Study: Limiting kids' screen time improves brain function

[Novembrist]

Source: USA Today

Brett Molina, USA TODAY Published 6:33 a.m. ET Oct. 1, 2018

Cutting back on screen time, along with the right amount of sleep and physical activity, is linked to improvements in coginition among children, a study suggests.

The observational study analyzed data from a broader study funded by the National Institutes of Health, focusing on 4,500 children between the ages of 8 and 11.

Researchers then compared time spent on screens, sleeping, and engaged in physical activity from that study against the Canadian 24-hour Movement Guidelines, created by the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology to advise how kids should spend their time in a given day.

The study associates kids who met the guidelines — which include 9 to 11 hours of sleep, at least one hour of physical activity, and less than two hours on screens — with improvements in cognition.

Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2018/10/01/screen-time-study-less-than-2-hours-day-kids-boosts-brains/1484765002/

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I think we can file this one in the "No Shit, Sherlock!" drawer.

[enough]

1. Adults too, no doubt. NT

[zentrum]

2. It's actually

....heartbreaking to see little kids, just starting to toddle, sitting in their strollers with a child's game screen---paying no attention to all the people and sights around them---sky, trees, birds, buildings, textures, real colors, dimensional space, etc etc.

[RobinA]

3. I Feel This Way

when I see families obviously traveling with kids glued to screens in the car. What a damn shame. When we were youngsters, my parents took us on many road trips. We even went for "rides" for the day, taking a picnic lunch. Did we get bored? Sure. So you looked out the window. Still bored? Sometimes. So you found things to see out the window. Amazing what a bored 10 year old can find looking out the window driving I70 through Kansas. And we LOVED to travel this way, it wasn't like we were dragged. I still love to roadtrip and watch different worlds go by out the window. Even though I usually drive now.

[zentrum]

13. Not to mention

...the radical idea of actually talking together. Sharing impressions. Telling stories. Playing road games. Learning to deal with boredom by building up thinking and imagination abilities.

What a loss.

[lunasun]

5. Agree I have often thought that esp when with adults who have thier noses in thier phone. They

are not paying attention to the toddler and the toddler is tuned out

[zentrum]

14. Especially.

[LakeSuperiorView]

4. Apparently, the editors at US Today could use some more screen time.

That way, they could pick up that they are reporting on cogination instead of cognition.

[WhiskeyGrinder]

6. Why is this focused only on screens, when getting enough sleep seems to have a similar effect?

Researchers found even just limiting screen time or getting enough sleep had the strongest links to better cognition.

"Evidence suggests that good sleep and physical activity are associated with improved academic performance, while physical activity is also linked to better reaction time, attention, memory, and inhibition," said Dr. Jeremy Walsh, the study's lead author who works with the CHEO Research Institute in Ottawa, Canada, in a statement.

[Igel]

15. Because the editor giving the words a title

probably thought screen time was a better hook then bedtime.

The sleep connection's been known for 40 years. If a person doesn't know it, it's because he wasn't paying attention the first eight thousand times he heard it. But screen time is topical, it's happening, it's trendy, and, dammit, the same kind of inquisitive people who missed the sleep connect are intensely interested in ...

Sorry, lost interest. There was something bright moving on the screen and that sentence was too long for me to ...

What? Sorry. Another thing on my ...

[kcr]

7. Not that I think it's a bad thing to be mindful of screen time

But I suspect the sleep and physical activity had more to do with the outcome. This claim reminds me of the ads for diet pills that claim they work along with calory reduction and exercise.

[LanternWaste]

9. What specifically leads you to suspect the effect of screen time has been weighted?

What specifically leads you to suspect the effect of screen time has been weighted relative to the other factors?

[Igel]

16. I'm around a lot of kids.

I find, from listening to hundreds of kids' conversation and excuse making that increased screen time comes at the expense of

(1) study time at home and paying-attention time in class;

(2) sleep.

Many things aren't a zero-sum game; the amount of time in a day is fixed, so the more screen time the less time there is for other things.

[FSogol]

8. K & R. n/t

[kimbutgar]

10. Every time I see small children being entertained on mommy's cell phone I want to scream

At the parents are doing is hurting their children developing brain. I’ve seen kids as young as 1 playing or watching something on their parents cell phone. My son grew up in the first generation of computers and getting him off it became a struggle. Finally we disconnected the computer and he agreed to a 1 hour time limit each day.

I really make an effort to turn off my iPad at least 2 hours before bedtime. Even adults get their sleep affected by the display.

[EllieBC]

18. Really? So you judge them based on the 10 minutes

you see them? Because you don’t see all those mothers do the other hours of the day.

I’ve given my kids my phone. Usually at a restaurant or store where one of the childfree or “in my generation....” folks will whine if my kids are being loud.

[kimbutgar]

19. What about you when you were young did your mother give you a cell phone to be entertained?

Scientifically we don’t know the long term risks of exposure to cell phones and iPads. Kids brains are being rewired and the rich experience of experiencing things is limited to a small screen. I have taken many child development classes and learned a lot about children’s brain development. You want to expose them to new things and don’t forget interactions with other people. I am a teacher and those kids who are iPad, cell phone obsessed are less verbal and their social skills are lacking versus kids who parents limit their cell phone/iPad use. I ask the kids in kindergarten who plays with cell phones vs those who parents don’t allow their kids and observed how the kids who don’t get to use cell or iPads are more social and attention spans.

There are many private schools in Silicon Valley who do not use computers until kids are in middle school. I wonder why?

But you should research this on your own.

[EllieBC]

23. No she let me fuss. Or when I was older I remember her quite loudly

correcting me and my sibling and cousins. Neither of which you can do anymore. But again, why are you judging a parent based on the short time you see them? Unless you are a NEVER A SCREEN EVER believer.

My eldest daighter’s teacher uses tablets in her classroom. Maybe her research is different.

[kimbutgar]

24. I'm a teacher it's easier to let a disruptive kid be on the internet than deal won't them

And no I wou,d never correct a parent if a chi,d was being out of control. Many times I have stepped in and asked a kid why aren’t you listening to your mom?

I guess because I’m a mother of an autistic kid who is now grown I have learned. Plus you can NEVER imagine the meltdowns I have exoerienced in public and just had to deal with it. My skills became sharper.

[scipan]

11. quote from the study:

Compared with meeting none of the recommendations, associations with superior global cognition were found in participants who met all three recommendations (β=3·89, 95% CI 1·43 to 6·34, p=0·0019), the screen time recommendation only (β=4·25, 2·50–6·01, p<0·0001), and both the screen time and the sleep recommendations (β=5·15, 3·56–6·74, p<0·0001).

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanchi/article/PIIS2352-4642(18)30278-5/fulltext

Wish I knew how to interpret those numbers but I think the beta is the degree of correlation and the CI is the range for 95% confidence?

[NickB79]

12. A lot of schools are using iPads instead of books

My daughter has had one since kindergarten.

It worries me, frankly, even if it is for educational purposes.

[Igel]

17. One clever researcher decided to

look at some of the top schools after some scandal involving the PISA test and how the US students do.

His report: Technology is kept in tech classes like athletics is kept in phys ed classes, but no place else. Not in the classrooms. No "webquests", no "quizlets". No distractions, no easy source of pointless detail, no easy source of answers to assignments or corruptly concise content.

[diva77]

20. Use of ipads and computers is cleverly embedded in requirements for getting a teaching credential

Credential candidates must submit lesson plans which state how they applied technology to such plans.

[Luciferous]

22. At my son's school they all have their own Chromebooks.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. I wonder what the long term effects are on their eyes as well

We've gone from no close exposure to computer screens, tablets and cell phones to several hours a day in the last 30 years. How many young people will be getting cataracts and at what age? I realize cataracts are correctable with surgery. I'll need mine done in the next few years, but I'm 61. My guess is that millenials and younger will start getting cataracts in their 40s.