John's Articles

Benefits of Turning off the TV

Posted on 12/25/2001

POLICY OF NO TV PAYS OFF FOR MOM This year, one of my Christmas blessings was a letter from an Iowa mom about a column I wrote in 1988, based on a letter from her then. That column told how,...

4-Year-Old Agressive and Disrespectful

Posted on 3/6/2001

Happy Ending File: A good buddy pediatrician tells me he recently saw a 4-year-old who had suddenly become aggressive, disrespectful, and emotionally explosive after several major transitions,...

Experts Recommend Young Children Not Be Allowed on Computers

Posted on 6/27/2000

PEN, PAPER BETTER THAN COMPUTER AS LEARNING TOOL A growing number of experts are recommending that young children not be allowed on computers for any reason at all. These people are not...

Computer Games

Posted on 5/25/1999

Q. I know you feel television is bad for children, but what's your opinion of children playing computer games? A. I don't think computers are as nefarious as television, but I don't think a...

Computer Educational Games

Posted on 8/4/1998

COMPUTERS AREN'T MAGIC; BUT STUDENT'S MOTIVATION IS Q. Our elementary school principal is all fired up about a multimedia educational packet that will allow our children, grades K-6, to take...

Mom's Story of Turning Off the TV

Posted on 11/25/1997

ONE MOM'S TALE OF TV, TURNED OFF Traveling around the country, doing talks and workshops for parent and professional groups, I always remind my audiences that the proof of anything I say must...

Link Between ADD and Watching TV - Part 2

Posted on 9/16/1997

READERS DON'T BUY THEORY LINKING ADD, TV VIEWING My recent column on the possible link between television and attention-deficit disorder (also known as attention-deficit hyperactivity...

Thoughts on Day Care, Computer, and TV

Posted on 7/29/1997

THUMBS DOWN ON COMPUTERS AND TV; DAY CARE IS LESS CLEAR A few thoughts on computers, day care and television that came to mind on a serene spring afternoon as I sat watching clouds do...

Link Between ADD and Watching TV - Part 1

Posted on 7/1/1997

TV SHRIVELS KIDS' BRAINS; ADD PROS PAY NO ATTENTION As heralded by a cover story in Time (Feb. 3, 1997) and a special issue of Newsweek (spring/summer '97) the big story of the past year has...

TV is Inappropriate for Children

Posted on 6/17/1997

MOM, DAD MUST LIMIT TV, BUT THAT'S JUST A START A parent in Connecticut recently asked, "Do you think letting children watch television destroys their innocence? Does it cause them to - as...

Turn Off The TV

Posted on 2/27/1997

HOW TO FIGHT STUPID TV: TURN IT OFF Upon recent receipt of a regional health care system's newsletter, my attention was drawn to the lead article, "TV Violence: Are Your Children At Risk.''...

Parenthood and Family - Part 1

Posted on 8/22/1996

BENDING OVER BACKWARD? PREPARE TO FALL Some musing on child-rearing and families, with more next week: * Parents who constantly bend over backward for their children eventually fall over...

ADD Exists

Posted on 7/4/1996

YES, I DO BELIEVE ATTENTION DEFICIT DISORDER EXISTS I have apparently created the impression that I don't believe in attention deficit disorder. The fact is, during my professional career,...

Family Turns Off TV

Posted on 6/13/1996

TURNING OFF TV TURNS ON NEW INTERESTS Jim Wilson of Allen, Texas, recently shared with me an interesting and familiar personal story concerning his family's decision to ban television from...

Children are More Sophisticated

Posted on 10/28/1994

ARE OUR KIDS SOPHISTICATED? LOOK DEEPER Q. I don't have children, but I spend a lot of time with my nieces and nephews and the children of friends. Am I just getting old, or are today's...

Quotes About TV and Teen Sex

Posted on 5/27/1994

HERE'S WHY OLDER IS NOT NECESSARILY WISER Art Linkletter reminded us that kids say the darnedest things. Ah, but adults often do kids one better by saying and doing the dumbest things. Some...

Thoughts on Parenthood - Part 1

Posted on 2/11/1994

REMEMBER THAT WHAT CHILDREN SAY THEY WANT ISN'T ALWAYS WHAT THEY TRULY NEED A collection of musings on parenthood: * If you think child-rearing is difficult, it will be. * Authority...

TV Blurrs Adult/Child Boundaries

Posted on 9/17/1993

IN MICHAEL JACKSON, WE HAVE BLURRED ADULT/CHILD BOUNDARIES The past few weeks have brought a number of calls from journalists wanting to know my thoughts on the Michael Jackson "thing.''...

Amount of TV Children Should Be Allowed to Watch

Posted on 7/23/1993

PASSIVENESS OF TV WATCHING, NOT PROGRAMMING, DOES THE DAMAGE Q. How much television should children be allowed to watch? A. The problem with television and children is more one of process...

Teacher Speaks Out About Why Kids Are Bored in School

Posted on 5/7/1993

A TEACHER SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE SO-CALLED BORED CHILD "Would you please," she implored, "write a column about children who are supposedly bored in school?" "I'll sure think about it," I...

TV's Harmful Effects on Children

Posted on 12/6/1991

I TOLD YOU SO: MORE EXPERTS SAY TV HARMS KIDS Since 1979, in my books, talks and columns, I've been saying we judge the book by the cover concerning television's impact on children. The...

TV Programs

Posted on 6/30/1991

COSBY, DOOGIE WON'T WARP MORALS BUT THEY TREAT PARENT, CHILD AS EQUALS Q. You come out strongly against letting preschool children watch television and recommend not letting school-age...

Video Game Addiction

Posted on 7/15/1990

VIDEO GAMES: NO FUN STRESS AND ADDICTION ARE WHAT KIDS GET The March 3 issue of TV Guide carried an article on video games that quoted Patricia Marks Greenfield, professor of psychology...

6 Point Plan for Raising Happy, Healthy Children

Posted on 8/6/1989

6 COMMANDMENTS FOR PARENTS A reader from Albuquerque asks, "What is this Six-Point Plan' you wrote about several weeks ago?" Well, in addition to being in the title of my book "John...

Video Games

Posted on 11/20/1988

READERS SPLIT ON VIDEO GAME QUESTION Well, sports fans, the results of the Great Video Game Debate are in. To recap: Last summer, I wrote a column in which I argued that video games are not...

Parents Turned Off the TV

Posted on 9/25/1988

TRY MY ADVICE; YOU JUST MIGHT LIKE IT Traveling around the country, doing talks and workshops for parent and professional groups, I always remind my audiences that the proof of anything I...

Video Games

Posted on 9/18/1988

ARE VIDEO GAMES SUITABLE TOYS? I'LL LET READERS DECIDE Minoru Arakawa, president of Nintendo of America Inc., takes exception to my recent lambasting of video games. In a seven-page...

8-Year-Old Video Game Issue

Posted on 8/7/1988

ZAP YOUR CHILD'S VIDEO GAMES Q. We recently bought a popular and expensive video game unit for our 8- year-old son. Actually, he earned it by making good grades in school. We're beginning...

Steps to Help Calm Overactive Toddler

Posted on 1/3/1988

TAKE THESE STEPS TO HELP CALM OVERACTIVE TODDLER Do you have an extremely active toddler, the kind who's always on the go, getting into everything? One who hits the deck running in the...

6-Year-Old Diagnosed with ADD Watches Lots of TV

Posted on 6/14/1987

SHORT ATTENTION SPAN HURT, NOT HELPED, BY LOTS OF TV Q. My husband and I are seeing a psychologist because of discipline problems with our 6-year-old son. Charlie has also had problems in...

Tips on Child Rearing

Posted on 5/17/1987

A FEW TIPS ON CHILD REARING Some thoughts on raising children, arrived at over the course of more than eighteen years of parenthood. * The secret to raising happy, healthy children: Pay...

TV is Bad for Kids

Posted on 1/11/1987

TURN OFF TV AND DEVELOP CHILD'S POTENTIAL Every once in a while, I get up on the Television-Is-Bad-For-Kids soapbox and attempt the impossible: persuading people that television really does...

Children: Too Much of What They Want, Not Enough of What They Need

Posted on 4/27/1986

UNDERSTANDING WHAT KIDS NEED, WANT Several months ago, I was talking to an audience of several hundred people, most of whom were parents of early elementary-age children. My subject was...

Television Is Habit Forming

Posted on 1/19/1986

SOME PEOPLE CAN BECOME GLUED' TO TV Q. Our 5-month-old loves to look at television. While I watch my programs in the evening, she lies on her quilt and stares at the screen. I think she...

Parents' Responsibility Toward Music

Posted on 10/20/1985

PARENTS' RESPONSIBILITY TOWARD MUSIC I played in a rock 'n' roll band for seven years - from 1965 to 1972. We were not, by the way, your average Top 40 unit. No sir, we played real...

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