July 5 - Television in the bedroom.
A study of 400 third graders showed lower academic performance in those that had televisions in their bed-rooms. This study was conducted by Johns Hopkins University and Stanford University and was published in this month’s edition of Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine. It showed lower scores in reading and math (on standardized tests) in kids with televisions in their rooms. This study also found higher scored in kids with computers in their rooms.

Dr Sears’ comment. I wish this study looked at the IQ of the parents that thought it might be a good idea to put a television in their third grader’s room! I thought this was just common sense, so I found it surprising that ANY kids this young had TV’s in their room. The study found that computers had the opposite effect, but it is still important for parents to monitor what their kids are doing on those computers. Also, no T.V. in the room makes it more likely to get the hour of exercise that kids need, as mentioned in the previous news story from June 21.