PARENTING: TV May Take Biggest Toll On School Readiness For Poor Kids

Kids who watch too much TV are less ready for school.

Researchers looked at over 800 kids between 5-and 6-years-old assessed at the start of kindergarten for basic skills like counting, letter recognition and sorting blocks by pattern and shape. They also looked at how much TV the kids watched.

They found kids who watched a lot of TV did worse in test scores– especially those kids coming from poor families– who did worse than middle class kids who watched a lot of TV.