A Smart Approach to This Week's TV Turnoff
Considering how much time we all spend watching TV, it's remarkable how little time scientists have devoted to figuring out what television does to us. Only recently have researchers started looking at how very small kids are affected by TV, despite the fact that Teletubbies, Barney, Baby Einstein, and other video fare for the pre-preschool set has been around seemingly forever.
Today marks the beginning of the 14th annual Turnoff Week, in which we're told to renounce television and computer screens in favor of wholesome activities like family dinners, reading, and sex. (Grown-ups only on that last one, please.) So it's a good time to catch up on what the research is showing. Harried parents, rejoice: The news is not all bad! TV, done right, not only keeps children out of our hair, it also helps toddlers and preschoolers with language acquisition and other skills. The bad news: The wrong kinds of shows slow acquisition of those skills, including reading. (If you want to think really bad, think TV in the kid's bedroom, which is associated with all kinds of trouble, from obesity to bad grades.)
What's good? Shows with a story line, such as Arthur or Clifford, and shows that invite participation, like Dora the Explorer and Blue's Clues.
On the other hand, small children who watch nonlinear fare like Brainy Baby or Baby Einstein videos or Teletubbies are more likely to have smaller vocabularies and use fewer words when speaking, says Deborah Linebarger, an assistant professor at the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. In one new study, parents told her that their toddlers learned more words while watching Baby Einstein-type videos. But when the researchers tested the children, they found the kids had mastered fewer words than their non-TV-tutored peers. Other researchers have come to similar conclusions. Linebarger's own 22-month-old is a huge fan of Super Why!, a new PBS show that uses stories to encourage preschoolers to get ready to read. "She will sit transfixed," says Linebarger, "and I can actually do her hair."
Children seem to start really understanding what's going on with TV when they're around 2½—not surprisingly, a time when kids are really starting to figure out language. Dan Anderson, a leading researcher on kids' TV, says it's also a question of "media literacy," or realizing that television is a communications medium, not real life. When adults watch TV, he says, we all focus on the same part of the screen at the same time—we know where the important part of the action is. Four-year-olds have pretty well got that figured out, too. He's now studying 12-month-old babies and has found that when watching TV, their eyes are "all over the place"—they haven't yet learned what's important in the visual story. So parking infants in front of the TV might not hurt them (as long as you're not watching Sopranos reruns or other violent fare), but it won't do them any good, either.
Parents needn't freak out, says Lisa Guernsey, a journalist and mother of two in Alexandria, Va., who wrote the book Into the Minds of Babes last year after realizing that there was precious little practical guidance for parents on the pros and cons of tot TV, aside from the American Academy of Pediatrics's "no TV before age 2" edict. She has a simple "Three C's" test that parents can use for assessing the suitability of TV: content, context, and your child. Content is pretty obvious. Context comes down to: Is the TV droning on in the background all the time? This has been shown to interfere with children's playtime and to cut into parent-child interaction. Most important, of course, is your child. Is Snow White too scary for your preschooler? I know one who hasn't yet made it past the first 10 minutes of Finding Nemo. So we've put that video away for another day.
Tags: television | children
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Nancy Shute replies: Hey Greg, tell us about your kid video business
Hey Greg, you're not giving yourself enough credit! You founded a kid video business. Do you see differences in how kids of different ages use your products? Or is it driven more by parents? Does the toddler beg for that Nittany Lions DVD, or does Mommy push that? And what if Mom's a Redskins fan, and Dad's cheering for the Cowboys? Do the kids have to take sides?
Nancy
Ignorance
TV is mostly crap, for any age. So are computer games, cell phones for kids (especially), wi-fi and other sources of microwave radiation that top doctors are now warning about as brain tumors and other neurological problems associated with this burgeoning technology timeline (roughly 10 years) abound everywhere. Something to think about -- the mental AND physical environment and culture...
Audio Adventures Instead
Dear Nancy,
There is a great alternative, a huge hit in Germany since the '70s, the advent of audiotapes: Audio adventures!
And I just added a short article "Why Audio Adventures? Kids Listen Differently" on our website: http://giddio.com/AboutUs.html
Please, feel free to contact if you have any questions or requests!
Sincerely,
Jens Hewerer
Founder & Top Kid
Giddio - Audio adventures for kids!
Ignorance - How Ironic
Noel: With all due respect, what makes you say that TV, computer games and cell phones are "mostly crap" for all ages? Have you researched each medium in depth to accurately assess its pros and cons? My guess is that you have not done so, which makes it especially ironic that your post was titled "Ignorance." But I digress...
When I was a kid in the 70's and 80's, my parents severely limited my TV viewing, and I never had access to a video game system. Their efforts backfired worse than they could ever have imagined, as I'm now (at age 37) what might be termed a TV and video game fanatic. Tivo is my god.
However, I'm selective in what I watch and play, especially in the presence of my preschooler son. Nothing overly violent or stupid is allowed. As far as I can tell, my son has only benefitted from the presence of high-quality TV and video games in his home. At almost age five, he has an unusually advanced vocabulary, refined taste in music and *incredible* fine motor skills. I attribute all three of those wonderful gifts to his early exposure to all forms of entertainment, as well as several preschooler-targeted websites that have helped him develop excellent mousing skills.
What's more, my son is now becoming increasingly bored with television, and prefers to play outside most of the time. I guarantee that if I had taken steps to limit his viewing habits, he'd still be begging for more, just like me.
Honestly, we can try as hard as we like to lead our children in the right direction, but when it comes to things that are as unavoidable in our culture as television and video games, we have a lot less control than we imagine.
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On Parenting -Nancy Shute
Wow, really? You mean there are still three sides to this story? The "for", the "against" and the "it depends what it is"....I'm still shocked. When it comes to infants, toddlers and children watching television let's just agree that all three sides have valid points. If you choose not to allow your children to watch any television at all, that's your prerogative as a parent. I'll only speak for my house...I'm not sure it's even possible that my children could watch NO television even if I wanted it that way as I humbly confess, we tend to leave a TV or two on every once in a while. So I'm sorry Pediatric's Academy your "no TV under two" is an impossibly high bar to set in my house...Not to mention, I don't buy it and neither does my own children's pediatrician...As for the children that seem to learn more words from some programming versus another, let me ask you this question...What are those same children doing the rest of the day? Are their parents engaging them, teaching them, ignoring them? There has got to be many more factors in which children are learning more words and from where. You can't tell me that these kids involved in that survey have only seen baby einstein or dora and have no outside ways of learning and absorbing other words....
Seems to me that the most reasonable and realistic approach comes from the one with the least initials after her name. She's just a "mother of two", well that qualifies her in my mind....Content, context and your child. I like the 3 c's. If you put your child in front of a law and order marathon, one could say you're not too bright... If you use TV to baby sit your child you're certainly not alone, but there's a big difference between a 30 minute Team Baby DVD and an actual NFL game. So, once again alot of common sense comes into play.
Unfortunately, however not all common sense is common or sensical so articles like this need to be out there so at the very least we can feel as if we're being reasonably guided into being responsible parents....But, this is US News Magazine so probably a pretty good demographic to begin with....
Apr 21, 2008 16:37:33 PM [permalink] [report comment]