Screen Dependency Disorder

In Dr. Katherine Hanson’s doctoral dissertation – she explores the research on early screen media exposure and its relationship to executive functioning and language skills in children. She also discusses the constant presence of television in a home and its effect on children’s working memory skills, academic ability and language outcomes.

It’s fascinating research and ties much of the modern literature on screen media and children together.

Did you know? Night-time exposure to LED-illuminated devices (computers, tablets, phones, etc.) supress melatonin and disrupt the natural sleep cycle? Sleep cycle disruption is a significant factor in ADHD as well as other mood and behavioral problems.

Additional research also suggests that too much screen time for your children can affect the way your child’s brain functions with too much information too fast and creates more stimuli than our brains are capable of handling.

Hands on OT founders Amy and Evelyn Guttman have done a wonderful job of capturing some of this research in a recent blog post.