Upon hearing the theme song to “Little Einstein’s” my 20 month old twins begin patting and dancing until the exciting climax: ‘blast off’! Surely this is a great show right? It introduces my little ones to classical music and teaches all about music theory. And what about Elmo’s world? That’s educational too! In fact, if I listen to commercials, marketing and advertisements, there are a whole slew of media products designed to boost my twins’ brain power seven fold. (Hey, a foreign language DVD anyone?)
I admit that my toddlers watch the occasional T.V. Apparently, we are a rare household. Each of my older children (ages 3, 5, and 7) is allowed 1 thirty minute show per day. (‘Little Einsteins’ is my 3 year old’s favorite.) I have no real means of separating the twins out of the mix, so they too usually end up watching a show or two. At most, if everyone was allowed to sit through and watch everyone else’s show, they’d get a whopping ninety minutes of television. While that happens–it’s rare. My twins have yet to discover the wonders of Buzz Lightyear (the show of choice for the 5 year old). However, in a recent survey 43% of households allowed their babies under the age of 2 to watch at least 60 minutes or more of television per day.
It is not alarming to me that moms use the television as a babysitter on occasion. If you think that sounds horrible. . .I suspect you either have lots of help or only one child who happens to take long naps. We moms after all, have to shower, cook dinner, get a smidgen of cleaning done and sometimes it can’t all happen with junior under foot. A little distraction is a handy advantage every once in awhile.
What’s alarming to me is that we (as in our society) seem to have moved from using television as the short lived ’distraction’ to using it to build brainier babies. We are led to believe, by advertising that this DVD or that program will enhance our baby’s life in one way or another. Media products for babies pitch their stuff as “brain food” able to help with cognitive development, there is little research to back up these claims. The truth is that we really don’t know what effect television has on children under the age of 2 years old.
The American Association of Pediatrics recommends that children under age 2 get no television time whatsoever. That includes video games too by the way. In part, it distracts from the natural process of learning. Rather than encouraging them to move and explore a natural world, it encourages them to sit and look at images. Did you know television actually projects images and information more slowly than our brains our capable of processing? The more television we watch, the slower our brains get! (This research was based on a study done older children.)
No matter how you look at it, you can’t get away from the fact that the best way to build your baby’s brain and ‘encourage’ cognitive development is to personally interact with your baby.
Look soon for more blogs soon on this topic highlighting claims made by distributors.
Related Articles:
Children’s Television Shows to Promote Exercise?
Watching TV with Your Children
Television is NOT a Good Babysitter!