Young parents are often worried and ask pediatricians many questions about the health of their children, for example, is it possible for infants and one-year-old children to watch TV? Heated debates about the benefits or harms of television have been going on since its invention and implementation. Numerous studies have been conducted to support one point of view or another.
Is TV harmful for children?
The enormous attention paid to the question of what the influence of television is on the child’s psyche has made it possible to make an accurate assessment of the processes of development of a child’s intelligence up to two years of age.
One group of experts is of the opinion that short-term viewing of television programs - no more than 10-15 minutes a day - does not in any way affect the formation of the infant’s brain activity.
However, the majority is still of the opinion that daily exposure to a blue screen carries potential harm. The following negative consequences for an infant from the influence of a television screen are quite possible:
- Disturbances in the formation of speech activity. It is assumed that there is a direct relationship between the amount of time spent in front of the screen and the child’s vocabulary, because the number of lexical units spoken by parents while watching television programs is sharply reduced, and communication begins to suffer.
- Ophthalmologists are especially concerned: if a baby often watches TV, and at close range, then he is at risk of developing visual impairments, and his structures have not yet fully formed.
- In many families, where children are daily bombarded with streams of information from the TV screen, running even in the background, they show the least interest in book reading, which undoubtedly affects intellectual development.
- Hyperactivity. It occurs when a child is overly enthusiastic about television programs under two or three years of age.
- If a baby watches cartoon characters in fascination for hours instead of crawling around the room and playing with toys, then he has a high risk of developing obesity, which will further reduce his activity in the future.
- The image on the television screen changes too quickly for the infant to fully perceive the picture; its nervous structures are overloaded, this is fraught with the formation of unmotivated fears and sleep disorders. In this case, the harm of TV for children is obvious.
It is recommended to consult with a specialist in advance on the following questions: how much TV can a child watch, and at what age is it no longer harmful.
Habits
Children follow our example in everything, and if they see that we spend all our time watching TV, they will definitely behave the same way. In order not to give a small child the wrong idea about leisure, play with him more often, read books, do modeling and drawing.
Do not turn on the technology for the background when you eat, since it has been proven that when eating and watching TV at the same time, the digestion process worsens . Many parents take advantage of their child’s passion for television and feed him while the baby is looking at the screen. Such behavior is unacceptable; the baby must chew and swallow consciously. If your baby is very naughty at the table and refuses to eat purees or porridge, try playing “airplanes” with him or engaging him in poetry, but don’t give up and don’t turn on the TV.
So, psychologists and ophthalmologists recommend avoiding using TV in front of a child until he is 2 years old. But even then, the time the baby spends in front of the screen should be kept to a minimum and last no more than 10 minutes.
Common Misconceptions
Parents, when discussing the question of whether infants can watch TV, often refer to common misconceptions among the population. For example, that watching TV shows helps a child develop more actively.
Research conducted by experts convincingly proves that up to one and a half to two years of age, children perceive television as a set of color and sound stimuli. Television does not carry any intellectual load. Only after 2-3 years can a person’s brain structures correlate objects and events from television programs with the world around them.
Another group of parents is of the opinion that turning on the TV quietly helps the baby fall asleep better. While in fact such a background leads to a disorder of adequate sleep and hyperexcitability, this is harmful. In the future, the child may experience rapid mood swings and difficulties with learning at school. The best option is to sing lullabies to your baby.
Newborns do not pay any attention to the TV being on - this is another common myth. However, after carefully observing the child, you will notice that a sharp sound or a bright flash makes the baby flinch and turn his head towards their source. In the first months of life, a child’s nervous structures are very susceptible to such negative stimuli, which is why children should not watch TV.
Today there is no need to worry about harmful radiation from television equipment. The studies carried out confirm the standards acceptable for human health. Therefore, the questions of whether to allow your child to watch TV and at what age fall with full responsibility on the shoulders of the parents.
Summing up
To summarize what has been said, it is worth emphasizing that watching TV for children in infancy is practically prohibited. If mom or dad has to watch a TV show or favorite series, then this is done in such a way as not to attract the baby’s attention to the TV. In this case, the volume level is set to minimum.
While watching TV, you can play with your child a little after a while (2-3 minutes). Parents will have to learn to act in such a way as not to attract increased attention to the “blue screen”, even if an interesting moment is shown there.
What can babies watch?
Of course, it is best to give preference to educational cartoons. They explain many questions of life that are still unclear to them in a form that is understandable to children. When choosing a video for your baby, you need to carefully read the recommendations: from what period of time it is acceptable to watch cartoons or educational documentaries, and whether this will harm the fragile child’s psyche. Conscientious manufacturers make sure to write down all these nuances on the covers of the discs.
It is recommended to organize the first viewings together: sit next to the child and explain to him certain, still difficult to understand, moments. In the future, a one-year-old baby can be left watching cartoons already familiar to him for 5-7 minutes, no more.
From the age of three, after consultation with an ophthalmologist and in the absence of contraindications, the time period for watching television can be increased to 25–30 minutes a day. If the cartoon is longer, exceeding the permissible time once may be allowed, however, the next day the child must do without TV.
By the age of 5–6 years, a child is allowed to spend 60–90 minutes in front of a television screen, but with breaks, for example, in the morning and after dinner for 40 minutes. By the age of 7, it is permissible to watch videos for up to 2 hours. It is advisable that this time be divided into several sessions.
Whether TV is harmful to children is up to parents to judge for themselves. If there is the slightest deviation in your health, it is better to consult a specialist.
The influence of TV on a child
The influence of TV on a child cannot be denied. As the parents hope, he can learn something new and useful from there. But in most cases, children are not interested in educational television programs, but in modern cartoons and entertainment shows, the value of which is very questionable.
In addition, excessive passion for watching TV leads to a number of unpleasant consequences, such as:
- delayed speech development in young children;
- lack of interest in activities that require effort;
- hyperactivity and attention deficit;
- difficulties with listening to information;
- poor memory;
- undeveloped abstract thinking;
- reluctance to read.
At first glance, a harmless activity may cause your child to have serious learning difficulties in the future. Frequently watching TV also causes problems in communication - children do not feel the desire to build dialogues and interact with peers.
How to replace a TV
Psychologists have been sounding the alarm for a long time: an increasing number of children are becoming truly addicted to watching cartoons. How to wean a child off TV is a question that concerns the child’s closest relatives. They are advised to use the following tips:
- try to be in the fresh air more often, conduct educational walks through the forest, the streets of your hometown, show the sights;
- purchase several books with bright pictures and organize family readings, possibly followed by the reproduction of interesting scenes;
- replace cartoons with colorful coloring books with the same characters, switching the baby’s attention and interests to something else.
Try to spend more time with your child, discuss the news and events of the day with him, ask him to tell him everything that interests him, and answer questions. Then he won't need a TV either.
Why shouldn't children watch TV?
There are a number of indicators characterizing the development of young children:
- emotional-volitional sphere;
- speech skills;
- creativity;
- physiological characteristics of the body;
- state of the nervous system.
It is these parameters that suffer primarily from the baby’s excessive “communication” with the blue screen and are the most important reasons why children should not watch TV for too long.
Emotional-volitional sphere
By replacing live communication with peers on a walk or role-playing games with virtual participation in the lives of television characters, the child does not receive the proper development of his emotional and volitional qualities.
He does not live through the events that take place, no matter how great his emotional involvement is, he always remains a spectator. Yes, cartoon characters can teach him to share, be kind and obedient, but until he himself experiences these situations, being a participant and not a spectator, the necessary life experience will not be consolidated. And it is impossible to become a participant while sitting near the TV, especially if the child spends a lot of time near it, to the detriment of walks and communication with peers.
Ability to be creative, develop imagination
Any television product - even the kindest cartoon or an intellectual educational television program - is dangerous, first of all, because it is a kind of “ready-made” recipe, no matter what - a life situation or a story on how to properly sculpt a cat from plasticine. Getting a recipe and following it to make something is always easier and simpler than coming up with something yourself, showing imagination and creativity. Thus, the child’s creative impulse is neutralized in advance when the television plot provides him with a ready-made template for action.
Full development of speech
It would seem that watching high-quality cartoons and films should only contribute to the development of speech, because the child listens to competent actors and replenishes his speech stock with new words. Meanwhile, everything is not so simple.
Speech develops to a greater extent precisely when the speech apparatus is maximally involved: when the child himself pronounces words and sounds, constructs sentences, builds dialogues, that is, in the process of direct human communication.
Children who spend a lot of time in front of TV certainly have a chance to expand their vocabulary by actively introducing new words heard on TV. But this will only happen if the child communicates a lot and productively with peers, learns by heart and recites poetry, and constantly strengthens his speech skills. However, the time spent watching TV is not always compensated by walking and communicating with peers, and often, on the contrary, prevails.
Concentration and perseverance
The modern television product that fills blue screens, unfortunately, does not contribute to the development of perseverance and concentration. Moreover, pediatric neurologists argue that such a common diagnosis as attention deficit disorder is largely caused by uncontrolled viewing of modern children's animated series and advertising in early childhood.
Carry out a little experiment: compare how long it takes to unfold a seemingly simple plot of any old children’s animated series, for example, “38 Parrots” and the modern one, “Masha and the Bear.” How often does the picture change? When and how do the characters speak, and do they speak at all? How much time is allocated for the development of the plot? The results will certainly make you think.
Rapid change of pictures, constant chaotic movement of the characters during the cartoon, screams and interjections (rather than normal articulate speech), all this contributes to the formation of so-called “clip” thinking in children. This perception is especially strongly promoted by viewing advertising, and not only viewing, but also passively being in the area of the TV turned on, with an endless stream of commercials.
As a result, the child’s perception seems to be torn apart - he may possess a large amount of information, but is not able to analyze and draw conclusions. It is difficult for him to concentrate on one thing for a long time; he does not like activities that require concentration and perseverance.
