Language & TV

I think we all are aware of the "evil" side of television entertainment. American studies linking childhood obesity to TV date back to the early 80s.  And before that, in the 1970s, psychologists used to show kids violent movies to see how they react, and the results were astonishing: kids with less TV per day were more sensitive to violence with their pulse fluctuating more than those kids who watched a lot of TV on a regular basis. (A side thought: Isn't it kind of wrong to place a child in front of a violent movie just to see how he reacts?)

Nowadays, there is plenty of research on language development and screen media (the term screen media encompasses television, recorded video, computer games and entertainment), and the results are not in favor of the latter: When young children watch TV, they tend to babble less, they tend to have less interactions with adults, and, as a result, they tend to acquire vocabulary slower than those kids with little or no TV exposure.

Truthfully, I have a TV on in the background, as I am typing this, but Sasha is asleep at this point. When he was a newborn, we used to watch TV a lot, having it on most of the day. That practice had changed with different family members who were helping us to babysit when Sasha was 3 - 7 months old. Nowadays, TV is on only when he is asleep, and some days we don't turn it on, at all. It's probably healthier for us, too. At the same time, we don't want to miss our favorite sitcoms that are on on Mondays. So, on Mondays we turn the TV on for an hour or so, and one of us occupies Sasha, while the other watches TV.

I wholeheartedly agree that television presents a distraction for a young child, not a learning tool. Of course, Sasha is distracted by TV when it is on, but 1 hour per week accounts to only 1 percent of his awake time, and 99% of his awake time he has opportunities for both independent play and adult-child interaction.

I think no TV rule, which many households adopt when their children are young, is a good one. But this can be modified for other families: no TV when your child is awake, and when he is asleep, the sound should be kept to the minimum. A tiny TV indulgence for parents is not a big deal, as long as the rest of the time parents are not just physically present, but are also available for two-way interaction with their child. Let's face it: your TV might be off, but you may be texting, talking on the phone or reading the newspaper for hours, which means no interaction opportunity for your child.