• Do your children have the seven building blocks for success at school?
• Institute launches innovative tobacco prevention program
• Nearly 1,000 parent educators complete media awareness training
• David Walsh to be featured on Dateline
• Internet porn sites net unsuspecting kids

by David Walsh, Ph.D.

There are many things that can influence a child's success in school; however, I have identified Seven Building Blocks for Academic Successญ-and how a bad media diet influence can adversely affect each one of them.

  Sense of curiosity: children are naturally gifted with curiosity. If a child spends the national average of 27 hours a week watching TV, there isn't much time to be curious. Tip: Don't use the TV as an indiscriminate babysitter.

Imagination: A child's imaginative ability is a powerful learning tool. Over exposure to TV stifles and restricts a child's imagination because TV doesn't ask for a child's participation. Tip: Make sure your children watch TV in moderate amounts.

Ability to focus attention: Children need to be able to pay attention so they can learn what is being taught. Tip: Make sure you provide activities for your children that require that they pay attention.

  Ability to maintain attention:Too much fast paced television trains children to always expect constant sensory stimulation. Their attention wanders when they don't have it. Tip: Avoid real fast paced programs--especially when children are very young.

  Persistence: Sometimes it takes real persistence to complete a school assignment. TV provides instant gratification. Too much of it affects a childs ability to stick with an activity when things get frustrating. Tip: Structure activities that take time to complete and make sure they finish.

Language: The ability to use spoken and written language well is key to school success. Video games and TV programs are not language based. They are picture based. Tip: Engage your children in conversation, read to them and expose them to the wonder of books from their earliest days.

Inner Speech: The ability to reflect and to have a private conversation with ourselves helps us think things through and helps to control impulses. Most media does not engage critical thinking and therefore does not develop this skill. Tip: Encourage kids to think before they act.

More than 350 teachers and students are expected to attend the nation's premier Youth Summit on Tobacco Sept. 29, 1998, at the Bandana Banquet and Conference Center in St. Paul, MN. The Summit, hosted by the National Institute on Media and the Family, the Minnesota Office of the Attorney General, and Fairview Health Services, will address how tobacco use has been promoted by the tobacco industry and will teach kids media smart skills.

This event will also mark the launch of the Institute's innovative new curriculum Smoke and Mirrors®, developed for educators to help students critically analyze the influence of the media in promoting tobacco use.

Designed for 5th to 8th graders, Smoke and Mirrors is packed with fun and interactive lessons, powerful teaching tools and compelling new information. This includes never before revealed facts from the tobacco companies' own documents secured during Minnesota's landmark case.

Scientific research has established that media has an impact on childhood development. And this impact challenges early childhood and parent educators every day. That's why nearly a thousand early childhood and parent educators in Minnesota attended workshops facilitated statewide by the National Institute on Media and the Family.

Educators who attended the Early Childhood Family Education workshop learned how to help families deal with media in a constructive, practical way, said Bette Cooke, coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Children, Families and Learning. "The Institute's workshop clearly addressed critical media issues in a relevant manner," said Cooke. "They presented the issues without creating a totally negative feeling and provided participants with numerous tools to help parents and children manage the media in the home."

For more information on the Institute training program, or to discuss how you can bring the Institute's presentation to your state, call 1-888-672-5437.

David Walsh, Ph.D., will be featured this fall on Dateline NBC. The program demonstrates the media's impact on a group of day care children after they view episodes of the Power Rangers^TM and Barney®. This show will also highlight the parents' comments and reactions once they saw how their children were affected. The experiment is one developed by Dr. Walsh to illustrate how children internalize and then act out behaviors learned from television. [Editors note: This program was aired in September, 1998.]

A new Internet browsing technique is now being used which makes it difficult for an Internet user, especially a child, to exit a violent or sexually explicit web site, the National Institute on Media and the Family warned in a recent alert. The deceptive technique disables Internet browser options such as the "back," "exit," or "close" buttons so the only way to exit these sites is to close down the computer, says David Walsh, Ph.D., founder and president of the Institute.

"To be held captive against ones will in front of a screen full of pornography or extreme violence produces fear, anxiety and confusion for children," warns Dr. Walsh. About a third of sexually explicit web sites surveyed were designed to make it difficult to leave. The National Institute on Media and the Family does not endorse or condemn any media products. Its role is to provide reliable, independent information so adults can make informed decisions for their children.