Too much TV is not good for children (From The Argus)
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Too much TV is not good for children
11:31am Tuesday 24th January 2012 in Comment and Analysis By Aric Sigman
Characters from popular children's television programme Peppa Pig
Children are instinctively drawn to television screens.
The flickering movement triggers an instinct we have almost from birth, drawing the eye to assess and identify possible threats.
But just because they will watch the screens, we should not assume television is good for them.
In fact, it can be quite the opposite.
Recently a controversy sprang up among parents who said the children’s programme Peppa Pig was teaching their children bad behaviour.
Characters were said to be dismissing vegetables by shouting “Yuck”, and defying the instructions of their parents. Real-life mothers and fathers reported copycat behaviour by their little ones.
Of course, we should not be surprised that children, from toddlers to teenagers, are affected by what they see on TV.
One thing we as adults tend to forget is that we ourselves are affected by what we see on TV. That is why there are things called adverts and that is why they work.
Unlike us, young children’s critical faculties have not developed properly yet. They cannot even tell the difference between the television programme and the advert.
Screen time
Children see many more hours of screen time than ever before and our children are watching at younger ages than ever before.
There are even more babies who are having TV screens placed next to their cots in their bedrooms.
If they get many more hours of screen time per week the influence of that world is going to be much greater than before.
The latest studies show it is a fallacy that children are watching less telly and using computers more.
They are watching more TV but also spending more time with other forms of screen media – computers, games, DVDs.
Up until recently the only other grown-ups in contact with children would be teachers.
Now, we allow adults with all kinds of ideas or values to broadcast every day to our children.
And in many households what is watched is unregulated.
This can have extreme effects. Media images can have medical effects on girls.
The number of media images girls are seeing has increased phenomenally because of the sheer number of hours of television they are seeing – and if all of their role models are underweight the messages are not good.
The age at which we start to see body dissatisfaction is dropping and dropping.
We also have a huge problem with girls in this country developing anorexia and eating disorders at a younger age. Ten per cent of girls who develop anorexia will die.
Control viewing
It is our duty as parents to control what young children are viewing.
Censorship is a necessary and good thing for children, more than ever because there is so much stuff out there which we may not wish our kids to see.
With very young children, though – the Peppa Pig audience – it is not necessarily what they see but the amount they see and the age at which they see it which could be having a damaging effect.
In 2008, the French government banned the broadcast of TV programmes intended for children aged under three.
Children’s brains can’t benefit from TV until they are two years old.
A child’s brain trebles in size between the time it is born and the age of three, when the brain reaches 80% of its adult size.
It is possible watching television before the age of three is disrupting some of the neurocircuitry involved in developing attention span and other faculties that need to be left alone for a few years.
What could really benefit them, educationally and otherwise, is being read to.
Reading benefits
When a child is being read to, even a book which has a couple of pages, the child’s brain has more cognitive load placed on it.
There is more effort needed to convert the pictures and words into a story.
Television doesn’t require that kind of cognitive or intellectual effort because the movement, the signs and the sound effects are done for you.
According to the Institute of Education in London, reading to a child at the age of three provides real dividends two years later.
Parents are far more likely to see their children flourish in a wide range of subjects in their first year at school and outscore their classmates in a variety of areas, scoring highly not only in literacy but also in numeracy, and advancing in their social, emotional, physical and creative development.
Television doesn’t seem to have those effects.
It is not to say children shouldn’t be using TVs or computers. It is at what age and how much.
Much of the problem involved in controlling screen time and what children watch comes down to parents.
Some lack authority or are scared or reluctant to disappoint their children.
Gift of boredom
There also is an assumption that parents have to do something for children or they will be bored to death.
This is a complete fallacy.
The greatest gift you can give your child is the gift of boredom. They have to learn how to entertain themselves.
The idea that you have to do something or they will be under-stimulated and will not develop as well is just not true.
If it was, everybody before our parents’ ages would have died of boredom as children.
If we allowed our children to get bored they would be healthy and happy.
Children have to soak up real life experiences for their brain development.
Three-dimensional physical toys, whether bits of wood, or part of a toy game, are far better than two-dimensional entertainment on a screen.
It sounds simple in the end. The ratio should be that children spend the vast majority of their time in the real world and the minimum time in the virtual world.
Cut down on the time young children spend watching television or screens.
Read to them in their pre-school years, and let them explore the world using physical toys.
And as for Peppa Pig? Children may or may not learn bad habits from the characters.
The problem is the simple act of looking at the screen too early or for too long may hamper the learning process itself later on.
