- TUESDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) — Even if young children aren't
watching the TV, it may be distracting them from their play and depriving
them of developing critical attention skills, a new study says.

When children aged 3 and younger played in a room with a television on
that was tuned to adult programming, they played for about 5 percent less
time than when there was no background TV. More importantly, when there
was no background TV, the children's play was more focused with longer
play episodes, the study found.

“Background TV is a disruptive and distracting influence. Our evidence
is that TV keeps the children from sustaining their attention at a time
when developmentally, they're beginning to organize their attention skills
and sequencing behaviors,” said study senior author Daniel Anderson, a
professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.

“Parents think it [background TV] doesn't matter because the programs
aren't directed at children, but just because a child isn't paying active
attention doesn't mean it doesn't have a disruptive effect,” he added.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children 2
years old and younger be exposed to no screen time. For older children,
the AAP suggests limiting screen time — including TV, video games and
computer use — to one to two hours a day of active viewing time.
Guidelines haven't specifically addressed background TV.

Because many children are exposed to background TV, and the visual and
auditory cues on TV change about every six seconds, Anderson and his
colleagues wondered if this exposure affects very young children.

The new study, published in the July/August issue of Child
Development, included 50 toddlers who were either 12, 24 or 36 months
old. Each child was videotaped during hour-long sessions in a family-room
type environment. Their parents were asked to limit their interaction
with the children.

The children were randomly assigned to either play with no background
TV for the first half hour or to play with an adult game show on TV while
they were playing with toys. Then, for the second half hour, the children
switched roles.

“Children's play episodes were shorter — about half as long — if the
TV was on, compared to when it wasn't, [and] children were more likely to
move from toy to toy during the time TV was on,” Anderson said.

He said these differences weren't obvious if you were in the room with
the children, but if you slowly reviewed the videotape, the differences
became much more apparent. “The kids look normal. They don't look
distressed or distracted,” he said.

Dr. Daniel Bronfin, a pediatrician with the Ochsner Health System in
New Orleans, called background TV the “equivalent of secondhand
smoke.”

“All of the concerns we have with children watching programming for
children still apply to secondhand viewing. It distracts from the work of
childhood, from play,” he said.

Bronfin said this type of constant distraction may be a contributing
factor to the rise in behavioral disorders, such as attention-deficit
disorder.

Both Anderson and Bronfin recommend that parents leave background TV
off when a child is in the room. Anderson said that certain children's
shows have value and children can learn from them, but that's different
from background TV.

More information

For more on kids and TV, visit the Nemours Foundation's KidsHealth.