As a mother and a pediatrician who completed both a threeyear residency in Pediatrics and a threeyear subspecialty fellowship in Behavioral and Developmental Pediatrics, I started to wonder: What are we doing to our childrens growth and learning potential by allowing them to watch television and videos as well as spend endless hours playing computer games. I practiced seven years as the Physician Consultant at the School Health Center in San Francisco, performing comprehensive assessments on children, ages 412, who were having learning and behavioral difficulties in school. I saw hundreds of children who were having difficulties paying attention, focusing on their work, and performing fine and gross motor tasks. Many of these children had a poor selfimage and problems relating to adults and peers. As a pediatrician, I had always discouraged television viewing, because of the often violent nature of its content especially cartoons and because of all the commercials aimed at children. However, it wasnt until the birth of my own child, 6 years ago, that I came face to face with the real impact of television. It wasnt just the content, for I had carefully screened the programs my child watched. It was the change in my childs behavior his mood, his motor movements, his play before, during and after watching TV that truly frightened me.

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