A study has found that watching video for more than an hour a day has a negative effect on a child’s growth and development.
The Child Psychological Development Research Center of Hamamatsu Medical University in Japan conducted a survey of △18 months after birth △24 months △32 months △4-year-old children to find out how the act of watching video for a long time on a smartphone or TV affects the growth of a child. The study was conducted on 885 people.
1 hour or more of video viewing time is one of the three growth and development abilities of a child ▲communication ability (reaction, expression, writing ability) ▲daily life ability (ability to adapt to personal, family, and community life) ▲socialization (interpersonal relationship, ability to cope with situations) ) and how it was related. Video content included videos viewed on TV, computers, and mobile phones, as well as video games.
As a result of the study, children who watched videos for more than 1 hour a day showed low communication and daily life skills. The longer the video was viewed, the more the optic nerve center in charge of vision was stimulated, while the frontal lobe, which regulates major cognitive and thinking abilities, was not activated.
However, it was confirmed that children who played outdoors for more than 30 minutes 5 to 6 days a week gradually decreased the rate of decline in daily life skills due to video viewing and improved socialization scores. The research team advised, “If you play outside frequently, you can reduce the growth deterioration caused by the time you watch videos by 18%.”
The research team added, “However, communication skills did not improve even when they were outdoors for more than 30 minutes a day.
The results of this study were introduced in the American pediatric journal ‘JAMA Pediatrics’.
Lee Ye-ji, Donga.com reporter leeyj@donga.com