Should You Let Your Child Watch Television?
Posted by Dr. Cason on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
Here is a question I received at MommyMD: A Guide to Realistic Parenting last year. This morning I was reminded of it as my two year old is fascinated by Sesame Street. I let him watch because as you’ll see below. If your children are over two years of age, the American Academy of Pediatrics relaxes their stance on T.V watching.
Dr. Cason:
I know the AAP recommends no screen/TV time before the age of 2. My question is, if the AAP recommends that, how come there are so many videos for children under 2? (Baby Einstein) I don’t allow my daughter to watch a video or TV (Sesame Street) unless I’m desperate to have her entertained while I’m getting ready to leave in the morning. I feel guilty and I feel that I’m somehow ruining my child!
Anonymous
Dear Anonymous,
Don’t feel too bad, a lot of parents are not only allowing their children to watch TV but actually encouraging it. TV is the babysitter that gives parents a break and lets them get dinner made or a shower completed. I admit it. I’ve done it at times and have been worried about what TV does to kids so I did some research and this is what I found.
Gradually since the introduction of television there has been debate whether TV is harmful to our kids. In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics - AAP- released a policy statement recommending no television programs for children under the age of two. They stated that “research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills.”
Recommendations are one thing but reality is another. The reality is that kids all over America are still watching TV… A lot of TV. Most people aren’t aware of the AAP’s recommendation. The Kaiser Family Foundation in a 2003 study researched America’s media habits. They found that 49% of parents thought educational videos were “very important” in the intellectual development of children and only 6% of parents were aware of the AAP’s recommendation of no TV under two years of age. When the study was repeated in 2005, there was a slight improvement in perception. Now only 38% thought that videos were very helpful. But despite this, they still found that 61% of children under the age of two, watch TV, a video, or a DVD for 1 hr and 19 minutes per day.
Until recently we didn’t know a lot about TV and its effect on our children under the age of two. Recent studies found that it might not be all that harmful for a child over the age of two. In fact a study in the November 2006 issue of Pediatrics, A Systematic Review for the Effects of Television Viewing by Infants and Preschoolers found that educational TV may have a positive effects on toddlers and preschoolers. Researchers conducted a literature search and found 376 articles dealing with children and television. Of these, 12 met the criteria of being a controlled trial. They were conducted between 1973 and 2000 and focused specifically on television content viewed by children under age 6 and its impact on learning, racial preference, aggression, pro-social behavior, self-regulation and imagination. It was concluded that there is evidence to suggest that educational television programs, such as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers, can help in the acquisition of general knowledge plus improve overall cognitive knowledge among young children. It can also improve their imaginative play and racial attitudes. However “there is evidence that television viewing can increase a child’s display of aggression. Children who watch aggressive programs and cartoons with lots of violence can be more likely to engage in aggressive behavior than those that do not.”
None of these previous studies looked at infant television viewing or examined the content of videos designed for children. Not until recently that is. A new study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics titled Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years It appears it is the very young baby who is affected most by these videos. Researchers found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants 8-16 months understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. For toddlers 17-24 months of age, Baby DVDs and videos had no positive or negative effect on the vocabularies.
Now that recent studies show that TV under the age of 16 month may be linked to impaired language development, the question remains: How does this affect the “Baby Media” market. Are they responsible for informing their consumers of these findings? The Campaign for a Commercial free Childhood thinks so. Stay tuned for more about this tomorrow.
What do you all think? Do you monitor your child’s T.V. habits? Do you notice a difference in their behavior?
Filed in Everything Medicine |
AxeCityon 11 Jun 2008 at 10:36 pm 1Parents should really concern about that, impaired language development due to watching TV by those under 16 months sounds serious!
I am wondering why such findings aren’t spread to inform people about it, if this is just to save the baby media business, I think it’s so cruel of them!
White Hot Magikon 12 Jun 2008 at 3:17 am 2My kids saw plenty of tv before they were two. Most of it we watched together and participated. Most of the time we watch together, I have noticed on days when I am sick or something and take the easy route and let them watch cartoons all day they are turds, and so am I. If we keep to simple entertainment for short periods we are okay.
Nora
White Hot Magiks last blog post..Does this upset you?
Admit 2 » Blog Archive » Should You Let Your Child Watch Television?on 12 Jun 2008 at 8:30 am 3[...] Should You Let Your Child Watch Television? I know the AAP recommends no screen/TV time before the age of 2. My question is, if the AAP recommends that, how come there are so many videos for children under 2? (Baby Einstein) I don’t allow my daughter to watch a video or TV … [...]
Dr. Casonon 13 Jun 2008 at 8:32 am 4AxeCity-
I’m actually shocked that more educators haven’t picked up this bit of info. Intuitively we know T.V. is not good for the brain! Babies need lots of laughter and and talking and social interaction. It’s this social reciprocity that is critical in developing the human capacity to RELATE to one another.
White Hot or Magik ( I haven’t decided which to call you! White or White Hot or just Magik or the whole thing White Hot Magik- hmm I’m thinking I might post something about that! Anyway I digress!)
My first child saw plenty of TV too. I really picked it over and settled on the best. It wasn’t until I did more research that I saw how potentially bad it was. But still now there are definitely TV days and then we go into spurts when it’s just tiny bits. I don’t recommend an all or nothing though. Kids need to know how to balance TV. It can be a great source of education and entertainment. But it also can be trouble for those that are very sedentary.
Recently there was a report out that found that when kids turned off the TV they didn’t necessarily exercise more and then lose weight(I think this is what most people think including myself- just turn off the TV and get outside!) But they did find that the kids ate less. Eating less then translated to less weight gain. Good to know!!
lissaon 12 Jul 2008 at 9:20 pm 5We have 4 kids. The oldest is now 20 and the youngest is 17 months. When we had our oldest we were in high school and she watched a whole lot of MTV. We would put her in her high chair and put her in front of the tube and get ready for school or work. The 2nd and 3rd girls were pretty close in age and entertained each other. They were born in 1998 and in 2000. Everyone seemed to watch videos. I felt like a bad parent because we couldn’t really afford them. Our latest child, a boy, hasn’t really watched tv. We home school and the tv isn’t on that much. He now will stop and look at the screen but moves on quickly. I love it. When I was pregant for him I told my husband that we were going to get those videos everyone has and when I went online to check it out I ran across the AAP warning. So we didn’t buy any.
lissas last blog post..Going South
Dr. Casonon 13 Jul 2008 at 6:23 am 6Lissa- Wow - 4! Wow do the older kids babysit? I wonder what recommendations the AAP will have in another 20 years. I might shudder and say boy have times have changed we would NEVER do that now!
Nicolaon 06 Jan 2009 at 8:21 pm 7I have a 22 month old daughter who is obsessed with Peppa pig and Mr Tumble from Something Special. She is advanced with her talking and a very happy child. She can play on her own as well as play nice with other children.
I am a full time parent and play and talk to her all day but lately she has been asking to watch her Peppa Pig dvds and I have let her. Our conservatory has been adapted into a playroom for her and there is a TV and DVD player in there. Sometimes she will sit and watch it and other times it is just on in the background while we play.
I dont think that this is a problem. If I shoved her in front of the TV all day and she was behind in her developments, then I would understand the concerns but as it is proper English and she enjoys it, I cant see it doing any harm.
Do others disagree?
Nic