Effect of TV On Children - Article

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Many experts believe that excessive TV watching can have negative effects on children such as preventing brain development, reducing social interaction and language skills, and taking away time from other important activities like reading.

Excessive TV watching can prevent children from developing important skills like language, creativity, motor, and social skills through play, exploration and conversation in their critical first two years of brain development.

TV can expose children to violence, unhealthy behaviors like alcohol and drug use, and teach them that these things are acceptable through positive portrayals in shows and commercials.

The Good and Bad Effects of TV on Children

In: Raising Smart Kids Articles

It is hard to avoid television if you are a kid. People in the house are usually tuned in to TV
siblings as well as parents. In some homes, the television is perpetually on even without
anyone watching. It is common for parents and caregivers to use TV as a substitute
babysitter. Also, many parents buy videos that they think can make their kids smart. But
how does watching TV really affect children?
The bad news is, the majority of experts think that a TV/video-driven culture has bad
effects on kids and may prevent kids from being smart. They cite the following:

TV provides no educational benefits for a child under age 2. Worse, it steals time
for activities that actually develop her brain, like interacting with other people and
playing. A child learns a lot more efficiently from real interaction with people and
things, rather than things she sees on a video screen.

TV viewing takes away the time that your child needs to develop important skills
like language, creativity, motor, and social skills. These skills are developed in the
kids first two years (a critical time for brain development) through play,
exploration, and conversation. Your kids language skills, for example, do not
improve by passively listening to the TV. It is developed by interacting with people,
when talking and listening is used in the context of real life.

TV viewing numbs your kids mind as it prevents your child from exercising
initiative, being intellectually challenged, thinking analytically, and using his
imagination.

TV viewing takes away time from reading and improving reading skills through
practice (Comstock, 1991). Kids watching cartoons and entertainment television
during pre-school years have poorer pre-reading skills at age 5 (Macbeth, 1996).
Also, kids who watch entertainment TV are also less likely to read books and other
print media (Wright & Huston, 1995).

According to Speech and language expert Dr. Sally Ward, 20 years of research show
that kids who are bombarded by background TV noise in their homes have trouble
paying attention to voices when there is also background noise.

Kids who watch a lot of TV have trouble paying attention to teachers because they
are accustomed to the fast-paced visual stimulation on TV. Kids who watch TV
more than they talk to their family have a difficult time adjusting from being visual
learners to aural learners (learning by listening). They also have shorter attention
spans.

School kids who watch too much TV also tend to work less on their homework.
When doing homework with TV on the background, kids tend to retain less skill and

information. When they lose sleep because of TV, they become less alert during the
day, and this results in poor school performance.

A long-term study conducted by the Millennium Cohort Study and published in


2013 found that children who watched more than 3 hours of television, videos, or
DVDs a day had a higher chance of conduct problems, emotional symptoms and
relationship problems by age 7 than children who did not. Notably, they did not find
the same problem with children who played video games for the same amount of
time.

TV exposes your kid to negative influences, and promotes negative behavior. TV


shows and commercials usually show violence, alcohol, drug use and sex in a
positive light. The mind of your kid is like clay. It forms early impressions on what
it sees, and these early impressions determine how he sees the world and affect his
grown-up behavior. For instance, twenty years of research has shown that children
who are more exposed to media violence behave more aggressively as kids and
when they are older. They are taught by TV that violence is the way to resolve
conflict as when a TV hero beats up a bad guy to subdue him.

Kids who watch too much TV are usually overweight, according to the American
Medical Association. Kids often snack on junk food while watching TV. They are
also influenced by commercials to consume unhealthy food.

Also, they are not

running, jumping, or doing activities that burn calories and increase metabolism.
Obese kids, unless they change their habits, tend to be obese when they become
adults. A recent study confirms this finding, suggesting that even just an hour of
TV is associated with childhood obesity.

Researchers from the University of Sydney report a link between total screen time
and retinal artery width in children. Kids with lots of screen time were found to
have narrow artery in their eyes, which may indicate heart risk.

A 2014 study published in the International Journal of Cardiology suggests that


children aged 2 to 10 who watch TV for more than two hours a day is 30% more
likely to be at risk for blood pressure compared to those who spend less time in
front of TV. Lack of physical activity increased the risk even more by 50%. The
lead researcher Dr Augusto Cesar de Moraes, from the University of Sao Paulo,
Brazil, warned that the condition can cause cardiovascular problems later in life.
The findings are consistent with an earlier 2009 study.

TV watching also affects a childs health and athletic ability. The more television a
child watches, even in the first years of life, the more likely he is to be obese and less
muscularly fit, according to a study by the University of Montreal. Even though your
kid does not aspire to be a football star, his athletic abilities are important not only
for physical health, but predicting how physically active he will be as an adult.

Every hourly increase in daily television watching from two and a half years old is
also associated with bullying by classmates, and physical prowess at kindergarten,
said Professor Linda Pagani of the University of Montreal and the CHU SainteJustine childrens hospital.

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