So, many of us know that TV viewing by children under that age of 2 is not recommended for their development, but what about if our children are playing with their toys, and we have the TV on in the background...is that harmful?

TUESDAY, July 15 (HealthDay News) -- Even if young children aren't watching the TV, it may be distracting them from their play and depriving them of developing critical attention skills, a new study says.

When children aged 3 and younger played in a room with a television on that was tuned to adult programming, they played for about 5 percent less time than when there was no background TV. More importantly, when there was no background TV, the children's play was more focused with longer play episodes, the study found.

There has been much (negative) discussion on children being "over scheduled", directed towards "structured play" and given too many toys that have a "pre-determined purpose". These are compared to the "good ol' days" where children did not have "schedules" (baseball games spontaneously erupted from a bat, ball, and enough neighborhood kids), were not directed towards any play, really, so they had to make up their own play ("imaginative play"), and were not given toys such as a Leap Frog or baby "ball popper" game (they had to make up a game like tag, freeze or build a fort).