Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think And What We Can Do About It

"As a school psychologist, this book helped me understand some of the frustrations teachers were having with students in their classrooms. They have told me that students just aren't able to attend, can't focus, and don't have the skills that students had when they first began teaching. This book helps to explain how children's brains have changed since the advent of so much television and video games, and how educators can help students become better thinkers and learners."
~ Written on 2008-08-23

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Slate recently highlighted a Cornell study linking TV watching before the age of 3 years with increased rates of autism.

You can read the Slate article here: http://www.slate.com/id/2151538/
or go directly to the actual publication of the research here:
http://www.johnson.cornell.edu/faculty/profiles/Waldman/AUTISM-WALDMAN-NICHOLSON-ADILOV.pdf

I've pasted the abstract in down below - and remember, in science we don't "prove" things. All we can do is provide a rationale for our hypothesis, and then do studies that support it. My prediction is that we'll be seeing more and more of this. It makes sense.

ABSTRACT

Autism is currently estimated to affect approximately one in every 166 children, yet the cause or causes of the condition are not well understood. One of the current theories concerning the condition is that among a set of children vulnerable to developing the condition because of their underlying genetics, the condition manifests itself when such a child is exposed to a (currently unknown) environmental trigger. In this paper we empirically investigate the hypothesis that early childhood television viewing serves as such a trigger. Using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' American Time Use Survey, we first establish that the amount of television a young child watches is positively related to the amount of precipitation in the child's community. This suggests that, if television is a trigger for autism, then autism should be more prevalent in communities that receive substantial precipitation. We then look at county-level autism data for three states - California, Oregon, and Washington - characterized by high precipitation variability. Employing a variety of tests, we show that in each of the three states (and across all three states when pooled) there is substantial evidence that county autism rates are indeed positively related to county-wide levels of precipitation. In our final set of tests we use California and Pennsylvania data on children born between 1972 and 1989 to show, again consistent with the television as trigger hypothesis, that county autism rates are also positively related to the percentage of households that subscribe to cable television. Our precipitation tests indicate that just under forty percent of autism diagnoses in the three states studied is the result of television watching due to precipitation, while our cable tests indicate that approximately seventeen percent of the growth in autism in California and Pennsylvania during the 1970s and 1980s is due to the growth of cable television. These findings are consistent with early childhood television viewing being an important trigger for autism. We also discuss further tests that can be conducted to explore the hypothesis more directly.

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~ Written on 2008-07-30

"Where does Healy even come up with these ideas? Just by reading a peer-reveiwed journal which cites her book, you can see that there is unsubstantial or no evidence to prove her logic. Maybe check out the article by Daniel R. Anderson called "Educational Television is not an Oxymoron" He is an actual professor of psychology, has been the head of the Division of Cognitive, Developmental and Educational Psychology, and is a member of the Annenberg Public Policy Center's Advisory Council in Excellence in Children's Television. Can anyone tell me what Healy is, besides an author of a book?"
~ Written on 2007-10-17

"Writes author Jane M. Healy: "many of today's youngsters, at all socioeconomic levels, are blocked from this goal (meaningful learning) by detours erected in our culture, schools, and homes. Fast-paced lifestyles, coupled with heavy media diets of visual immediacy, beget brains misfitted to traditional modes of academic learning."
Parents need to limit children's access to video games, TV, and even computers. Making sure your children get adequate sleep and have some structure in their lives is important. Talk to your children and interact with them. Read to your children."
~ Written on 2007-01-16

"A large emphasis of this book is that we, as a species, are unique in that we have only a couple instincts, even crawling is learned and not prewired. Therefore our brain adapts to our environment, in the first year favoring areas which are being stimulated. As TV is non interactive, the theory proposed by this book and accepted by the American Academy of Pediatrics, is that TV is harmful to young minds (AAP warns for parents to not allow any watching of TV for children under 2). Since the publication of this book, a one to one correspondence to Attention Deficit Disorder, obesity and anger have all been found related to the amount of time watching TV (any type). There has also been a corresponding drop in the ability to do complex tasks, analyze complex problems and overall literacy for the last 40 years. These are measurable, seen in standardized tests, and now accepted scientifically, but there has been little widestream acceptance as the very mechanism for disseminating this information is TV. It's a must read. Many preschool teachers we know can spot the children who've watched lots of TV by their aggression and difficulty concentrating. Friends who've been teaching for now 30 years have remarked how they are having problems getting even the new teachers to understand the material they are teaching. If you like this book I'd recommend "The Well Trained Mind"."
~ Written on 2006-11-22