Thanks to Nick at MLC for suggesting I listen to Professor Dimitri Christakis, who is Director of the Child Health Institute at the University of Washington, Seattle, talking to Norman Swan on the ABC’s RN Health Report yesterday (among many other things check transcript or podcast) :

“… what we found was that the more TV children watched before the age of three the more likely they were to have attention problems at age 7, specifically for each hour of TV the children watched on average before the age of 3, their chances of having attentional problems at age 7 were increased by about 10%. To put that another way a child who watched 2 hours a day of TV on average before age 3 would be 20% more likely to have attention problems at age 7 compared to a child who watched none.”

Worth a read and maybe a good discussion starter for Year 12’s as they get their heads around the challenges of Media Influence.

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/healthreport/stories/2008/2188220.htm

JK