Excessive use of consumer electronics could reduce brain size in children, as well as weaken neural pathways, leading to one-dimensional, rigid brain structures, experts said.
This overreliance on visual stimuli could limit the development of other areas of the brain, such as language or cognitive abilities, experts said at the Taiwan Child Neurology Society’s annual conference on child development at National Taiwan University Children’s Hospital on Sunday last week.
The brain grows quickly before age 10, said Weng Shih-ming (翁仕明), head of the Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology at the National Taipei University of Nursing and Health Science.
Photo: Chiu Chih-jou, Taipei Times
Although there is no comprehensive census data from Taiwan, the latest surveys from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) show that more time spent with electronics negatively affects brain development, including reducing brain size and delaying language skills, he said.
US experts believe that addiction to devices is as serious a problem as alcoholism, and even refer to it as “modern opium,” he added.
The AAP recommends that children under 18 months old should get no screen time at all, a maximum of one hour per day for those aged two to five years old and careful monitoring of screen time for those five to six.
Mary Hsin-Ju Ko (柯信如), a pediatric neurologist at the Hsinchu Mackay Memorial Hospital, gave an example of a clinical case in which a three-year-old’s family kept the TV on all day as “background noise” at home.
While the adults barely noticed it, she said, the stimulation overwhelmed the child, and led to issues with social interactions and communication.
After kindergarten teachers alerted the parents to these issues, they took the child to a doctor, who recommended lifestyle changes for the family, Ko said.
They reduced screen time, had more parent-child interactions, and after just two months, the child showed significant improvement, she added.
The Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Health Promotion Administration also highlighted that there is an increased risk of developing myopia with increased screen time.
Research shows that school children using screens for more than one hour a day have a 2.34-times higher risk of developing myopia compared to those who use it for under an hour, with younger children seeing more severe effects, the agency said.
Ko concluded that parents should not just hand over electronics to children, and that children need diverse stimulation to develop their brains.
Excessive screen time can hinder listening, speaking, reading, writing and math skills, and lead to hyperactivity or anti-social behavior, Ko added.
While making electronics entirely off-limits is likely not possible, parents should find age-appropriate content and accompany their children during screen time, which could mitigate some of its negative impacts.
Hong Kong singer Andy Lau’s (劉德華) concert in Taipei tonight has been cancelled due to Typhoon Kong-rei and is to be held at noon on Saturday instead, the concert organizer SuperDome said in a statement this afternoon. Tonight’s concert at Taipei Arena was to be the first of four consecutive nightly performances by Lau in Taipei, but it was called off at the request of Taipei Metro, the operator of the venue, due to the weather, said the organizer. Taipei Metro said the concert was cancelled out of consideration for the audience’s safety. The decision disappointed a number of Lau’s fans who had
Commuters in Taipei picked their way through debris and navigated disrupted transit schedules this morning on their way to work and school, as the city was still working to clear the streets in the aftermath of Typhoon Kong-rey. By 11pm yesterday, there were estimated 2,000 trees down in the city, as well as 390 reports of infrastructure damage, 318 reports of building damage and 307 reports of fallen signs, the Taipei Public Works Department said. Workers were mobilized late last night to clear the debris as soon as possible, the department said. However, as of this morning, many people were leaving messages
A Canadian dental assistant was recently indicted by prosecutors after she was caught in August trying to smuggle 32kg of marijuana into Taiwan, the Aviation Police Bureau said on Wednesday. The 30-year-old was arrested on Aug. 4 after arriving on a flight to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, Chang Tsung-lung (張驄瀧), a squad chief in the Aviation Police Bureau’s Criminal Investigation Division, told reporters. Customs officials noticed irregularities when the woman’s two suitcases passed through X-ray baggage scanners, Chang said. Upon searching them, officers discovered 32.61kg of marijuana, which local media outlets estimated to have a market value of more than NT$50 million (US$1.56
FATALITIES: The storm claimed at least two lives — a female passenger in a truck that was struck by a falling tree and a man who was hit by a utility pole Workers cleared fallen trees and shop owners swept up debris yesterday after one of the biggest typhoons to hit the nation in decades claimed at least two lives. Typhoon Kong-rey was packing winds of 184kph when it slammed into eastern Taiwan on Thursday, uprooting trees, triggering floods and landslides, and knocking out power as it swept across the nation. A 56-year-old female foreign national died from her injuries after the small truck she was in was struck by a falling tree on Provincial Highway 14A early on Thursday. The second death was reported at 8pm in Taipei on Thursday after a 48-year-old man