Sound familiar?

Nearly 15 years after Healy's seminal book Endangered Minds: Why Our Children Don't Think sounded an alarm about effect of screentime on children's brain development, access to television and videos has only increased. And the audience seems younger than ever.

Consider that 20 percent of children ages 2 to 7 have a television in their bedrooms, while nearly 60 percent of teens have bedroom sets, according to the National Institute on Media and the Family. The past decade has seen the rise of a whole new market in "edutainment" videos and television shows, which typically purport to increase intelligence from infancy on.

But entertainment still dominates the tube, particularly during the holiday season when dozens of Christmas specials lure youngsters, and their parents, to tune in.

And no matter how the typical American family travels these days - train, plane or automobile - a screen of one sort or another is likely along for the trip, thanks to portable DVD players and in-car entertainment centers.

Remember the good ol' days, when the kids stared out the windows, counted colors of passing cars or even, horror of horrors, squabbled every few miles over seat space?

Healy does, and while today's parents may find the mesmerized silence of their children comforting, she's worried.

"The 'mesmerized' is what's worrying," she says. "It's obviously having a powerful effect on their brains."

Healy, a former educational psychologist, began investigating what might be causing children to struggle in school after hearing anecdotal stories from teachers about "changing brains" - difficulty getting students to focus, staying motivated, thinking creatively and engaging in problem-solving.

"Experienced teachers noticed a huge difference in the 'Sesame Street' generation," Healy said. "That all seemed to be diminishing along with language development."

The perceptions seemed borne out by test scores and the rise in learning disabilities. In the workplace, employers lamented incompetence of workers.

Among the culprits fingered by Healy and other experts: too much television.

Television, according to some researchers, induces a hypnotic, nonlearning state through the use of close-ups, zooms, quickly changing scenes and sounds that require a viewer's attention. Some researchers have shown television viewing triggers alpha waves in the brain - long, slow waves associated with relaxation and nonlearning.

And it involves the use of just two senses, sight and sound, worrisome for the youngest children whose developing brains require regular stimulation through all their senses.

"The brain can be changed by the kinds of experiences we have every day," she says. "That's especially true for children, whose brains are more plastic than those of adults and are going through numerous sensitive periods for development. Not only can that sort of thing mesmerize children away from things their brains need to be doing, but it can alter the way the brain is processing information."

Sociologist Urie Bronfenbrenner once put it this way: "Turning on the television set can turn off the process that transforms children into people."

Television encourages "intellectual passivity," Healy says, and exposes children to negative behaviors. That's particularly troublesome for children under age 5, who are still learning to distinguish between fantasy and reality.

The National Television Violence Study, conducted in the mid-1990s, found a preschooler who watches two hours of cartoons a day is exposed to 10,000 violent acts a year.

"Too much of that, and children are not learning to manage their own motivation, social interactions and their own minds, and what that ends up looking like in school is attention-deficit disorder," she says.

That's the case made by a controversial study published early this year in Pediatrics. The study concluded that early television exposure at ages 1 and 3 is associated with attention problems at age 7, though the researchers acknowledged parents who allow their youngsters to watch excessive television - more than the average of 2.2 hours per day - may engage in other behaviors that led to the finding.

Attention span isn't the only thing affected by too much television, however, experts say. Researchers have linked excessive screentime with delayed language skills, being overweight and aggressive behavior.

"Parents aren't talking to children enough to develop oral skills," says Donna J. Anderson, preschool coordinator for the Salt Lake City School District. "You need to really stimulate [kids]. They need to be able to touch, explore, feel and taste things so they can scaffold the information" that will later support what they learn in school.

While movies and edutainment videos may not show these negative behaviors, they still set up the "habits of mind" that lead to intellectual passivity, Healy says.

"The feeling in some circles is too much of this video entertainment - TV, DVD, videos and computer games - can take time away from the very important learning that a child needs to be doing in the the 3-D, hands-on, emotionally charged world of objects and people," Healy says.

Ten years ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics began recommending that parents both limit and discuss what their children watch on television, a message it continues to urge pediatricians to share with parents.

And the academy takes a hardline when it comes to children ages 2 and under: No screentime. Period.

"It defeats the purpose of brain activity that corresponds give and take with a caretaker," said Don Shifrin, a clinical professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington's School of Medicine and chairman of the academy's communications committee. "Studies show that children will imitate what they see on TV even at an early age. It's not learning, it's imitating.

"There is no proof, long or short term, that children will be smarter or learn faster because they are watching videos that purport to educate them," he adds.

Yet Shifrin is a realist. "Television is here to stay. The 500 digital channel age is just around the corner, where you can choose any programming niche you want," he says. "It becomes very difficult to say to children we're going to turn back the hands of the clock to where there are only three channels of PBS."

Instead, the academy wants parents to "watch television with eyes and ears open to what is being said, talked about and portrayed on the screen and how it fits in with their values."

Healy is more pointed: "The fact is all these screens take a load off parents," she says. "They keep the kid mesmerized and you don't have to do it - negotiate sibling battles, read with the kid, negotiate with the kid.

"If you are going to let an appliance raise a child for you, don't be surprised with the child you get," Healy says.

brooke@sltrib.com

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Tribune Reporter Ronnie Lynn contributed to this story.

Adopt the policy of no screentime for children ages 2 and under.

l Limit screen time - television, movies, computer, electronic games - to 1 to 2 hours per day for children older than age 2.

l Consider banning television during the school week, making it a weekend event only.

l Select shows and videos that are educational and nonviolent.

* Watch television with your children and discuss what you see, particularly commercials.

l Require children to do their homework with the television off.

l Do not put a television in your child's room.

l Eat with the television off.

l If your child displays attention problems or aggressive behavior, try curtailing or eliminating any screen time.

- Source: American Academy of Pediatrics