Sorry I've been MIA lately. Between work, volunteer work, and parenting, I'm not sure which end is up these days. And I confess, there are some days that I turn on the TV so I can get dinner ready without having kids pull at my pants legs. Is that so wrong?
Maybe so according to Time magazine. I have to admit that this isn't news to me. Of course TV isn't great for a developing child's brain. The real question is whether it's actually harmful. Is a lower vocabulary based on a child's TV watching, or based on the fact that parents who let their kids watch a lot of TV also neglect to interact with their kids? I don't know. I don't let the children watch TV everyday, or even every other day. But they do watch a little. When I resort to the TV, I'm probably too stressed out to be interacting with them in a positive way anyway. I'll confess, though, that the "Repeat Play" button on the Baby Einstein videos is a a little evil. I wonder if that button appeared before or after Disney bought them out?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Good to see you're back, I was starting to wonder! OK, so this is one of my ongoing battles (both internally and with family). Ideally my children would watch no tvuntil much older, but living in the real world this is unlikely. My reasons for being so anti a media form that I enjoy sometimes myself isn't hypocracy, it is grounded in clear observations made in the classroom and in parent-toddler groups.
-Firstly, children who watch tv with commercials have their attention span trained into 7 1/2 minute chunks, requiring a teacher to provide a break with the same regularity. This is obviously not a recipe for deep focus but is something that can be avoided by using dvds or TiVo.
-Secondly the passive element. We have all seen the zombie-like stare of a mesmerised child watching tv. It's horrible. Reading a book is physically engaging (page-turning, holding, snuggling)and allows for the parent and child's own imaginative creativity to pace the story. We pause on a page, discuss it, censor ideas that are inappropriate, repeat complex ideas, create silly voices. Books meet a child's personal development and needs, tv does not. Also, parents may choose the programme their children watch, but have no control over the commercials or trailers that run on regular tv. As a result, children can easily be prematurely exposed to innappropriate ideas or images.
-Then there is the lack of beauty in so much of what is geared towards our children. Exceptions I have found are far and few between, but the Beatrix Potter set is a wonderful and rare example of animators (almost) improving on the original.
We all get tired and need a quick fix to entertain our children whilst we get things done, but a child who gets sat in front of the tv at these times doesn't learn how to entertain themselves. So we are essentially delaying the lesson for some other time.
Another thought I often have is- would I like my children to play with the characters on a tv show? Rarely is the answer yes.
As a result, Imogen rarely watches tv alone. Usually it is snuggled up with her Daddy. She tends to watch programmes we have on demand, so that they can pause or review a scene. She knows never to ask for a tv show in the morning as that is our busiest time of day. This way, I hope, she won't grow up feeling deprived (and hungry for the medium) but will have so many ideas of things to do that tv comes far down the list. Let's hope so!
A follow up article in the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/16/opinion/16guernsey.html?em&ex=1187409600&en=865e1ff8724016c4&ei=5087%0A
It's an op-ed defending the limited use of baby videos like Baby Einstein... Crux of it is that letting your child watch a few minutes of a video while you hop in the shower isn't evil. Substituting videos for personal interaction and reading to your child is another story...
Post a Comment