Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis is the director of the Center for Child
Health, Behavior and Development at Seattle Children's Research
Institute. He is the author of more than 170 original research articles,
a textbook of pediatrics, and co-authored a groundbreaking book, The
Elephant in the Living Room: Make Television Work for Your Kids. He has
appeared on CNN, NPR, Today, CBS News, ABC News, NBC News and was
recently featured as a TEDx speaker.
Christakis is a
pediatrician at Seattle Children's Hospital in Seattle and a professor
in the School of Medicine at University of Washington. He has devoted
his career to investigating how early experiences impact children and to
helping parents improve their children's early learning environments.
He and his colleagues in the Christakis Lab have made a number of
landmark findings, including discovering that young children who watch
TV are more likely to develop attention problems and other health and
behavioral issues.