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Switch off that telly
PHOTO: C.V. SUBRAHMANYAM
BEHAVIOUR A television set sets off an academic alert
Elementary school students who have televisions in their bedrooms do worse on tests in school, researchers report. The study, in Archives of Paediatric & Adolescent Medicine, looked at the performance of almost 400 children in six Northern California schools for a year. The researchers also surveyed the students and their families about television, computer and video game use.
The lead author of the study, Dina Borzekowski of John Hopkins, said the study found that those children with television sets in their bedrooms consistently scored significantly lower on math, reading and language arts tests.
By contrast, those students who said they had computers in their homes scored higher. About 70 per cent of the children said they had televisions in their rooms. Borzekowski said the solution was simple, although some parents may find it unnerving. "It is a physical object," she said. "And it is a pretty straightforward thing to unplug the television set and remove it physically from the children's bedroom."
She said she was not against watching television when it is done in common rooms. While it is unclear why children with televisions in their rooms test worse, the study said, it may have less to do with what they are watching than when.
The New York Times
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