Article of Interest

Dear Parents/ Carers,

My name is Mandy Posnett and I’m a Certified Play Therapist at The Beacon. In my role I strive to keep my skills and knowledge up to date so as to offer the best provision to the pupils here at The Beacon.

I have been reading an article in the book, ‘The Science of Parenting’ Which I would like to share with you.

“The results of over 4,000 studies suggest a connection between high rates of television-viewing in children and aggressive and violent behaviour, lower academic performance and stereotyped behaviours in matters of sex, race and age. While watching violent television, the motor programming parts of a child’s brain are often activated, which means that the child is rehearsing violence he is watching. Parts of the brain that detect threat can also be activated, and the memory of a disturbing movie can be laid down in the brain the same way as the memory of a traumatic event in real life. As far as we know, playing with a solitary computer game does not result in the positive brain events activated by play, fun and laughter with another human being”

I feel it’s really important parents/carers understand just what is happening to their child’s brain when watching age inappropriate games and television. I hope you find this short article informative.

Thank you everyone for taking your time to read this.