Times-Gazette – Jason Reynolds
“Parents: Is your child growing up social or growing up attached to a video screen? A new book by two of America’s relationship experts can answer that question for you and help you raise your child with a healthy balance of screen time…The average American child, at the age of 7, will have spent one full year of 24-hour days watching a media screen. Children between ages 8-18 spend an average of more than seven hours a day looking at a video game, computer, cell phone or television. Those numbers result in some scary details about the impact on children’s development…Screen time affects the development of a child’s brain: the neural circuits that control the more traditional learning methods used for reading, writing and sustained concentration are neglected. Children begin to use gadgets to communicate instead of using face-to-face communication. Young brains are not naturally empathetic toward others. Empathy must be learned around people, and screen time takes away from that.”(more)