This is Steve Ember with the VOA Special English EducationReport.

A new study suggests that very young children who watch a lot oftelevision may have attention problems later in school.

Children with attention problems cannot sit still or controltheir actions. They talk too much, lose things, forget easily andare not able to finish tasks.

People with attention problems maysuffer a condition known as Attention Deficit Disorder, or A.D.D.Experts say the cause of A.D.D involves chemicals in the brain.Teachers say many children in the United States are showing signs ofthe disorder. Some education researchers have been saying for yearsthat watching television at a very young age could change the normaldevelopment of the brain. For example, they say that children whowatch a lot of television are not able to sit and read for anextended period of time.

The new study tested the idea that television watching by veryyoung children is linked to attention problems by the age of seven.It involved more than one-thousand-three-hundred children. Therewere two groups of children, ages one and three. Researchers atChildren's Hospital and Regional Medical Center in Seattle,Washington reported the results in the publication Pediatrics. Theyasked the parents how often the children watched television. Theparents also described their children's actions at the age of sevenusing a method that can tell if someone suffers attention deficitdisorders.

The children who watched a lot of television at an early age weremost likely to have attention problems. Every hour of watchingtelevision increased the chances of having attention problems byabout ten per cent. For example, children who watched three hours aday were thirty percent more likely to have attention problems thanthose who watched no television.

The researchers say that all the children with attention problemsmight not have A.D.D. But they still could face major learningproblems in school. The findings support advice by a group ofchildren's doctors that children under the age of two should notwatch television.

One of the researchers said there are other reasons why childrenshould not watch television. Earlier studies have linked it withchildren becoming too fat and too aggressive. Other experts say thenew study is important, but more work needs to be done to confirmthe findings and better explain the cause and effect.

This VOA Special English Education Report was written by NancySteinbach. This is Steve Ember.