Surrendering to short attention spans is risky business

From: The Pantagraph Bloomington, IL | Date: July 14, 2008 | Copyright information

We keep hearing about the increasingly short attention spans of children raised on television - and now computers.

Even the almost venerable "Sesame Street" has been criticized for its quick switches from one scene or topic to the next, conditioning children to expect rapid changes - which can cause them problems adapting to the slower pace of the typical school classroom.

A 2004 study found that infants and toddlers who watched television frequently were more likely to have problems concentrating in school. The more they watched as preschoolers, the more likely they were to have difficulty ...

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