Did I read the article correctly? The implication of the second paragraph was that children that exercised one hour a day scored lower (4.1%) than children who did not (5%).
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@Malcolm Nolen
I agree that that is what the article implies
@Malcolm Nolen The article is not very clear, but I think the reported 5% increase for both adequate sleep and minimal screen-time is across all children in the study, regardless of whether or not they met the exercise threshold of 60 minutes per day. This suggests that adequate sleep and less screen-time may be driving the effect of higher cognitive performance since that combination leads to a bigger increase than the combination of all three factors.
I would still assume that exercise is beneficial based on the results. Its possible, though, that getting enough exercise can have some costs for some kids, for example not getting enough sleep due to demands of sports schedule. Or perhaps some of the kids getting adequate exercise are exercising at the expense of building cognitive skills through homework. Perhaps such exceptions are the reason that there is only a 4% increase for all three factors combined.
As a psych major in the 60s I remember learning about a study that showed brain activity while watching television was about the same as being unconscious. I've never heard anything along those lines since then but, that information alone prompted my wife and I to drastically limit the time our daughter (a future honors student) spent in front of the tube.
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Hard to say whether it is these 3 factors that produce such a positive result, or whether it is having parents that make the effort to reduce screen time, put their children on a sleep schedule and get excercise.
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I’m a retired pediatrician, and believe sleep is integral to development. Most newborns alternate sleep and wake cycles through the day. Over time, they prolong their cycles; longer wakening, longer sleep at night ... a a shorter nap or two in the day.
Babies learn more in the first year of life than in any other year. It’s no wonder they need sleep! I think, but cannot prove, that sleep is the time the brain files all the stuff a baby experiences.
Free-range children, IMHO, often get overtired and overstimulated. They may have meltdowns in part because they can’t integrate the input. Real learning is stepwise and overstimulation is counterproductive.
I understand parents who want their kids to be up in the evening, as parents get home late.
But.
Kids do best with a routine that alternates active times with quieter ones.
Screens are TOO EASY for kids. Sounding out T-R-E-E is hard. “Turry?” Video shows 10,000 times what the word does: sound, movement, audio. But reading is about decoding. Every kid needs to be able to do it.
Sure, let ‘em watch Sesame Street. Sure a video is great once in a while.
Respect the biology of children. They won’t eat a balanced diet ... they’ll choose sugar. They may gripe about going to bed, but they NEED it. Parents give kids what they NEED, not always what they want.
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We brought up our child who is 28 without any TV. Movies were a treat on weekends. You can do it. Hardest part were the friends who had TV set in their bedrooms from age 9 watching Sex and City. The result of banning tv, and not having video games - a kid who read a ton, wrote beautifully, explored art and music,and did brilliantly in school, college and now in career. It can be done.
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Managing, limiting screen time is the bane of modern parents.
90 percent of the time, I hate that "screens" are part of my children's world.
But, of course, there is an app for that - we have an app controlled by us, the parents, that shuts off all screens in the house at 9pm and limits screen time to 1hr on weekdays and 2 hours on weekends. We can track usage. The kids can see their time dwindle and then eventually just shut off. It is so much better than screaming, yelling, asking for five more minutes.
Finally, we are so lucky that kids K-8th can walk to /from school. Crossing guards make a few particular intersections much safer. 2.5 mile walk per day is great for mental and physical health.
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It's understandable that different commentators agree or disagree with this study- but I would suggest thinking about it this way: based on an earlier New York Times article, what's most important about screen time is balance, and parents will know it when they see it. And that makes perfect sense, but some parents don't know what balance is, or they are exhausted from trying to enforce balance- so some guidelines like this article's are useful as a benchmark. I'm thinking of two dads I know whose sons dropped all sports and extracurricular activities and pretty much only play video games in their basements. That's all they're doing. These dads (one ivy league and one a high school grad) think they're allowing their sons freedom. Freedom to what? Freedom to waste.
I would add, though, that two hours is a great target, but there are going to be days that there's more- and as long as that's an aberration and your kid snaps back and doesn't moan and whine for screens-only the next day, and they're interested in being active with their brains and their bodies, then those aberrations should be OK, right? I'm asking this after NFL Sunday football in our house today :) BUT my young teen did play his own sports for about three hours today and he just finished up A Tree Grows in Brooklyn before a 9:30 lights out!
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@common sense advocate I couldn’t agree with your comment more. We have a disparity in our two houses; at my house it’s a two-hour limit on all screen time, balanced with outdoor activities and other brain stimulating activities. And yes, we sometimes go over but also have to cut it short. On those days that for whatever reason we allow our son to go over his time limit we see a definite change in his personality when he’s had too much screen time.
Whereas at his dad’s house he has much more liberal screen time but far more structured physical activity.
As a huge advocate and practitioner or yoga, I strive for balance and try to teach our son the same. And despite the differences in our separate households, I do see it as a balance.
Unfortunately, a lot of my friends parent from both of your two points: too tired to fight for rules they know are best for their kids, and the permissive parent role,e.g. freedom, friendship, etc. These two perspectives, especially the later one, has devastating effects on our children’s growth and ultimately on the future of a society that values it.
Parenting and developing a child to be a successful adult is the hardest work I’ve ever done but it’s work. When parents take the long view of parenting and child rearing, it does make those hard decisions just a littler easier.
And for the record, I LOVE your “title” We could all use a little more common sense. ;)
Did the study address screen time for other uses? I'd be curious to know how using technology for educational purposes affects brainpower.
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Very sad, but predictable finding. Right now as we type, I am being forced by educational publishing to switch from real books to e-texts for the text part of most of my college classes. Of course these are mainly people ages 18-25 years of age but still, this money-making scheme by big Ed publishers just increases screen time, inreases chances of distractions, neck problems, vision problem and sleep patterns-----oh the rabbit hole we have gone down in education!!
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Does it bother no one that schools are handing out chrome books like candy?
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@Mary Tedrow yeah, its almost as if word processing, spreadsheets and internet might be useful for school work.
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It bothers me a lot. My son is simply not mature enough to keep focused on his work, but we can’t take it away from him and tell him to focus on his homework, because that stupid chromebook is where his homework is at! AND he has to get up at 5:55 every morning to be out at the bus stop for 6:15. I kid you not. Why aren’t our public schools acting on the obvious knowledge we all have about computers and sleep? It’s maddening. All the articles in the world telling me what I should be doing don’t help if the school district conspires against me.
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How in the world does a school kid get 9-11 hours of sleep in a country where school day starts at the crack of dawn? Here in Fairfax County, VA. we’re lucky elementary starts at my school at 9 am. Some start 8:30, middle school and high school start earlier than that. Throw in a bus rides that can be as much as 30 minutes a lot of kids are waking up super early.
My 5 year old daughter gets home just after 4 pm. (Fairfax has all day Kindergarten) Even with no after school activities just homework, dinner, play time with family it’s hard to get her to bed by 8 pm. I can’t imagine how time strapped parents who have older kids with more homework and after school activities must be.
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@Dmv74
I agree 100%! Between the early start, the commute, and the piles of homework (which so many studies have deemed unnecessary) and extra-curricular activities (which you need for high school and college applications) who can possibly get that much sleep?
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I remember reading elsewhere that most of the tech gods of Silicon Valley severely limit screen time for their children. Otherwise, their kids are reading dead trees and playing in the trees while most other kids are wasting time on TV, video games and social media.
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It’s worse than that. Our school system forces our children to do their homework on the computer, so the parent has no ability to take the computer away.
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I didn’t think so at the time but the best thing that ever happened when I was a kid was having our television break down (for the third time) when I was in fourth grade.
My parents refused to fix it, much less buy a new one. They doubled the number of our weekly trips to the public library to two and my brother, sister, and I read voraciously. We kids also rode our bikes wherever we wanted to go—no car rides if the destination was less than five miles away.
As a result, we read thousands of books before we finished high school, made good grades, and maintained a decent level of fitness. Were I in high school now and had an iPhone, I would be totally worthless.
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@Mike Kids today who use their phones are not "totally worthless."
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I write about this exact subject in my book Minimize Injury, Maximize Performance: A Sports Parent’s Survival Guide. There are injury epidemics in ALL youth sports and in addition to the 15$ Billion per year industry preying upon parents it is the lifestyle’s of these children that is leaving them headed to the operating tables. My dad’s Surgery, Tommy John Surgery, is now being performed on teenagers 60% of the time instead of professionals. And we are both sick our names are attached to an epidemic. I wish it stopped there, concussions, ACL Surgeries, stress fractures and depression and anxiety are leaving these kids having to rehab from their childhoods. Technology abuse with phones and screens, lack of quality sleep, malnourishment, inactivity, specialization...all in the mixing bowl. Change need anything to start in the homes...and young!! Dontcutmykid.com for more information on what my father and I are trying to do to eliminate youth sports injury epidemics, there is a solution.
Great article!!!!!
Dr Tommy John
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Go TJ! All the love from The BAY... I’m a die hard NYT reader. Miss you, maybe me and JT will have to come visit this year...
XO - JT
I think the old school recipe is best after all...classes with a couple of long outdoor recesses....sit-down family dinner...homework that gets checked by mom and dad...bedtime at about 8:30pm...intramural sports on weekend days....no TV or video games...or phone use during the week
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I bet it’s true of adults too.
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Hmm: less screen time, more exercise, more sleep. Sounds like the total opposite of Silicon Valley. Yet success abounds there.
What gives?
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@Chris G.
Children between 8-11 years do not have any success in Silicon Valley. That was the scope of the study. Today’s successful people in Silicon Valley did not have mobile phones when they were 8!
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@Chris G.We have a weird idea of "success" and our brain "health" is not the same thing as "born-with-intelligence." Brain health secures brain function into older age. "Born-with-intelligence" doesn't.
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@Chris G. They aren't children...
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My son was always the last in his class to get any new gadget. His screen time was very limited almost through high school. Even through high school, we encouraged 8 hours of sleep. He was a regular swimmer from elementary school and, later played water polo in high school. He is now a well adjusted senior at Caltech and still doing really well in school. So, yes, I know for a fact that all 3 elements were key contributors in his success. Of course, those alone aren’t enough. We filled all the time he wasn’t watching TV or playing video games with books, music and a sense of curiosity towards understanding the world around him in different ways.
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This study is interesting, but doesn't quite answer the question regarding the affect of "screen time" or "daily movement" specifically. Being observation in nature, one can only see the association of activity and cognition. However, many other things can also affect cognitive test results. The difference of activity may be the result or linked to socioeconomic class which clearly has an impact on testing results independently. Wealthier families with only one working adults often have more resources and time to participate more activities, while families with two working adults may find it more difficult. Financial security itself regardless of working situation may have an impact on stress level which may affect results. Parents' education level may also play significant role on both the behaviors and cognition. To truly answer this question, families with different behavior patterns need to be matched on baseline characteristics such as work, wealth, education, marriage status, etc.
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Or kids with high cognitive ability tend to have parents with high cognitive ability. These parents are more likely to seek out and heed information from research studies on exercise, sleep, and screen time, and to act on that information. It strains credulity to think the causation runs the direction suggested by this article, and the article provides no evidence that the research gives any evidence for the (highly unlikely) causal claim.
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Color me irresponsible, but when my wife travels for business, I usually let my kids have much more recreational screen time than the recommended two hours. It may decrease their sleep time, but it sure helps to increase mine.
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@Not Turning Myself In--I was an irresponsible mom. My sons never needed much sleep and I let them watch tv however long they wanted (or play Dungeons and Dragons). The only requirements were they had to be quiet and no whining in the morning. They are doing fine, more than fine.
On a related matter, my sons never had to eat anything they did not want or to finish meals; however, no alternate food was given. They learned to like anything I cooked very quickly.
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In my home, our bedrooms are refuges from technology, furnished with beds, drawings, hobbies, books, musical instruments and constellations on the ceiling. Free of Computers and Television, we enter our sleeping space with wireless devices in a quiet, secure charging box, in subconscious anticipation of disconnection or creativity. The key to holistic development is to #bewiredless .Virtual Immersion Drowns Holistic Development” explores current 2016 published research on the positive and negative attributes of Computer Recreation, Discretionary Screen Time, Internet Addiction Disorder, systemic child & family development, child development, physical activity and more. The research continues t show to much screen time hurts young people in was we do not understand, since smartphones have only saturated society since 2106 . Light stimulation changes sleep depth. The subconscious desire to check a status, or game progress, or participated in a chat session also undermines preoccupation with sleep. In my home, our bedrooms are refuges from technology, #VirtualImmeresion #4015days
Human and other animal studies demonstrate that
exercise targets many aspects of brain function and has
broad effects on overall brain health. The benefits of
exercise have been best defined for learning and memory,
protection from neurodegeneration and alleviation of
depression, particularly in elderly populations. Exercise
increases synaptic plasticity by directly affecting synaptic
structure and potentiating synaptic strength, and by
strengthening the underlying systems that support
plasticity including neurogenesis, metabolism and vascular
function.
http://pages.ucsd.edu/~mboyle/COGS163/pdf-files/Exercise%20builds%20brai...
Brain may flush out toxins during sleep
NIH-funded study suggests sleep clears brain of damaging molecules associated with neurodegeneration.
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/brain-may-flush-out-toxins...
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I guess you all got off the screen to figure this out...
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We elderly grew up with 0 screen time, and some of us still retain brainpower.
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So when kids limit screen time and get enough sleep, they do 5.1 percent better than kids who don't, but when they also get enough exercise, their advantage drops to only 4 percent. Does that mean that more exercise is bad for mental performance? Am I missing something?
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@Gert Thank goodness someone else noticed that. I thought I was going mad.
(Or getting to much exercise along with my good sleep and limited screen time.)
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How much “non-recreational” screen time is ok?
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We permitted 1-2 hours a day over weekends. On weekdays, recreational screen time was rare. We always had lots of books - fiction and non-fiction. We were more flexible with recreational reading time on weekdays. And, I read almost everything my son was reading with the utmost enjoyment. We talked about the books, discussed the plots and laughed together over funny bits. Now, he can absorb technically dense papers and books with ease and equal enjoyment.
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There is no doubt whatsoever that limiting screen time always helps everyone including children in all respects. Sound and sufficient sleep is the key for proper growth. Lack of proper sleep affects the body, mind and overall development very badly.
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As a kid I never slept more then 7 hours, much to my mothers frustration, and I have an iq of 133. My brighter daughter sleeps even less and games a lot. She is in the top 3%.
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Nevertheless, your high IQ doesn’t seem to stop you from making incorrect generalizations. Your individual experience is irrelevant. Inductive reasoning is typically not what science is made of. This is along the lines of: “My grandfather smoked and drank and lived to be 96 years old.”
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