7 Healthcast

Stressed students

Air Date: 01/27/2006

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School, sports, music lessons, hobbies... So much for kids to do, so little time to do it. And so many children today are over-booked. Parents want what's best for their kids, but experts say over-scheduling can be unhealthy.

From the moment her mother picks her up from school, 8-year-old Katie Henshaw is on the go. She stops home for a quick snack, spends an hour at tae kwon do. Then heads back home to meet her speech tutor.

After dinner Katie practices piano for half an hour and then does her homework. Exhausted just thinking about it? Well many experts believe children who have schedules like Katie's are just that exhausted.

Child expert Dr. Alvin Rosenfeld says, "Kids get burned out. The last thing you want to do is to have someone going into high school who is sick and tired of doing so much that they trying academically."

Experts also believe over-scheduled kids suffer physically and emotionally because they're stressed but they don't want to disappoint mom and dad.

"We see more stomach aches and kids get all kinds of fancy work ups to see

if they have an ulcer," explains Dr. Rosenfeld.

But Katie says can handle her schedule. She says, "I'm really good at math and I'm really good at it all. So I just do it every time at night and I'm done in a flash."

And Katie's mom says she still gets plenty of playtime. Ann says, "I know my kids well. I know their moods. I know sort of what makes them tick. So if there's a day when they're not up for something, we don't do it. But generally for Kate, she's ready to go."

But experts say Katie is the exception, not the rule. Experts say that because kids are so over scheduled in the past 20 years unstructured childrens' activities have gone down 50 percent, family dinners have declined 33 percent and family vacations have gone down 28 percent.

(Copyright (c) 2006 Sunbeam Television Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)