The day I’ve been dreading for the past year has happened… the other night we had a little play time with the TV on in the background. We eventually migrated to the dinner table and about half way through the meal, Matt and I noticed that Zach’s attention was affixed to the television. He now will randomly just sit and watch the TV for extended periods of time. What does this mean for this television loving mama!?!?
I started some research… I know that it is a generally accepted principle that children shouldn’t watch TV before 2 years of age but my question is mainly, “what does that mean?” Can the TV not be on in the child’s presence at all? Are we just not to put the child in front of the TV with the intention of him watching it? What is the problem with TV before two anyway?
Well, first things first: why is it a problem. Evidently children under the age of two can be disturbed by the concept of TV in that they can’t comprehend that there aren’t actually people in that little box. It is also detrimental to their language development in that the people don’t personally interact with the child. After learning that, I began to notice programing that catered to that concern by asking the child questions and allowing time for response. That’s clever.
Now for the real question- can it be on in the background? Evidently, even having it on in the background can lead to reduced likelihood of early reading and reduces interaction with parents and I have to say that that is according to PBS who probably want your kid to watch TV so I can buy into it. So there you go.
Where does this leave me? I won’t be retiring my TV. I will now be more aware of the risks TV imposes on the young mind I am helping to mold. The TV will be on but if we notice him giving all of his attention to it, we will turn it off. The TV will also not affect our level of interaction with him (and I can say that with confidence as I have already been hyper aware of this concern and we are very interactive with him).
Honestly, I can feel some guilt about exposing my child to TV just for my own entertainment but I don’t really see how this “no TV till 2” rule is feasible when you have more than one child. I think that limiting TV in general is a positive goal to make but eliminating it entirely is just not really realistic with another child in the house. Maybe this is really capitalistic and worldly of me but it’s also just realistic and probably for most families.
In terms of the effects of TV on my child’s literacy… we spend more dedicated reading time a day than we do TV watching. In fact, for Zach, there is NO dedicated TV watching time so I think that sends a pretty clear message where our priorities lie. We shall see won’t we? Just another step in the process of trying to not ruin our child.
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