Children and television often go together and although screen time can be educational, it can easily go overboard. This issue of watching TV needs to be revisited quite often as we are now surrounded by all kind of media, and we tend to forget about real communications and relationships.

The first two years of life are considered critical for normal brain development and early childhood is characterized by new social interactions, language exposure, understanding of one’s role in society, self-awareness and countless opportunities for imagination and creativity. As such, the American Academy of Paediatrics has recommended that children under two years old do not watch any TV, and that those over two should watch no more than two hours of quality shows, so that TV does not get in the way of mental, physical and social development.

A 2003 Kaiser Family Foundation survey found that sixty-eight per cent of children under the age of two watch “screen media” every day. It also found that a baby spends about two hours a day watching a screen, more time than he reads or is being read to. This matters because sexual images and violence are large part of today’s television, just as much as infomercials and chocolate ads.

However, television can be educational as The Medical Research Council (MRC) showed in 2013. They studied more than 11, 000 school pupil and found that it is wrong to link bad behaviour with television viewing. Prof Hugh Perry, chair of the MRC’s neurosciences and mental health board, told the BBC: “We are living in a world that is increasingly dominated by electronic entertainment, and parents are understandably concerned about the impact this might be having on their children’s wellbeing and mental health. This important study suggests the relationship between TV and video games and health is complex and influenced by many other social and environmental factors.”

Children and TV: Effects of excessive viewing

So what exactly are the potential effects of excessive television viewing? Here are six problems that arise with TV:

• Obesity: The more TV your child watches, the greater his or her risk is of becoming overweight. Children who regularly spend more than four hours per day watching TV are more likely to be overweight.
• Irregular sleep: Research published in April 2014 in Paediatrics showed that the more TV children watch the less they tend to sleep. For every hour of TV watched, children tend to sleep seven minutes less per night. This adds to a growing body of evidence and literature that too much screen time in childhood is at least linked to, if not the cause of, poorer health, both physical and mental.
• Behavioural problems: Television does not provide key feedbacks that children need when learning the appropriate use of language. Spending time in front of the TV also hampers the development of social skills such as understanding one’s consequences or adapting behaviour in different social contexts.
• Impaired academic performance: Elementary students who have TVs in their bedrooms tend to perform worse on tests than do those who don’t have TVs in their bedrooms.
• Violence: Too much exposure to violence through media can desensitize children to violence. Television also reinforces gender-role and racial stereotypes that children may replicate in real life.
• Less time to play: Excessive screen time leaves less time to play, explore the physical world and create in order to think outside the box and to be able to develop creative solutions and new ways to respond to challenges later in life.

5 Pieces of Practical advice for Parents

What should you do about this? Here are five pieces of practical advice that may seem like common sense, but are nevertheless still very important to remember:

• Limit the amount of TV: there should be no television in the bedroom and mealtime should be screen-free. Monitor TV programing and contents and set viewing limits.
• Watch TV with your child: so it becomes clear that what they are doing or watching matters to you. If you don’t have time to sit all together, start another activity in the same room such as ironing or cooking or writing so they know you are still there.
• Choose specific programs: select and agree on particular shows or interactive kid-friendly programs, not just what is on the television at that time and turn it off when it is finished.
• Help them be critical: try to engage them with the program, discuss it together so they can develop a critical eye and innovative thinking early.
• Extend the television’s content: go beyond what they saw on screen and bring up books and activities that may be related, may be more educational and continue the learning and exploring experience.

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Our world is still full of interesting activities for children to engage with, with little or more supervision, when family time allows. They need these moments of freedom, decompression and creativity, as it reminds them that interactions with friends and family are still meaningful in today’s society.

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But let’s be honest. For the first few weeks, your newborn is really only focused on a few things: eating, sleeping, playing and maybe learning to crawl. As a new parent, you sometimes have to find things to keep yourself busy. Some new parents will pick up a new book but others participate in the trendy “binge-watching” of television shows or choose to have the TV on while caring for their newborn.

The question: Is this a bad thing?

Many studies speak to reasons why children should not watch television, but if your baby is so young it can’t even lift its head, is it so bad to have the television on to pass the time? There are two sides to this question. The following is merely “food for thought”. It’s up to you to use your best judgment as a parent to decide what’s right.

The Reason Why It’s Wrong

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Children’s brains triple in mass in just the first 12 months¹ and what happens around them during this time greatly influence how their brains develop. As an newborn  stares at a television, they may see bright colors and motion but aren’t capable of making sense of what it means. This confusion is the reason why children up to age 3 do not learn as well from a screen.

Before age 2, watching television can also contribute to problems with sleep and attention as well as have lasting negative effects on children’s language development, reading skills and memory. Even just having the TV on in the background is enough to cause these issues. Plus, as a parent is watching the television, they’re interacting less with their child.

The Reasons Why It’s Not So Bad

Despite the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendation that kids under 2 should not watch any TV,² surveys say that around 40 percent of infants are watching some sort of television screen by the age of 5 months.³ But are they really watching?

When you turn on the television, it’s for you as the parent to watch. Your baby may not be facing it and is clearly not getting anything out of it. So what’s the harm? Jill Stamm, PhD and Director of the New Directions Institute for Infant Brain Development, believes a little TV time here and there won’t be an issue. “Let’s get real — sometimes you need a few moments to regroup. There will be no permanent harm, but we do know that it doesn’t help them, and it does seem to slow development. At the very least, you will break even,” she says.⁴

Others say that turning on the television while you’re nursing or the baby is sleeping isn’t bad at all. Distraction isn’t as big a risk when they’re a newborn. Just be sure to keep the volume low and the lights low in the room so the surroundings remain dark and calm.⁵

Advice For Either Path You Choose

The important thing to remember if you’re going to turn on the television is to choose what you watch carefully. As an adult, your TV show of choice wouldn’t be anything from “Sesame Street,” especially if your newborn is sleeping, but be sure to steer clear of violent television with bad words and shooting scenes. Children who view violent acts could develop aggressive behavior or fear the world is a scary place.⁶

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Also remember that you’ve just brought home a baby for the first time, and they don’t stay babies forever. As a parent, limit your TV time so you can get the most out of spending time with your child. The benefits work both ways.

• 1 http://www.healthychildren.org/english/family-life/media/pages/why-to-avoid-tv-before-age-2.aspx
• 2 http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html
• 3 http://www.healthychildren.org/english/family-life/media/pages/why-to-avoid-tv-before-age-2.aspx
• 4 http://www.parents.com/baby/development/intellectual/kids-and-television/?page=2
• 5 http://www.babycenter.com/0_solutions-to-new-parent-dilemmas_10346047.bc
• 6 http://kidshealth.org/parent/positive/family/tv_affects_child.html

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