Why is Television Bad for Children?

[Rainydaze]

I've discussed this with a few people who think that watching TV hinders children's development, particularly their speech. Is this true? If so, why? Does spoken audio have the same effect?

How much telly is too much telly???

DD (2.5) watches a fair bit, and I'll happily cut it down if I thought it was harmful.

Thank you. :)

By the way, DD's speech is very good and so I haven't noticed any problems. Of course I don't know how she'd be doing if she didn't watch telly.

I've researched this too as i wanted to do the right thing. From memory i think they recommend no TV for under 2's and no more than 2 hours forover 2's. Feel like i may have to double check that info now though - right on to google ...

Thanks SkyBluePearl. Why is this though?

I'm sure too much telly's bad, but I'd like to know why. I'm sure a lot of it depends on what the child's watching. For example, I'm sure that programme's like Numberjacks have really helped DD's counting.

My basic understanding of this is that the interaction between two humans speaking to each other (and especially a parent and child) is unbelievably subtle and responsive. TV is nothing like this - a person speaks, a child may even respond, but then nothing comes back to them to support their language learning or extend it.

Children certainly can learn vocabulary from telly (e.g. Rice and Woodsmall 88) but that's not surprising - they are geared up to learn vocabulary. In fact, they learn a lot less vocab from a filmed segment than a live one (see Anderson and Pempek 2005 for a review).

That review also summarises evidence that general language, cognition and development are negatively associated with increased TV, and that having TV on as background to interaction is particularly disruptive.

As far as physical health/obesity goes (which you didn't ask, sorry), 8 hours a week seems to be a watershed time (Reilly et al 2005) - children who watched more than this were much more likely to be obese (though of course it wasn't an inescapable fate)

Disclaimer: My ds watches a lot of telly. Why? Because he likes it, I'm quite lazy and because my husband needs 1:1 interaction as well. I kept it down until he was 18 months, and under quite reasonable control until he was 5. Since then, collapse. We can only do what we can do.

Hello, I think the main thing is that T.V. time detracts from other time when they could be playing or interacting with other people- adults and children.

It is through this play and interaction that their brains develop the most, so if they are watching T.V. for long time each day they have less time for this to happen.

A lot of television can also over-stimulate young brains and you can get hyper behaviour afterwards. Some children are more sensitive than others (as with sugar!).

I think like anything else moderation is key! Probably the fact you are thinking about it shows it's not a problem. If they watch T.V. as well as plenty of other play and interaction then I would think this is healthy enough

The 'no TV for under 2s' is an American Association of Pediatrics recommendation.

I do sometimes wonder if the BBC should provide any children's telly at all tbh.

I find that some tv is fine, but my two DC behave so much better, by this I mean less fighting, playing nice games together and settle for bed better if I limit tv. We have a bit after lunch, some after school then no more after about 4.30 until the next day.

Yeah, we have some after lunch and a bit before tea. That's it.

4 year old watches maybe max 2 hours total, often less, 2 year old watches 30 mins to an hour max.

It would be a huge shame if the BBC didn't provide any programmes considering a) they provide pretty high quality, educational and interactive programmes and b) there are no adverts. A lot of the BBC programmes are brought by other channels overseas, eg Discovery Kids in the US, because they are such good quality.

It's defintely about moderation, what programmes the children are watching and the type of child you have. My dd's go through stages of watching a lot of tv but they are both pretty bright, active children. Dd1 is a very good reader (thanks in part to programmes like Alphablocks/Super Why!) and they both love doing things like going out on their bikes and swimming.

kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

www.guardian.co.uk/society/2007/apr/24/childrensservices.medicineandhealth

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/3603235.stm

Thanks all for such interesting replies.

Maktaitai, I'd never thought of it in terms of the 'responsive' mechanisms of scripts rather than real life speech. How fascinating. Yep, it all makes sense!

Doramustdie (I guess your name's linked to the subject matter!), DD is also better behaved when she hasn't watched lots of telly.

Hmmmm, I think I need to start to limit the viewing time more.

Thanks again, all!

Thanks for those links, SkyBluePearl.

The most fascinating thing I read about this was in the Toxic Childhood book, in which the author cited a study of a child with normal hearing being brought up by two parents who were both profoundly deaf.

They used TV in an effort to help their child learn spoken language. The child did not learn to speak, but did learn sign language.

The child subsequently learned spoken language when going to pre-school and interacting with other children and adults who spoke. In other words, children are geared up to learn when they interact with others. TV is too passive to provide that sort of learning. So it is a useful short-term distraction, but no more than that.

Heehee yes definitely! Although really Dora and Diego not too bad I realized that when DS counted to 5 in Spanish one day. But seriously does she have to be so bloody chirpy??

I've posted some links above about tv effects and so on. I'm sure theres lots more reseach on the topic though.

We ummed and arred about how much tv for a while. Have tried different amounts. Now tend mostly to let 7 year old have an hours screen time at the end of the day as long as homework is completed/jobs done and the 2 year old has just half an hour. This of course falls to bits when we are ill or the kids are really exhausted.

DH and i hardly watch tv in the evenings as we rarely find much we want to view.

They are great links! Interesting information have to agree about limiting tv.

I think it makes a difference if you watch tv with your child rather than just leaving them in front of it. If you watch together you can ask them questions,they can ask you and it's much more of a learning tool. Also I think everything is fine in moderation...my ds (2.7) watches more tv when weather is bad,dark nights etc. But then I know in summer we are out and about nearly every day,and he hardly gets chance to watch any!

My son can do makaton purely from watching 'something special', but if people think that's bad then it's up to them

I think that the research has also indicated quite strongly that tv has a very detrimental effect on a child's ability to concentrate and therefore has a negative impact on both learning and behaviour at school. The suggested explanation is that when a child watches tv they become accustomed to to very passive and very rapid changes of stimuli. This type of hyper stimulation is not mirrored in most learning. Reading and problem solving, for example, take considerable time and application. As such, the suggestion is, as far as I understand, that even educational tv is detrimental to learning skills.

I find the research all rather terrifying. I think I read that having either the tv or radio on in the background can be detrimental to language development. As one of the posters above said, it interferes with the very subtle learning that takes place in conversation.

With all of that, we do still let our 22 month old watch tv. But we try to limited it to 30 minutes a day, or I do. My husband is more inclined to ignore the research and so will let her watch more. But when she was ill we had the tv on loads. I don't think that is right, but it was because,we as parents found it easier to manage like that.

I wish I had the strength to ban it altogether, but I don't.

DD is 2 but her speech is at 3yo level - she can sing songs, have conversations etc. We've watched TV pretty much from birth, although she's never dumped in front of it alone and I try to limit it to a couple of hours a day, and I choose the programmes carefully. She sat through a 60min Studio Ghibli film over Xmas, so her attention span is quite good. She can count to 18 (reciting), and can actually count quantities to 10. We do interact with her while watching TV, discuss how the characters are feeling etc. I don't think it's a million miles away from how we consume books. My main reservation with the TV is it's time sat down instead of running around.

I also think the internet has/will have a lot more to answer for with regard to learning and concentration - link - and kids today are growing up in a different world, technologically speaking, than most of us will have grown up in so perhaps being accustomed to dealing with rapid changes of stimuli may not necessarily be a bad thing? Or perhaps every new medium is criticised in this way - I know novels were considered extremely detrimental, especially to women's brains, when they first emerged.

For me, TV is a godsend, especially when BFing DS. There are undoubtedly pros and cons but I think it's up to the individual parent(s) to weight that up.

I think before concluding that a poorly achieving child who watches more than 2 hours TV a day is badly affected by the TV, you'd have to consider the reasons s/he's watching so much.

I know that when I've been ill, working too much, pregnant, or when there have been other family crises to take care of, my DS watches a lot more.

In these circumstances, watching high quality TV may be his least worst option. He's missing out on all kinds of human interactions and real-life experiences which would probably be better for him, but this deficit isn't caused by the TV.

So might it be the case that increased TV watching is simply an indicator of a busy/stressed/ill/not very good caregiver, and that this underlying problem is reducing achievement in children who watch a lot, rather than the TV itself being detrimental?

I find my DD behaves better and is in a better mood if she just watches about 20 mins max a day.

We did have phase where she was watching 90 mins and she was grumpy and wouldn't play with her toys etc. Much sunnier when she just watches the end of In the Night Garden after her supper.

yes why is it too much tv makes my children grumpy and less well behaved? They are great kids otherwise.

I think it's fine for older toddlers and upwards, as long as it isn't watched constantly. However tempting, I think it's awful when people just plonk their children in front of the TV for hours to get them out of the way. I would think what umf said is true though.

I'm seventeen and know three of my peers at college that never had a television at home when they were little and still do not. Those three are three of the most able, got excellent GCSE results, and are all on track to go to good universities(Oxbridge etc.). It could be a coincidence and I know correlation does not imply causation, but it's still interesting.

I think telly is neither good nor bad. In the way that chocolate and wine are neither good nor bad.

It is how it is enjoyed that matters.

Used in moderation and thoughtfully, telly can be great entertainment.

Unfortunately, for a lot of children it is simply the default setting. Time spent in front of the box is time tha could be spent in the fresh air, or chatting to Mum and Dad, or listening to a story.