, a pediatrician, in the New York Times. “There are complex behavioral and neurological connections linking screens and attention, and many experts believe that these children do spend more time playing video games and watching television than their peers.”

But what’s happening when kids are absorbed in video games isn’t the same thing as the kind of paying attention that other tasks require.

“Continuous activity doesn’t mean sustained attention,” points out Dr. Ron Steingard, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the Child Mind Institute. “It looks like sustained attention, but the truth is that the task is changing so rapidly, short bursts of attention are all that’s involved. These games are constantly shifting focus, and there is instant gratification and reward.”

It makes sense the kids with ADHD would find games more compelling than the average person. “It’s the perfect fit of the medium with the pathology,” notes Dr. Steingard. “Nothing else in life moves that quickly and rewards that spontaneously. For a person who’s into delayed gratification and a slower pace, they don’t have as much appeal.”

The makers of some new video games are so confident that their products actually help kids to learn how to focus that they are seeking approval from the Food and Drug Administration to market their games as a treatment for ADD:

Akili Interactive Labs Inc. of Boston, Massachusetts, which was created by start-up-creating firm PureTech Ventures, andBrain Plasticity Inc. of San Francisco, California are seeking Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for a videogame treatment they hope physicians will recommend before prescribing medicines for ADHD.

The companies’ projects are based on research, which suggests that action videogames can sharpen players’ ability to concentrate, and may have other medical or health benefits. Last April, University of Toronto researchers reported that action videogame play causes improvement in “visual attention,” which is needed to drive a car or track changes on a computer display. In 2010, University of Rochester and University of Minnesota researchers found that action videogames can train individuals to make the right decisions faster.

If proven effective, physician-prescribed video games could treat neurological illnesses without exposing patients to the side effects seen with today’s medications such as Ritalin.

The fast pace and continual positive reinforcement can be especially appealing to kids who are not comfortable in school and social environments. Miller notes that while the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends an hour per day of total media screen time (including computers and television/DVDs) for elementary school children, and two hours for kids in secondary school, the average is closer to six hours. Parents should make sure that kids spend at least as much time exercising and playing with other children as they do interacting with media.

Keeping Children Safe Online: Club Penguin

Posted on August 3, 2012 at 8:00 am

We warn our children not to talk to strangers, but how do we protect them when there are online resources set up specifically for them to make new friends? Forbes has a thoughtful piece about Club Penguin, a social networking site for school-age children.

Successful sites like Club Penguin have made child safety a primary goal, and by most accounts, parents are comfortable letting their little Penguins roam about the Town. Penguins can “chat” with other penguins in two ways: by selecting pre-written phrases, especially useful for the spelling-challenged age group, or by upgrading to “Standard Safe Chat” which enables users to create their own messages but filters them to block inappropriate language or personal information.

Resources like the Family Online Safety Institute and Common Sense Media help families talk about rules to keep kids safe online. Just like you talk to kids about rules for crossing the street and making sure they are neither a bully or bullied, it is essential that families discuss the difference between online and real friends and the importance of keeping private information private.

Teaching Kids About “Stuff”

Posted on July 14, 2012 at 8:09 am

I like Kirsten Greenidge’s piece in the Boston Globe about what she did when her children had tantrums in a store. She said she understands the appeal of “stuff.” And she described how the seemingly harmless fun of posting photos on Pinterest can lead to an adult version of the gimmies. She resolved to put her kids on a no-stuff diet until the next special occasion, even no free lollipop at the bank. She is going to teach her kids to be more present in their interactions with things.

This is perhaps not the most fulfilling way to meander through life, this coveting, this curating of stuff. It is a means of focusing inward, of connecting to others through objects that are, when all is said and done, simply objects. They make poor substitutes for actual human interaction and connection.

Still, from the back seat, each kid howled. I had come between them and their stuff. I was altering their view of the world — a view that it is OK if your need for more objects affirming your place in the universe takes over your experience as a human being.

Over the weekend, my husband and I drove by what was once, in the days of VHS, a video store. I told him that once, when our son was about 2, I stood with him on the sidewalk in front before we went inside and told him that we did not have time to pick out a new movie, so we were just going to go inside long enough to return one, and he should not ask me to stay. Our son said he understood. A man walking past us stopped to listen. “That works?” he said incredulously. It is so easy to get caught up in the excitement of giving in to the “stuff” monster. But it is a much greater gift to teach children to value what they have.