By Henry Passenger
Does background TV noise affect a child’s attention span?
Dr. Molly O’Shea, a Birmingham pediatrician, made a convincing case in a newspaper report a few weeks ago to support that theory.
She was striking out at what she labeled a common feature of many households – having a television set running in the background, even without anyone actively watching it. (Something like elevator music in the home.)
She referred to the TV noise as something that fills an otherwise quiet space. The sound is ever-present and nearly unavoidable. When was the last time you tried to ignore “The View” that was playing on the widescreen TV in the doctor’s waiting room? Or have you tried to tune out too-loud music at a restaurant?
It’s the doctor’s opinion that this background noise – she picks on TV particularly – is linked to children’s later inability to focus when they get into elementary school.
Her point, supported by research: When children are playing or chit-chatting with themselves or someone else while the TV runs mindlessly in the background, they tend to interrupt whatever they are doing when the TV sound level changes (think commercials or raucous laugh tracks or game show hysterics). Their resumed playing, confirmed by research videos, tended to go off in entirely different directions; if they were vocalizing with themselves or others, the chatter stopped briefly and was entirely different when it resumed. The interruptions didn’t necessarily indicate that the child in question was listening to the television program; he or she was just hearing a sound change.
O’Shea suggested that even if older household members are conscientiously watching television, the effect on the early pre-school bunch was similar: Play and vocalizing were interrupted and were entirely different on resumption.
Her thought-provoking analysis is that these constant interruptions, however brief, hinder a young brain from learning how to sustain focus and attention. That distractibility and lost focus, she says, may develop into the child’s norm, a pattern that may be impossible to undo as he or she gets older.
Her solution: No TV while the child is awake. If there are shows that you really can’t miss, record them to watch by yourself later.
I knew there was a reason that I’m not a TV fan.
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Quips ‘n’ Quotes: The ancient Greek philosopher Socrates said, “The right way to begin is to pay attention to the young, and make them just as good as possible,” and an uncredited quote observes, “The attention span of a computer is only as long as its electrical cord.”
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Henry Passenger’s column appears each Wednesday in the Tuscola County Advertiser. He can be reached at hbp35@sbcglobal.net