________________________________

From: Raising Readers [mailto:[log in to unmask]] 
Sent: Wednesday, July 08, 2009 3:06 PM
To: Lord, Linda
Subject: Raising Readers July 2009


July 2009

Total number of books distributed as of July 8th, 2009: 
1,299,101
RR Article for July 2009 

Prime Time Distraction

The American Academy of Pediatrics
<http://www.raisingreaders.org/resource/mail/click.php?_hmsg=8e663f4c80f
7c2b58b2e5e904d73a075&_huid=d4e007ccdabb9369930dc2fdfd78fbcd&s=http://ww
w.aap.org/parents.html>  has discouraged TV watching before the age of 2
for some time, but a new study really drives home the WHY.

We know that brain development from Birth-Age 5 is HEAVILY dependent on
adult to infant/child communication.

Apparently when the TV is on either for the child or the adult, those
vital communications are not happening.

In a study led by Dimitri Christakis, director of the Center for Child
Health, Behavior and Development
<http://www.raisingreaders.org/resource/mail/click.php?_hmsg=8e663f4c80f
7c2b58b2e5e904d73a075&_huid=d4e007ccdabb9369930dc2fdfd78fbcd&s=http://re
search.seattlechildrens.org/centers/child_health_behavior_and_developmen
t/>  at Seattle Children's Research Institute and professor of
pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine...

Over 300 2-month-olds to 4-year-olds wore recording devices on random
days recording everything they heard or said for 12-16 hours. The
results were startling...

For every hour of TV being watched or playing in the same room, there
was a decrease of 770 words spoken by the child's caregiver and a
decrease in the child's vocalizations.

"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
<http://www.raisingreaders.org/resource/mail/click.php?_hmsg=8e663f4c80f
7c2b58b2e5e904d73a075&_huid=d4e007ccdabb9369930dc2fdfd78fbcd&s=http://ar
chpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/163/6/554> , "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."

Lesson here? Even playing in the background, TV can distract us from
crucial communication with our children.

Reading aloud to your children allows you to naturally increase bonding
and communication and to use a whole new set of words. Those words are
essential to those wee brains growing strong and healthy.

READ MORE in the LiveScience.com Article
<http://www.raisingreaders.org/resource/mail/click.php?_hmsg=8e663f4c80f
7c2b58b2e5e904d73a075&_huid=d4e007ccdabb9369930dc2fdfd78fbcd&s=http://ne
ws.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090601/sc_livescience/tvcauseslearninglagin
infants> . 

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