Kids and TV -- How Much is Too Much?

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A post on a parenting board scared the pants off of me:

Quote:

One day I was in the bookstore and picked up Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't think and what we can do about it by Jane Healy and started thumbing through it. I bought it on the spot. After reading through some chapters, I did not want the TV on for my son anymore (my instincts always told me TV wasn't good for him, but you know how it is.) Perhaps when he's older and "needs" to watch it for Animal Planet studies type stuff...

Basically she argues that (thanks to brain research) TV watching FORMS and SHAPES the brain... "rewiring" it so to speak... in ways that are N-O-T condusive for thinking... i.e. that is why so many children have trouble in school... can't concentrate... think through problems... Teachers across the country are complaining that the kids don't seem to be able to handle material that they could 30 yrs ago.

I have done some research on this book, and it looks like it is one of those scaremongerers who splices together some anecdotal evidence with possibly pertinent science and scares the pants off of as many people as she can.

I was forbidden to watch any TV when I was a kid, and it was a big problem. I would just sneak it whenever possible, watch it at friends' houses, was way too consumed with it for a long time. I have therefore purposely taken a "moderation in all things" approach with my 2.75-year-old; she watches PBS, some Nick Jr., and some videos. Varies from day to day, probably an hour or so on average. Sometimes, though, like rainy days or when my husband is on a trip and I need a break, she'll watch much more. This has only started since she was about 2 -- before that she watched hardly any (wasn't really as interested.)

While I know that TV is hardly the optimum use of time, I keep close tabs on what she watches, we also read a zillion books (literally 10-20 a day) and we DO a lot of stuff. And since my husband works 60-80 hour weeks and I do not have any kind of support network when it comes to having someone come watch the kiddo and give me a break, TV is a great sanity-saver for me.

My overall take is that the problem with TV watching is what you are not doing when you are watching it -- if the child is getting plenty of fresh air and exercise, plenty of interaction with the parent, plenty of interaction with other kids, plenty of solo play time, and plenty of reading time, TV as one part of that whole picture is just nothing to be too concerned about.

At any rate, I've begun to do more research and thought I'd start a thread about it, to get both opinions and leads on real research from anyone who might know.

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Oh, just found this, haven't read it yet. Will look at it tomorrow:

http://www.aap.org/advocacy/chm98nws.htm

(An article by this Healy person.)

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I have been battling with my nearly-4-year-old neice for awhile now about tv. The girl watches way too much of it. I have to fight to keep it to just one hour while I'm with her. I side track her with the computer, but I dunno if using the computer is that much better for her.

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That's one thing, that the sozlet pretty much never asks for it -- it's up to me to control it. She seems to do fine without.

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IMO any TV is too much. Not because of how bad it is but because of how much it spoils so many other activities.

Many things that I had considered fun I became disinterested in after discovering TV.

I have seen it happen time and time again with other children and am thankful that I was reared with the absolute absence of TV (can count on one hand the number of times I watched TV for more than 30 seconds before I was 10).

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I had limited TV access as a kid, but still more than the article Soz posted says is ok. I remember a 2 hour limit, but it may have been fewer hours when I was a pre-teen. I am grateful that TV didn't run my life any more than that. I hardly ever watch TV now and when one is on in the back ground I can't focus real well in social settings like at bars.

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I think that TV engenders a number of problems with small children.

On TV, everything is spoon fed to the kids. In my very early childhood, there was no TV, so I was hooked on the radio. On the radio, at least the child's imagination is developed. A kid could create the scene that the radio story implied, imagine how the actors looked. With TV, all that is laid out in a nice neat package.

I think that it is important to realize that many TV producers DO have an agenda when they produce shows with certain themes or certain implications. I DO believe that kid's minds ARE shaped by what they see on TV.

With no TV, a parent will read a story, or buy a kid a book, that reflects the parent's values. On TV, the child is learning and incorporating the values of the producer of the show.

TV, with its constant barrage of advertisements (which books do NOT have) send a message to the child, that consumerism and materialism is everything. That may be great for the sponsoring companies, but sends a very poor message to kids in the process of developing a sense of what is important in life.

Soz- I do believe that you have the right idea. We live in the 21st century, and TV is part of it. If it is only part of a large array of experiences that the child encounters, I don't think that it will cause much harm. When it is the predominant experience that a child encounters.............

When I was employing and training staff, I noticed that there was a common thread that ran through many of the young people that I interviewed (mostly entry level BA candidates, from fair to middling schools). That was their difficulty with conceptual skills, and an inability to generalize learning from one problem to enable them to deal with another.
I remember wondering whether too much TV had robbed them of the ability to use their imagination, so that the conceptual skills were never developed sufficiently.

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I think what may have saved me as a kid was the fact that my parents instilled a love of reading very early on. I watched alot of TV growing up but read alot as well and it all balanced out.

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I agree with Craven and Phoenix--the problem is probably not television per se but the hours of meaningful activity that television replaces.

About ten years ago I did a nature presentation at a Girl Scout camp for six and seven year olds. All of these kids had had at least one year of school and some had three years (if you count kindergarten).

The range of sophistication was shocking.

A number of well-dressed children were able to sit passively in the circle, but not only could not name one wild animal who lived in Pennsylvania but had trouble comprehending that I was talking one-on-one with them. Even "I don't know," was a major conversational effort.

Another sizable contingent could name lions, tigers and kangaroos--and were sure these animals were in Pennsylvania because they were on television in Pennsylvania.

Only five out of the 20 kids could focus in on rabbits, squirrels, deer, bear, etc. Oddly enough, these kids were not the ones dressed in beautifully color-cordinated, brand new play clothes. They were wearing clean, frequently washed jeans and t-shirts.

I'd guess from the expenditure on clothing and the fact that the money had been paid for day camp that the mute contingent did not come from poverty-stricken homes. All the same they were passive and more accustomed to second hand reality than hands-on Real Life.

My guess is that Ms. Healy has some valid points. She's not talking about kids from verbal and interacting homes. The kids who worry her are the ones who have received most of their stimulation from the television screen rather than walks and crafts and sandpiles and most importantly interacting with a loving and enthusiastic adult.

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Just a quick quibble: my qualm isn't the activities that TV replaces directly but teh activities that are deemed no longer fun to a child who is spoiled by the easy mindless entertainment that is TV.

After I discovered TV many activities that I had loved lost a bit of allure. Documentaries were not the riveting entertainment that they had been etc etc etc

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I doubt that TV rewires the brain but I have no doubt that it is not good in large amounts for children. This was one of the major issues between my exwife and I as she would allow our two children to watch it as much as they pleased into all hours if the evening and defend them when I objected. My parents closely controlled the amount of TV time we were allowed and also had a large library, both books and a special room (pretty good for a working class family) As my mother was an English teacher we were were encourage to read as much as we wanted to and she and my father insured that we had the resources to do so. I think ultimately it is that attitude of the parents that is crucial. The world is an interesting place and if offered the opportunity to explore children will do so and regard TV as a rather pallid alternative.

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Great points, everyone. I started a long response after, I think, Phoenix's post, but then I keep working in reactions to the latest post and it's getting way long and convoluted. So I'm just scrapping it in favor of a new and hopefully more concise response, but while I do that, wanted to quickly thank you for the great responses so far.

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This is an article I found about Healy's work, that nails down what makes me uneasy:

Quote:

Unfortunately, Healy's presentation can be enormously frustrating, since she often introduces important points by inserting little vignettes in which she quotes conversations with educators or doctors. The result is that the reader must take her word for some pretty provocative pronouncements.

For example, she introduces the theory that increased time in front of the computer could cause autism, or autism-like symptoms, by quoting an unnamed doctor: "I'm seeing these kids who've spent hours and hours [in front of the computer] and some of them actually look autistic." Healy then plays devil's advocate herself, interjecting "Are you serious? Surely computer use couldn't make a child autistic." She follows up with another unnamed doctor commenting, "Let's just say 'autistic-like.'" Now, many of us would love to see computer use linked to autism; that would certainly end the argument about early computer use once and for all. But Healy doesn't give us that research, and the anecdotal quality of her presentation frankly undermines her dramatic assertions.

So what's a parent to do? In the end, it comes down to old-fashioned common sense. Most of us, seeing our children in front of the TV with that glazed look in their eyes, feel at least slightly uncomfortable and wonder if this is a healthy way for kids to be spending time. So the discovery that it's not is hardly surprising. Similarly when a child asks to play KidPix on the computer for the 20th time, most parents figure whatever educational value the program once had is probably long gone.

Old-fashioned common sense is fine. Dressing up old-fashioned common sense with dubious "science", misleading quotes and anecdotal information to imply (or outright state) that not only is too much TV watching bad, but ANY TV-watching will "rewire" kids' brains and have disastrous results. (Those are the terms of the discussion I excerpted at the very beginning.)

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When you're raised by parents who read, as I was, Acquiunk and many others on this thread I'm sure, you're going to read too. Not only were books and magazines readily available at home, two newspapers were delivered to the house daily. I had my first library card at eight years old. My first magazine subscription at ten.

Do grammer schools still provide "library" periods? As a class, we would all go to the library and spend forty minutes silently reading. I can remember looking up from my book and seeing the toughest of the little tough guys totally engrossed in a book or magazine. Has that time gone the way of daily gym classes, art classes, music classes and recess periods? And people wonder why so many kids today are fat, violent and stupid?

I'll be the first to admit that I watched alot of TV. I loved TV. Still do. But, being encouraged to read from a very young age kept it in perspective and I would just as soon pick up a book as turn the TV on. Encouraging your kids to read is so important, I think. It can help balance alot of questionable input.

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Miscellaneous observations:

(The sozlet, after spending most of the morning playing outside, playing with blocks, playing with puzzles, being read to, "reading" to her stuffed animals, dancing, sitting on my lap and looking for pictures of animals on Google [while I grab some A2K time in between], and playing with her farm, is now watching "George Shrinks" on PBS. I love this show. Today's is that George helps a scientist track monarch butterfly migration by riding on a monarch's back.)

- We never watch commercial TV -- just PBS and Nick Jr. before about noon (for some reason it has commercials later in the day but not early in the day.)

- She almost never is just sitting there and watching -- right now she is standing/ walking around, giggling, while fixing the hair of her doll and keeping an eye on what George is up to.

- Her all-time favorite thing is books, and that doesn't seem impacted by TV. She is not reading yet, but at the rate she is going she will be soon, I think -- she knows most of the alphabet (i.e. "that's an A!"), and always recognizes her name, even in various fonts. Right now her absolute favorite thing is to be read to, but she also does a lot of play-reading -- she will "read" me a book if she knows the story well -- and when she starts to read to herself, that will probably replace a large chunk of TV-watching.

- Almost all of her favorite TV shows are based on books and overseen by the authors -- "George Shrinks", "Little Bear" (Maurice Sendak/ Elsa Minarik), "Arthur", etc.

I really liked how Acquiunk summarized it, and agree.

Basically, I take Healy's message of "not too much TV" happily, and am just wondering about the message of "no TV at all." From my research thus far, I don't think I will take her word for it, but I will continue to look around.

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Oh, I hadn't seen eoe's response. Obviously, I agree! Very Happy

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Sozobe, obviously all that reading did not help my spelling,. I think your approach to television for the sozlet is exactly right.

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I didn't read any replies, just the question. In my opinion, all TV sets should be removed from every household. I see what kids want to watch. I refused cable TV until recently because of Brittany Spears MTV type videos that every teen in the country wants to see. TV does have the power to influence thought and culture. I want that power, as a parent, to influence my kids to something better.

Kids have a lot to learn about life. They are never going to learn it by watching TV. They need to go outside, get exercise, and socialize with peers. They need parental guidance, not whatever social propganda is pushed with current popularity. What does TV really have to offer young people? I don't see much at all.

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Too Much TV?
I have often wondered why television has a negative effect on some and not others. When my daughter sarted to become interested in television I decided we would watch together. I remember one day when we were watching a cartoon of the roadrunner she looked a little confussed. So I told her it was only pretend. She understood what that meant and I was sure she knew what I meant. A few years later while watching tv with a girlfriend I heard her ask her friend if she knew it was just pretend.

Is it that simple? Just explain to your kids the difference betwwen real and pretend.

She is now 15, and in the gifted program in her highschool. I have not had a single problem with this child, inspite of the fact she watched alot of television growing up. I listened to co-workers stories of their children and wonder why? When I tell them mine is 15 and has never said shut up or the famous i hate you to me ever they are taken back. I can't even imagine how it would feel if she did. I have always been very honest with her. Is that the difference? I don't know.

I just don't understand how television can be so influencial to some and not others. ??????????????????????/

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There must have been some kind of balance. Does she read? For fun and entertainment?

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Kids and TV -- How Much is Too Much?

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