Every summer, I
tell parents to take advantage of the season and use the
sunshine and warm breezes as an excuse to turn off the tube.
Even though the comings and goings of a busy school year
make TV an easy way to relax, we owe it to our kids to offer
them healthy alternatives.
Why? Well, let's take a look at two important new studies
concerning the impact of television on kids. One study focused
on the role of TV in the lives of babies and young toddlers.
The other study examined a link between adolescent TV viewing
and attention and learning difficulties. According the studies,
TV is getting our kids coming and going. It affects their
development when they are brand new to the world, and it
shapes their minds as they make the transition to adulthood.
Ninety percent of babies regularly watch TV, DVDs, and videos
by the time they reach 24 months, say the authors of the
first study, which comes out of the University of Washington
in Seattle. And the average two-year-old watches an hour
and a half of television every single day.
The most interesting finding in the Washington study comes
from this question: why do parents let babies watch so much
TV so early? Only one out of five parents admitted they
use TV as a babysitter to keep babies content and safe while
they do something else. However, nearly one in three parents
said they plopped kids in front of the TV because it was
"educational or good for their child's brain."
As the authors of the study are quick to note, a growing
body of research shows that TV is not as good for young
kids' brains as many parents think. In fact, excessive TV
viewing seems to contribute to problems with learning the
skills of language and later attention disorders.
As if hoping to support the claims of the Washington study,
the authors of the second study, including scientists from
Columbia and New York Universities, found that adolescents
who watched three or more hours of TV a day were highly
likely to have attention and learning difficulties that
extended into adulthood. Even the kids who watched just
one hour per day developed many of these problems. Why?
According to the report, watching TV "takes time that
might otherwise be dedicated to reading and homework, requires
little intellectual effort, promotes problems with attention
and contributes to disinterest in school."
Since school is out, summertime is the perfect time to set
media aside for a while. The TV can still be turned on if
we want to watch something as a family, but we're better
off playing catch in the park or going for a walk around
the block. Babies and toddlers should explore the world
by playing on a blanket in the back yard. Reading out loud
to kids of all ages on the front stoop is a great way to
pass a summer evening. While we still can, let's make sure
TV doesn't get our kids coming and going, and let's take
time to be together with our families.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the founder of the
MediaWise Movement, a program of the National Institute
on Media and the Family (www.mediawise.org).
His latest book, No: Why Kids - of All Ages - Need to
Hear It and Ways Parents Can Say It (Free Press) is
available in bookstores.
