News

News update: August / September 2009

My new book – Meeting the Needs of disaffected Students is now published and is available from Continuum books (telephone: 020 7922 0916), Amazon.co.uk or from my publications page. Price is £19-99 (excluding p&p). 144 pages (ISBN – 9780826434654). Initial reviews have been very good.

Screenagers 

Clare McDougall, Education Programme Director with npower has carried out research with 3000 children aged 7-16 and found that British children spend almost 10 hours a day watching television, using computers, phones, video games and scrolling through portable music players. Headaches and repetitive strain injuries can result e.g. mobile aching thumb syndrome.

Of the average 9 hours 54 minutes watching screens:

• 2 hours 44 mins is spent watching televisions

• 49 mins texting

• 38 mins playing games and browsing the internet on mobile phone

• 3 hours 44 mins on computers in school or at home on social networking sites

• I hour 6 mins using games consoles

• 54 mins using handheld devices like iPod, Nintendo DS and flicking through playlists

75% of 7 year olds have a television in their rooms. The study found that children spend 11½ days a month looking at screens.

Teenage drink and drug problem

A survey by the NHS Information Centre which questioned pupils aged 11-15 in 263 secondary schools found that 1 in 6 pupils had drunk alcohol in the previous week. Their average consumption was 14.6 units a week.

8% of pupils said that they had taken drugs in the last month and the proportion of boys taking class A drugs had risen from 3.8% to 4.3%. The percentage of boys who tried cannabis had risen from 9.6% to 10.1% since the last survey.

Illegal gambling

A study from the University of Salford’s Centre for the Study of Gambling polled 9000 children on their gambling habits. It found that:

• 21% of 12-15 year olds were betting

• 2% of 12-15 year olds had become addicted to gambling

• 4% of underage children claim to have bought scratchcards.

Teenager victims of crime

A BBC crime audit based in Oxford over a 2 week period which questioned 1200 teenagers found that 2 in 3 had been victims of crime. 25% admitted carrying out shoplifting. 33% said that they had been the victims of violent assault within the past month. 10% of the youngsters admitted having carried a weapon

PFB and NSC Syndrome

Parenting website ‘Mumsnet’ has collated information from over 100 parents about PFB and NSC syndrome – precious first borns and neglected subsequent children syndrome. The information confirmed that first born children are favoured and second born / subsequent children can be neglected. However, first born’s life isn’t always easy – as parents often punish older children more harshly because they believe it will deter younger siblings from misbehaving.

Predictive texting can change the way children’s brains work

Professor Abramson from Monash University, Melbourne conducted a study which compared the mobile phone use of children 11-14 years of age with IQ style tests. He found that children who used their phones the most were faster in some tests but were less accurate – predictive texting encourages people to be fast but inaccurate. It is also pushing young people to become more impulsive in the way they behave.

Sore throat bug can cause some cases of Obsessive Compulsive Disorders (OCD)

OCD affects up to 3% of the population and can be caused by a variety of factors such as:

• An imbalance of a chemical in the brain called serotonin

• Trauma – after bereavement or abuse

• Hereditary factors / learned behaviour

• Brain damage

However the Journal of Molecular Psychiatry has reported on the work of scientists from Columbia University in New York. They have found that in 10% of throat infections antibodies that are made to attack the bacteria can also zero in on the brain and can be another cause of OCD.

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