Television and Children’s Development
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February 11, 2011
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“According to the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) most children plug into the world of television well before they enter school.”(KidsHealth.org, How TV effect your child, p.1, paragraph 1). Children under the age of two are recommended not be watching any television. Children over the age of two are recommended to no more than two hours of educational television per day. It is said that on average a children watches anywhere between two and four hours of television per day. By the time a child graduate’s high school, they would have spent more time in front of the television then in school. Many people have different opinions about what television can do to a child’s development such as harm their development, or help their development.
From a professional point of view television can be very harmful to a child’s development both mentally and physically. “The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development” (KidsHealth.org, How TV effect your child, p.1, paragraph 1).Between the ages of birth and two child’s brain is like sponges. Watching television may harm a child’s brain by getting in the way of them exploring the world, playing with toys, playing with other children, and even interacting with their parents. When a child between birth and the age of two learns to do all of this instead of sitting in front of a television, it encourages the child to be more physical, interactive, and social at that time and later in life. These are reasons the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) recommends no television time for children under the age of two. Children over the age of two are recommended by AAP to watch no more than one-two hours of television in a day. As a child gets older watching television can affect them both physically and mentally as well as a child under the age of two. If a child is watching too much television this may affect them from wanting to do other things such as read, play outside with friends, play spots, family time, and even stop them from doing schoolwork. “Children who consistently spend more than 4 hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight.” (KidsHealth.org, How TV effect your child, p.1, paragraph 6).
Parents have their own opinions on how television may affect children both physically, and mentally. Children all over the world are watching way too much television compared to 20 years ago. Watching too much television as children can harm their brain development in so many ways. As stated before children under the age of two are like sponges. They are learning everything they see, and hear. So if they are around television to much even if they are not essentially watching it they are learning from it. Even though parents may think that if the children are not physically sitting in front of the television that they are not watching it, they are still hearing it. Just like if a child was to hear their parents fighting, screaming, and cursing all the time they will learn to act that way. Same goes for children over the age of two. The only difference is that when they are over the age two they can talk, walk, and do what they are learning from television. So children watching these television shows made not to help their development physically and emotionally are most likely going to be influenced to stay inside instead of playing outside with friends, read, do homework, interact with parents, eat more junk food, talk with vulgarity, learn violence, and so much more.
According to the KidsHealth.org website not all television is harmful for your children. “Preschoolers can get help learning the alphabet on public television, grade schoolers can learn about wildlife on nature shows, and parents can keep up with current events on the evening news.”(KidsHealth.org, How TV effect your child, p.1, paragraph 5). Children under the age of two may learn from watching certain