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By Mom Unplugged, June 9, 2010 8:30 am

“…and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise.”
~ Benjamin Franklin

And it also makes kids learn better!

Debs of Little House on the Lees reports today on an interesting study of the benefits of regular, early bedtimes for young children. They need 11 hours of sleep per night.

I have always been a huge fan of early bedtime for children so I feel reassured.

Now I can say with certainty that my kids go to bed early not just so I can have my own evening peace and quiet (as a Consistently Substandard Slacker Mom, I’ll confess that has always been my main reason for being a bedtime drill sergeant). According to the study, by sending them up to their rooms earlier than most of their friends, I am actually helping them learn more easily at school too.

Thanks Debs!

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By Mom Unplugged, February 7, 2010 5:09 pm

QUESTION: Which one of these photos represents 120 calories?

ANSWER: All.

Do you feel the need to lose a little weight after the excesses of the holidays? Believe it or not, according to a new study, simply watching less TV could cause you to burn an average of 120 more calories per day!

That doesn’t sound huge, but according to the New York Times, that is the number of calories burned on a one mile walk. It is also the number of calories in these servings of foods.

According to Dr. Jennifer Otten, lead author of the study:

“We need a longer-term study to see if this would be an intervention that would help with weight loss, or even weight gain prevention. But if you add it up over time, it’s equivalent to walking eight miles a week. Over a year, it might help prevent weight gain of 12 pounds.“

Why does unplugging have this effect? According to the study by Dr. Otten published in the December 14-28 of the Archives of Internal Medicine, adults who cut their TV viewing in half spent more time in light physical activities, or even couch-potato activities that burn more calories than TV-watching does (simple “unplugged” activities like reading, playing board games or scrapbooking!). Their eating patterns did not change*.

The study was based on 36 overweight and obese adults who watched at least 3 hours of television per day. 20 of those people were asked to cut their viewing in half (enforced through a TV lock-out device). Armband accelerometers measured the movements of all participants.

*NOTE: An interesting inference from the NY Times Article is that children who cut back on TV actually DO EAT LESS TOO! Would kids benefit even more than adults by cutting TV viewing in half??

Interesting links:

What Does 120 Calories Look Like? (Be sure to look at the 38 photos at the bottom of the page too)

What Does 200 Calories Look Like?

Click Off the TV, and Burn More Calories

THE STUDY: Effects of Television Viewing Reduction on Energy Intake and Expenditure in Overweight and Obese Adults - A Randomized Controlled Trial

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By Mom Unplugged, November 2, 2009 9:10 pm

Nielsen released a study last Monday (October 26) which found that children ages 2 to 5 watch more than 32 hours of TV per week. Kids ages 6 to 11 only watch about 28 hours per week (but they are in school more which accounts for the reduced TV watching).

When you consider that most adults work a 40 hour week, I find those numbers to be astonishing. Apparently this is the most television viewing for 2 to 11 year-olds since 1995.

Also according to this study, kids aged 6 to 11 also watch more commercials than older kids or adults. Thanks to the wonders of DVR, they also watch the same programs over and over again.

What about video games? The same study says that children ages 6 to 11 spend nearly 2.5 hours per week playing video games on a TV.

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SOURCES:

Nielsen Wire Blog: TV Viewing Among Kids at an Eight-Year High

MSNBC - Study: Many Tots Watch 32 Hours of TV a Week

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By Mom Unplugged, June 23, 2009 9:44 pm

I have been a very minimalist blogger lately, popping in once a week to post the Linky for the Unplugged Project. I guess I have been taking a bit of a refreshing blog break. Time and inspiration permitting, I might be up for writing a bit more often than I have been.

So, here is my first TV-related post in a while for anyone interested in television and its effects on children.

Many thanks to my friend Wishy who is always way more up with current news than I am, and who kindly emails me links to any article she thinks might be of interest on my blog! I guess she is my Director of Current Affairs.

Here is Wishy’s latest find: Even Background TV May Delay Children’s Speech. This article is nearly a month old, but that’s how long it took me to get around to writing my post. Oh well.

According this MSNBC article, a new study* has found that for each hour of television exposure (even as background noise), infants heard 770 fewer words spoken to them by adults (a 7% decrease). There was also a decrease in the number and length of children’s vocalizations, as well as child-adult conversation.

The possible explanation for this? Here is the researchers’ conclusion:

“Some of these reductions are likely due to children being left alone in front of the television screen,” the researchers write in the June issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, “but others likely reflect situations in which adults, though present, are distracted by the screen and not interacting with their infant in a discernible manner.”

I would imagine that most mothers have been naturally chatting away with their pre-verbal babies since language first began. But experts now realize that two-way linguistic interaction with adults is absolutely crucial for infant language development.

By the way, one startling fact from this article is that 30% of households have the TV on all the time. Wow!

A final thought: I wonder if too much talk radio would also have the same negative effect on language development. I know when I am trying to listen to the news on NPR, I am not paying a whole lot of attention to what my children are saying either.

This is a good reminder for us all I think.

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* The study, entitled Audible Television and Decreased Adult Words, Infant Vocalizations, and Conversational Turns, appeared in the June 2009 issue of The Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine. Here is a link to the abstract. The full article is also available online with membership, or for a one-time access fee.

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(Photo credit: clarita from morguefile.com)

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By Mom Unplugged, August 28, 2008 11:20 pm

Hopefully NOT your tax dollars at work.

+++Exercise and limited TV time may keep kids trim +++

New Study - Boys need 13,000 steps per day, girls need 11,000.

Should we issue each child a pedometer? Or simply turn off the TV and send them outside? (Journal of Pediatrics - Text of actual study: Combined Influence of Physical Activity and Screen Time Recommendations on Childhood Overweight.)

+++Just having TV on can distract kids+++

Of course it does. Do these researchers even HAVE kids? (American Behavioral Scientist - Text of actual study: Television and Very Young Children)

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However, on a more serious note:

The USA Today TV distraction article says one survey found that 14% of parents say the TV is ALWAYS on in their homes. Also: “recent surveys show that as many as two-thirds of children up to 6 years old live in homes where the TV is on at least half the time, even if no one is watching.”

(Being a nerd, I really like to find the actual sources for what I quote when I put an article in my blog. Since newspapers don’t always give the source, I resort to Google. A quick Google tonight turned up no readily apparent studies for the TV always on or TV on half the time claims. If you know a link to these studies, please let me know via comment or email and I will update the post to include them.)

(Photo thanks to morguefile.com and photographer “cohdra” -Jane M. Sawyer.)