October 3, 2007
For years we have known that is not in a child's best interest to be placed in front of the televsion for hours on end. The TV has become more like a babysitting service in recent years, allowing parents time to do other things while the children sit mindlessly watching the bright screen. Although there are many educational programs, both on cable and in DVD format, recent research is showing that any television, no matter what the content, could prove problematic for a young child's mental development. The following information is a summary of a study reported in the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, July 2005.
- Children aged 3 to 5 years watch an average of 2 hours or more of television
per day, and much of this is not devoted to educational programming.
- 59% of children younger than 2 years regularly watch television every day,
and these children watch 1.3 hours of television per day, despite the fact that there is no programming of proven educational value targeted at this age range.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends no screen time for children younger than 2 years and only high-quality, age-appropriate viewing thereafter.
One study reports that "high achievers" used television as a complement to
school learning, whereas "low achievers" used television as a substitute for it.
Another study showed that the lower the education of the parent, the more
hours of television their children watched.
- Television viewing by children reduces cognitive outcomes.
- Reduced television improves performance IQ and attention time on cognitive
tasks.
Television and video have been shown “to depress imagination and
creativity.”Parents need to be advised to undertake greater efforts to steer their children toward educational television and/or reduce overall television viewing time.
The participants in this study were age 6 and were assessed for memory,
mathematics, reading recognition, and reading comprehension. Age 6 years was chosen because it’s the age at which many children begin
first grade and television viewing typically drops off at this time.
In this study, the primary predictor of interest was the hours of television
watched per day prior to age 6 years.The scores on each of the outcomes revealed that “all scores were lower among the children with unreasonably high TV hours than among the children with values in the reasonable range, and these differences were significant.”
Certain parents may be either less invested than others in their children’s
cognitive development or simply less aware of the American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines and the potential adverse effects of television viewing. Such parents may be more permissive in allowing their children access to large amounts of television time and also less likely to spend time reading to their children, taking them to museums and zoos, and so forth.
The mean number of hours per day of television viewing was:
- 2.2 hours per day for children younger than 3 years
- 3.9 hours per day for children aged 3 to 5 years
- 3.54 hours per day for children aged 6 years
Television viewing before age 3 years was associated with a deleterious
effect on both reading recognition and reading comprehension, with each additional hour per day leading to a reduction in scores of 0.31 and 0.58, respectively.
This means there was a 31% reduction in reading recognition and a 58% reduction in reading comprehension with each additional hour per day of television watching for children younger than age 3 years.
Early television viewing was associated with an adverse effect on memory,
with each hour per day viewed associated with a 10% decrease in the score.
In families with a lower than median income, each hour per day of television
viewing before age 3 years was associated with a 45% decrease in the math score.
IN REVIEW:
This analysis has shown a consistent pattern of negative associations
between television viewing before age 3 years and adverse cognitive outcomes at
ages 6 and 7 years.
These authors propose 3 mechanisms for these observed effects of television
watching:
- Children younger than 3 years who spend more time watching television
spend less time in other activities, such as imaginative free play, interactions with adults, and so forth, that would be beneficial to their cognitive development. The content of the television they watch is deleterious to their cognitive development.
- Before age 3, each hour of television viewing per day reduced reading
recognition by 31%.
- Before age 3, each hour of television viewing per day reduced reading
comprehension by 58%.
- Before age 3, each hour of television viewing per day reduced memory by
10%.
There is a negative association between television viewing before age 3 years
and adverse cognitive outcomes at ages 6 and 7 years. Television for very young children, including educational television is not helpful for cognitive development and is actually harmful. Early television viewing actually harms the development of a child’s brain.
These facts certainly opened my eyes. I have a 16 month old son at home, and I have been guilty of allowing him to watch TV in the evening for an hour or so. After reading this study, I have tried to make it a habit to get down on the floor and interact with him while the TV is OFF. Guess what? When the TV is not on, he is busy playing with me, roaming around, exploring, and just having fun. I hope this article motivates you to unplug for awhile, and give your children the best shot at developing their potential.
Until next time, all the best, in health and life.
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*This article is designed to provide general guidelines only. Please consult with your physician before making dietary changes or beginning an exercise program. |
