AAP links TV watching under 2 years to ADD
And it's not a loose link, either.
http://pressoffice.cornell.edu/oct06/tv_autism.shtml
http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=ADHD%20Toddlers
Not only may early television watching trigger autism (a possible link), it's been shown that for every 10 minutes a day of TV a child watches before they hit 2 years of age, they have a 10% more likely chance of having ADD when they are older. This includes "infant" television such as Baby Einstein. (Which, by the way, is a JOKE. We studied this in child psych - it's far more harmful than helpful. I can't believe they haven't been sued yet.)
So if a 10 month old watches 30 minutes of TV a day, they are 30% more likely to have ADD. That is a HUGE statistic. And by the time they are six, their TV habits are ingrained - will they be a couch potato? How much they watch TV in the first 2 years will determine that.
Now I should say that Ari watches TV. She'll get an average of about 10 minutes a day of Baby Signing Time or the Signing Baby Einstein DVDs. But - apparently - the key to letting a kid watch TV is to (a) let them say no! I know a lot of parents whose kids aren't interested but basically beg the kid and plop them in a chair and make them watch. (B), be there with the kid. TV should never be used as a babysitter, even for 10 minutes, because the AAP's study directly links this with decreased ability to focus (and they will never learn anything, anyway). A child needs interaction to learn - it is IMPOSSIBLE for a child under 2 to learn anything from TV - IMPOSSIBLE. Their brains cannot process the 2D image. (C), the show should move slowly. One of the problems is kids watch TV that moves fast and they think that this is how fast real life moves and get bored with real life.
So much controversy! What kind of TV and how much do your kids watch?
4 comments:
Faith and Jacob both watched Signing Time before 2 yrs (but older than 1 yr) and they definitely learned signs from the videos.
And they learned Chinese, Hebrew and Swahili from Baby Einstein. :)
But they really did learn the signs before 2 yrs from the Signing Time videos.
Really? You NEVER signed with them, ever?
A child can make a connection from a video..."Oh! Mama made that sign and now they are making it." But you can't plop a kid in front of a TV and never reinforce anything and they get it.
So really? You never signed anything with your kids and they learned it all from the video? Someone is going to have to redo decades of child psychology research, then. I seriously was taught that could never happen.
There were times that I was like, "Where did you learn that?" And then I saw the video and realized that it was from the video. I definitely signed several things with the kids, but some of it the learned from just the videos... I think. I'll check this time around and pay more attention. :)
Ah. It sounds like you're confusing "mimicry" with "learning." Though they look a lot alike, and mimicry can lead to learning, it is not actual learning. Copying something they saw on a video - even in context - is not learning. It is learned when it is reinforced in real life.
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