Zone’in Workshops

Developing countries throughout the world are noting alarming physical, mental and emotional problems in children attributed to TV and videogame (TVVG) addiction. North American children watch on average 6.5 hours per day of TVVG. The American Academy of Pediatrics have linked TVVG use to attention problems, attachment disorders, health disorders, obesity, violence, family conflict, and early sexual experience. By the time North American children graduate from high school, they will have spent more time in front of TVVG than in front of a teacher. North American parents spend on average 3.5 minutes in meaningful conversation each week with their children. While dining room tables are being replaced by big screen TV’s, and teachers are being replaced by computers, our children are falling behind. Developmental delays resulting from TVVG use is having wide range impact on our children, causing social, academic and behavioral problems, to name only a few. Yet it appears that if our society is required to turn off TVVG, they appear to be very reluctant to listen.

In my capacity as a pediatric Occupational Therapist (OT), I have given hundreds of workshops for parents and teachers in the areas of sensory and motor development over the past 10 years. I have listened to teachers report growing concerns regarding a decline in children’s ability to coordinate and move their bodies, having a negative impact on printing and reading. Teachers also report one of the main problems in the classroom is children cannot attend or focus on academic tasks. This appears to not just be North American phenomena. MacLean’s magazine recently reported England is now leading Europe in poor academic performance and teen drop out, as well as obesity, alcoholism, violence and teen pregnancy. Unfortunately, England attributes their problems largely to marital demise, and therefore has chosen remediation initiatives to address keeping young families together. I can’t help but wonder why England would not look toward TVVG addiction as a causal factor as well, when the American Academy of Pediatrics has drawn links between TVVG use and England’s long list of societal problems. Has anyone thought that possibly TVVG might be a causal factor in marital demise?

Through visual imagery and advertising, TVVG promotes a surreal world, a virtual reality that no one can measure up to. Children and adults alike absorb this imagery into their conscious and subconscious minds, and have literally lost the concept of who they really are. Does anyone wonder why recent mass murderers were addicted to TVVG and computers? Their concept of who they were was blended with the images from computer and videogames to the extent that they acted them out in real life. Are family relationships failing because no one communicates with each other, because they prefer to live in the surreal world of reality TVVG? MacLean’s report on England’s woes told the sad fact that England’s most popular TV show was reality-based police calls to pub brawls!

During my work for eight years as a school-based OT in the Sunshine Coast School District, I have watched children’s physical, mental, emotional, social and academic abilities decline, having significant impact on their ability to print, read and pay attention. I believe this is largely due to the influence of the sedentary effects of TVVG use on children’s developing sensory and motor systems. “Because children’s sensory and motor development depends largely on movement and sensation, children are exhibiting increasing problems resulting from lack of necessary sensory stimulation and exercise.” Cris goes on to report “In order for children’s neurological systems to develop properly, they require a combination of stimulation to their touch, balance and muscle sensory systems. TVVG use is creating sensory deprivation in these three areas, resulting in a long list of developmental problems. Adequate stimulation to the touch, balance and muscle systems results in a child’s ability to coordinate both sides of the body, maintain erect posture, coordinate the muscles of the eyes, and modulate different sensory inputs. If the child is unable to integrate these three senses, they have great difficulty processing information through their ears and eyes, which are main learning sensory channels.”

Due to the lack of technology and lower economic in third world countries, children play outside more and are less exposed to media advertising of the latest and greatest new toy. Also, children of the third world are required to participate in manual labor much earlier than children in developed countries. Although early manual labor in third world children has it’s negative consequences and is not advocated, these children are getting necessary touch, movement and balance stimulation that North American children are not getting while sitting in front of TVVG. The importance of play and work cannot be understated for children’s normal sensory and motor development, and third world children are likely leading developed countries in this area. While children’s nutritional and medical status, as well as safety and housing may be substandard, third world children are definitely not suffering the ill effects of high exposure to technology such as TV and videogames.

Developing countries may want to consider two initiatives: support third world children economically, as they may be the leaders of the 21st century, and address North American TVVG addiction, as this is most certainly destroying our children’s future.