Can too much screen time destroy your kid's attention span or even give them ADHD? A new study found that yes, it might be possible.
Keep in mind, this was a small study, and more research would need to be done before they could be sure, but it looks like all that time in in front of TV, smart phones, and video games isn't great for kids' brains.
Researchers tracked about 2,600 tenth graders for two years. They only picked kids who didn't show any signs of ADHD when the study started. Then they checked in on them two years later, and about 5% of them had symptoms of it. But some groups were more likely to have symptoms than others.
Kids who texted a lot were 21% more likely to show signs of ADHD. Kids who watched a ton of streaming video were 45% more likely. And the kids who used social media the most were 53% more likely to have ADHD symptoms.
Again, the study was too small to know for sure, and correlation doesn't mean causation...but it's probably a good idea to limit your kids' screen time anyway when possible. In 2018, it's almost impossible to keep them away from screens completely, but monitoring is certainly not a bad idea.
You can read the full article here.