TV for the Under 2 Set
May 24, 2006 – 7:51 pm“Studies” are showing that children under 2 years of age shouldn’t watch TV.
Can anyone tell me how TV is worse for an infant than watching a mobile or the ceiling fan turn around and around?
At least TV (especially TV that caters to the little ones such as PBS Kids Sprout, Noggin, or the new Baby Channel) introduces them to music, letters, colors, numbers, etc. The mobile may have a little bit of music but none of the rest and the ceiling fan certainly has nothing at all but that it’s a “spinny thing”.
Actually, the reason why children under age 2 shouldn’t watch tv is because of the way the images flash. Television is bad for their brains, regardless of whether the programs are educational or not. Does that make sense?
I have worked in elementary schools and one can really see the affects television viewing has on children. So many parents just turn the tv on now, rather than playing with their kids, and children have horrible habits. They cannot focus on anything. They can’t think or remember. It is really a horrible thing.
I don’t think TV, per se, is the problem, Kim.
It’s not that the things 2 year-olds will see
on TV is the problem. It’s that we’re teaching children at younger and younger ages to be inherent
couch potatoes.
I agree that their much more likely to learn from
educational TV at an early age. But we should also, as parents, encourage kids to “learn” by doing things -
outside preferably.