I recently re-read this interesting article: Bringing up Brainy: A look at the educational toy market, in which Dr. Dimitri Christakis details some of the results of his research into attention problems in children. He has found that letting a baby watch television may actually cause them harm.
His study involved almost 1,300 children and found that TV may simply be too much for developing brains to handle. He states that:
“Our minds are conditioned to immediately stop paying attention to what we’re currently focusing on if we hear or see something that seems strange. Television actually explicitly exploits that, in the case of young children.”
Reading this I was prompted to reflect upon the way in which I have seen very young children sit in an almost mesmerised state whilst staring at cartoons on the television. The rapidly changing images and sounds exploit the brains inclination to pay attention to things that appear strange or out of the ordinary. In the wild this natural pre-disposition would have kept us from being eaten!
Dr. Christakis has found that a child’s risk of developing attention related problems increases significantly the more TV they are exposed to. He goees on to look at Disney’s Baby Einstein series of DVDs and videos which are aimed at infants. He found that Disney had carried out little or no research into the way in which the pace of the editing in the programmes and the rapidly changing imagery actually affects the development of a babies brain.
Child development specialists are pretty much agreed that too much TV is bad for children. Dr. Christakis recommends that children under two years old should not be exposed to any televsion whatsoever.
Developing infants need stimulation and interest. They need things to touch, manipulate, look at, shake, rattle and roll. Parents and carers of young babies will know how fascinating they can find things like packaging, kitchen utensils and everyday household objects. If you are looking for suitable toys for a baby or infant, maybe a gift for Christmas, try sticking to the more traditional toys and games that you will have probably played with as a youngster. Building blocks, dolls, crayons and simple games are all learning toys that will encourage investigation, support psycho-motor skills development and foster imagination and creative play. What’s more, they are unlikely to contribute towards your child developing attention related problems.
[digg=http://digg.com/television/Media_Based_Edu_Toys_are_Harmful_to_Babies]
I am very worried by this article the implication is that any television viewing by a young child is harmful. My grand-daughter is 4 months old and she shows an interest in television but it does not stop her playing with the toys she has been given. In fact she seems quite capable of choosing between playing with her toys or watching the television. Is the article actually suggesting banning television when youngsters are around? I would think that most parents and certainly my son and his wife are quite capable of regulating the amount of television that is watched and that the old adage “too much of anything is harmful” does also apply to television watching no matter what age the child.
Personally I think that children watch far too much television.
Quite often its far easier to plonk the child in front of a tv set and leave them to it than actually play and interact with them. Another train of thought is that it would be even better to be doing something that involves a bit of healthy exercise.
I’m not saying no to the tv, but its a case surely of all things in moderation?
I’m very grateful for this research. I really don’t want my kids to watch tv. Life outside is so much more interesting!
I want my kid to keep themselves busy with sticks and rocks and leaves and the sort.
Now I just have a great reason to chuck the tele!!!
I tend to agree with Monica. I wouldn’t go so far as completely banning TV till 2yo, but rather just use it as a tool in moderation.
Although that being said, perhaps less rather than more after reading this article.
I believe moderation is the key here. Today, many kids’ educational programs are driven by television. It is also through television that kids learn things faster. However, watching television is a one-way communication; there is a lack of interaction. It is therefore important for parents to fill this gap by playing and interacting with them, thereby helping in the development of a healthier sensory function and better bonding with your baby.
television is bad… very very bad!
Interesting read. I feel that TV is a part of todays life and that children should not be kept away. But they should be limited in time and explained that not everything on TV is real.
I think children watch far too much television. My niece is watching spongebob as we speak. They should be reading books like I had to do when I was a kid.
I won’t let my child watch tv more than 1 hour a day. I normaly let him watch noggin.
I have also found similar thing with the children. Even the most obedient child, if watching his/her fav program, he/she completely ignore what elder is asking from him.
I guess there has to be a balance in whatever one does. You cannot let the kids not do something at all. yet i believe too much TV watching impacts children’s normal social skill
I agree so much with Pat. I watched TV for around 2 hours every day as a child, (My Mum would put me in front of the telly while she did her house work and looked after the animals) and I turned out just fine! I already have a Biochemistry degree from one of the best Universities in the UK, and am studying Graduate Medicine which will gain be another 2 degrees before I’m 24. Don’t feel guilty about plonking children in front of the telly for a couple of hours while you have a life, as long as it’s not all they do all day every day!
I think children under two are not interested in TV. It’s when they start to understand more that TV becomes relevant to them. Even teletubbies requires a certain level of understanding!
My child will watch education programs only )
I have 5 kids and the TV drives me barmy, I come home from work and it’s on, I wake up in the morning and it’s on and at the weekend it’s on.
I have a 2 year old who has watched the TV since she was old enough to focus on it and this is not my choice. My wife says when i try to switch it off
“How else can i get the housework done!
Seems its the easy solution to plonk kids in front of it but my opinion is that it can only cause harm, like the study suggests
I agree. In the summer we simply do not let our kids watch tv at all. You immediately notice the difference in attitude and behaviour.
Great research. i think parents should look at this. It will be very helpful if they properly give time to their childrens rather then just buy toys for them.
I don’t think it’s necessary to completely eliminate television viewing for children. In some cases, I think television viewing can be beneficial for children. But, like other people have said, moderation is the key.
True, moderation is definitely the key. Children need a balance between different medias. I only let my son watch TV for 2 hours a day, the rest of his time he plays outside, does school work or helps around the house.
Well. me too. I wouldn’t let my son watch TV. In my country, TV programs is sucks. Make your child stupid. Better give the child DVD s.
The article is really very interesting but as for me I wouldn’t ban TV altogether.It’s part of our life. But I’ll do my best to persuade that reading, for instance, is much better. The same concerns walking, playing tennis, for instance, etc. But I also agree that everything depends upon the parents or sitters and how caring they are as a child - is a bag of troubles constantly demanding attention on your part. But that’s why we love them.
I tend to think it’s a case of being moderate in all things. Some TV is a good thing and indeed there are some very educational programs on from time to time. The trouble is some parents use it as a way of not having to interact with their children as it’s “easier.”
Play with your kids and enjoy them I say and keep the TV watching down to a sensible level.
I am personally a hands-on mother and I tend to focus on my baby. I would not want to have a problem child. There was a recent article I read about the effects of television to children. I remember a portion there that says: “Letting your child watch TV slows the production of good cells on your child’s brain”. I would post a comment here with the link of the article once I find it. Anyways, thanks for sharing this post. It was a good read.
Monica is absolutely right, Mostly parents tend to take the easy way out when they are busy and do not wish to be disturbed by the kids. And kids too know how to get their way out and pester their parents into letting them watch TV.
I was tempted by these toys but after reading this article I’ll stick to the traditional ones for my kid.
Toys are really bad for babies.
educational programs, cartoons and other tv shows specially for kids could help a bit but do not let them watch it for so long.
They have lots of work to do assigned by their teachers.
I agree with the general consensus here that moderation is key to the issue. Television can be a good educator in small doses but it’s too sedentary. Reading makes the brain work harder which is obviously good for it.. (My site uses Keywordluv as well
I have never thought about the TV like that before. That it is actually living off of a natural instinct to completely focus on strange and moving things. It means that a child is intinctly helpless to avoid looking at it! Almost like taking away their free will in a scary way!
Yeah, its an affect that we’ve never pin pointed to that specific issue - but we’ve all known in the back of our heads that TV is DEFINATELY BAD for young children! Do we really need a knew study to make us change the way we let our children become exposed to it?
Hope you don’t mind me going a little off topic, but I was curious as to what extent you have found keywordluv has helped you get more comments…and if they are good comments or just thank you for the post type comments. I found when using this plugin I got a whole heap of “Thanks” type rubbish which didn’t add to my blog at all…it sure did get a lot more people making comments though!
Hello,
I think this is a very important issue. I don’t work and devote virtually all my time to being at home with my little one. He’s quite demanding in terms of the attention that he requires but I am very happy to oblige. However, as a result he’s happy, bright and sociable and very much ahead of others of his age. I think that everything is OK in moderation and some childrens programs are very good. However, I think that there is much to gain from persuading parents to consider going back to the traditional toys that we used to play with.
Thanks,
Chloe
letting them watch television without the parent’s presence is not good…
as much as possible, limit the time of Tv watching for your children and be picky when it comes to the kind of Television program that your child will gonna watch… be sure that it is educational and violence free program… a child friendly one…
[... My grand-daughter is 4 months old and she shows an interest in television but it does not stop her playing with the toys she has been given...]
It’s anti-TV hype. You can always find “studies” to show that TV is bad for children, but in all honesty, most parents realize that kids do just fine with TV on as long as the content is monitored.
media these days are really effective.
TV, Internet, CD/DVD
are best doing its purpose.
with this media its more easy for parents to educate babies with minimum supervision.
As one of the above commenter mentioned I too am very grateful for this research.
Though Totally banning television would be too harsh in my personal opinion but it’s up to the parents how they handle this problem. Often a suitable alternative works better than forceful ways
I tend to agree with Monica. I wouldn’t go so far as completely banning TV till 2yo, but rather just use it as a tool in moderation.
Although that being said, perhaps less rather than more after reading this article.
My grand-daughter is 4 months old and she shows an interest in television but it does not stop her playing with the toys she has been given. In fact she seems quite capable of choosing between playing with her toys or watching the television. Is the article actually suggesting banning television when youngsters are around? I would think that most parents and certainly my son and his wife are quite capable of regulating the amount of television that is watched and that the old adage “too much of anything is harmful” does also apply to television watching no matter what age the child.
I totally agree with the parallel drawn between watching too much TV and ADD. Seems like kids these days have a 12 minute attention span, tops! And that’s because every 12 minutes, a commercial comes on…
Thanks for this information. Now I won’t let my baby go keep on watching television. I’d rather play for them or go out with them for a walk.
Like Maria just mentioned, I don’t let my kids watch more than a couple of hours of tv per day…I find that they become more and more lazy if they get into that habit. My wife and I are encouraging them to join sports teams etc.
I’m lucky that my son isn’t even interested in watching tv, but I’m sure to much of this media world is harmful to us all.
This is very worrying, I think we all know that to much of anything is bad for us but maybe not realise how damaging something so simple can be. My child likes to watch TV but also likes to play with his toys. I think they should be able to watch some TV just limited.
Honestly, I believe it is up to the parents to take it to the next level when it comes to encouraging or discouraging their young toddlers from TV-watching. In this day, it is often common for toddlers’ TV time. I do not agree with barring TV altogether from your toddlers but I feel that a balance in all areas of other activities that are crucial for your children’s development is important.
We have two children and have cable at our house. We use the parental controls and don’t allow our children access to certain channels. We don’t allow them to watch cartoons like sponge bob and other harmful programming. There are two children’s networks that have helped our kids with there grammar and math skills. Noggin and Sprout. Both us these are excellent for children. They teach the kids and also entertain them. If you would like to look into them just contact your provider and ask them if they carry these two networks. You will be pleased. Great Blog!
~Marcy
Too much TV definitely isnt helpful. I think people should really be considering outdoor toys for their kids for Xmas in 2009. Its a great way to get them active and away from the tele. We are thinking about toys such as bikes and scooters for our kids…
Great post! It is always better that a limited time should be given for any child to watch TV as said by Karen. But for most of the time traditional toys and outdoor games keep children’s mind and body healthy. A balanced exposure of both is required.. but nothing should be forced upon them…
I think most of us are guilty of getting a break by letting our little ones watch television and as they get older its hard to keep them from video games, all I can say is that in my experience it has never stopped my children wanting to play with many other toys as well, most times the tv would be on just in the background with most of the concentration going to what ever they were playing with.
Interesting research.. I too believe that watching too much TV is bad for children. I never let my kids watch more than 2 hours of TV per day!
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