Children shouldn't watch TV before age of 2

In my opinion, children shouldn't watch television period. Nor should teens or adults

Why would a kid want to watch tv,they are still discovering the world around them which must be more interesting than tv.

Any link, Badboy?

It's the "new" recommendation from AMA or somesuch.

This was in a Reader's Digest book.

OK.

Just curious because there are recommendations -- what's optimal -- and then there are warnings -- what you absolutely should not do.

Most studies/ recommendations I've seen on this have said yeah, there are drawbacks, but there are ways to do it responsibly with a low likelihood of ill effects.

I do remember seeing this same report - don't have a link, but I will give you the summary of what I can remember.

It seems that because things happen so quickly on TV - fast pace, etc. and because of the way children under 2 brain is developing it causes the ADHD. The one thing I do remember from the report is it did not include educational TV, just I guess your normal network TV. They really do not know if educational TV would have the same impact - maybe those Einstein videos are still o-k?

Although they did also mention that they don't even need to be actually watching the TV, but having it on in the background.

They still haven't found any medical evidence to prove that ADHD even exists.

Well mine watched TV from about 3 months old. He had colic and the only thing that would stop him crying at night was a video of the awful Tweenies. I don't think there is anything wrong with children watching TV, as long as we are careful what they are watching and TV time is limited

Children watching TV can affect their educational results,so a new study suggests.

Computer by contrast improve children's educational results.

Many children that are diagnosed with ADD actual are just active children that get bored easily.

I think a lot depends on what they watch. My kids are 3 and 5 and have shows that they regularly watch. They are almost all educational. Nick Jr. is great for slow paced programming without lots of flash bam boom. My son loves Storm Stories on the weather channel. Overall, they've learned a lot from television shows. The current favorite is Cyberchase on PBS. It is targeted to grades 2 through 4, I would guess, but my kids have picked things up like estimating, fractions, multiplication -- all pretty advanced concepts for them. They've not mastered them, of course, but they have a general understanding of the concepts that I think will help them when the start school.

But I can definitely see how some of the children's programming that is intended for older children would be extremely inappropriate for young children. Heck, some of it gives me a headache. And parents really need to make sure that television watching does not exclude other activities that they need to grow.

As for the computer, I'm not convinced. I think a lot of the time children master something on the computer before they understand the underlying concepts and so appear to grasp more than they really do. It's kind of like when we were growing up and we were only allowed calculators AFTER we had learned how to do the problems without them. I'm not sure that's happening now with computers.

I saw this report yesterday and the emphasis was on children who have tv's in their bedrooms and how it affects test scores. About 75% of 3rd graders have tv's in the bedrooms. 75%. Amazing.

In the report shown yesterday on CNN, it was also mentioned that children under 2 years old should not watch tv at all.

Here's a link
children & tv

However, this article also states…" None of the studies, in the July issue of Archives of Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine, out Monday, looks at content. The journal notes in an editorial that the authors largely ignored the work of others "who have found positive associations" between children's educational TV viewing and academic skills. …"
And the following…" But he cautions that other variables come into play, such as parents' attitudes about school and self-discipline. He notes that his children had TVs in their rooms and both became National Merit scholars who attend good colleges…"
So as any article or research, you need to fully read all the details to see what could potentially be left out of the research to get a better grasp on the conclusions. I also to not hold much credence to what a news program shows - too many times I found proven facts that tell another story entirely. TV news many times reports what will catch viewers, not the entire truth.

I hear ya. Depends on which side is paying and who, exactly, is getting paid.

Yep, eoe, was going to say the same thing (TVs rather than computers in kids' rooms.)

Another conclusion I saw is that it could be more about when than what; that kids are watching TV instead of doing homework, or watching TV and not getting enough sleep (which affects educational performance), etc.

FreeDuck, doesn't Cyberchase rock? We love that show. (Sozlet caused E.G.'s eyes to bug out when she talked about tessellations one time after the show...) (Plus, I want to be Bianca.)

I find this all very ironic. When we were children, we had no tee-vee before 1956. We read books, and we listened to our favorite radio programs. When my grandmother bought a television, she was disgusted that we largely ignored it. We still wanted to listen to our favorite radio programs, so we went in the bedroom with my grandfather to listen to them. We had already developed the habit of reading, and if nothing of interest in our opinion offered on the tee-vee, we went off and read. We only gradually switched from radio programs to tee-vee programs, and we never gave up the habit of reading when nothing of interest was "on." I think if you read with your children and encourage them to read, many of these problems can be avoided. I also believe that the real problems arise with parents who use the television as a baby-sitter, because they can't or won't spend time with their children

Ack. That makes me wonder if the problem doesn't have more to do with poor sleep habits.

It totally does rock. I like to watch it myself. And my kids have both amazed me with their (admittedly rudimentary but still) understanding of some of the concepts presented on that show. In fact, this morning I pulled a sheet of plastic wrap off of a pan of jello. I said to my son, "look it made a pattern." He said to me, "mom, that's not a pattern. I know what a pattern is. Those are just lines." And he was right.

(Bianca kills me. And I wish I had her hair.)