Wow! Things have sure changed since I was a kid or maybe it is that I notice it more now - since I am a mom. I remember only having 25 channels on cable and being so excited for the 1st Nintendo gaming system (Yes, I still have my wonderful “ghetto Nintendo”). I loved to play Duck Hunt! I remember always being outside when it was warm enough. I remember playing with my Barbie dolls for hours and my mom having to yell for me to come up for supper. I had (and still have) a great imagination but when I look at my son, Owen, who is six years old. I don’t see a child who will get to grow up like I did. I can try all I want but I know technology has already started to affect him. But weather it is good or bad is to be seen yet?
He is a wonderful, funny, bright little boy but he has the attention span of a squirrel. He is always on the go. He has ADHD and at times I wonder if that could have been stopped if I had limited his access to technology even more. I know that genetics is the main factor for the disorder but if there were other factors that played a part. He watched TV as a young toddler but for only an hour or so. He got his 1st Nintendo DS when he was 4 and recently received a Nintendo DSi. He also began using the computer when he was 3 yrs old. I limited his TV/Web time and still do today. We would play games on PBSkids.com because at least you knew he was playing a game that helped him learn. On the other side of things, he is a very fast learner and can find things on the web (with the parental locks on high) with no problems. He learns new words from PBSkids.com and tries to find them in his books. He loves to learn and wants to know everything (sometimes too much). I can see the web being a great asset to him as he grows older. I just hope it doesn't affect him negatively. The long-term affects of technology and ADHD are still being determined but there are some studies being done to see if they are linked.
Researchers who dismiss the technology-ADHD link point to the fact that
genetics plays a large role in the disorder. Kids with ADHD are more likely to have parents and siblings with the disorder. Scientists are finding that kids with ADHD have brains that are different from those of kids without the disorder. “People with ADHD have, by chance, ended up with combinations of genes that lower attention capacity,” says Chandan Vaidya, PhD, a cognitive neuroscientist and associate professor of psychology at Georgetown University. These combinations of genes influence neurotransmitters like dopamine and norepinephrine that regulate attention. An NIMH study published in the Archives of General Psychiatry in 2007 found that kids with ADHD who carry a particular version of the dopamine receptor D4 (DRD4) gene have thinner brain tissue in the areas of the brain associated with attention. However, the brain tissue and ADHD symptoms tended to improve as the children grew older.
Only time will tell if technology is a possible culprit for the current ADHD diagnoses which is on the rise.
