Sometimes a post is serendipitously confirmed by a news article.
Yesterday, over at gnmparents I wrote a post concerning parents’ awareness of the “No TV under Two Guidelines” put out by The American Academy of Pediatrics. Today, an article in the NY Times confirms that 40% of 3-month-olds and over 90% of 2-year-olds watch television REGULARLY. A fifth of two-year-olds and over 40% of 3-4 year-olds have televisions in their rooms. All this despite the clear guidelines set down by The American Academy of Pediatrics.
Until more research is done about the effects of TV on very young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) does not recommend television for children age 2 or younger. http://www.aap.org/family/tv1.htm
The number one reason given by parents is, not as you might expect, ‘electronic babysitting’ but, rather “educational value”. (Babysitting was number two.)I can relate to this misunderstanding. Though I was fortunate enough to have my crunchy, Waldorf friend, Best, encouraging me to avoid television when my child was born, most of the other influencers in my life thought I was doing my child a disservice by keeping him from viewing educational TV and videos.
In fact, there is no proven educational value in watching TV or videos prior to age two. Yup, none, zero, zip. This despite marketers claims to the contrary. Bad marketers, bad, bad, bad. Well, not really. Uninformed is more like it. You may be surprised to hear that the field of marketing is dominated by women, many of them mothers. What you may not find surprising is that, they, like many of us, are unaware of the guidelines set out by the American Academy of Pediatrics or the rationale.
I’ve written about some of the many reasons to avoid TV
here. What I’ve spent less time on is what to do instead. I do believe that parents need a break from time to time and TV is a handy and helpful babysitter. It’s instantly available and requires no instruction. The Catch-22 is though; the more parents rely on TV to entertain children, the less they are able to entertain themselves, which of course sets children up to watch even more TV.
The parental education gap is then perhaps not only making parents aware of the deleterious effects of television but, also teaching them, especially those younger parents who grew up with TV, what to do instead!
I have some ideas and some great resources. Check back with me later this week!
Sometimes a post is serendipitously confirmed by a news article.
Yesterday, over at gnmparents I wrote a post concerning parents’ awareness of the “No TV under Two Guidelines” put out by The American Academy of Pediatrics. Today, an article in the NY Times confirms that 40% of 3-month-olds and over 90% of 2-year-olds watch television REGULARLY. A fifth of two-year-olds and over 40% of 3-4 year-olds have televisions in their rooms. All this despite the clear guidelines set down by The American Academy of Pediatrics.
The number one reason given by parents is, not as you might expect, ‘electronic babysitting’ but, rather “educational value”. (Babysitting was number two.)I can relate to this misunderstanding. Though I was fortunate enough to have my crunchy, Waldorf friend, Best, encouraging me to avoid television when my child was born, most of the other influencers in my life thought I was doing my child a disservice by keeping him from viewing educational TV and videos.
In fact, there is no proven educational value in watching TV or videos prior to age two. Yup, none, zero, zip. This despite marketers claims to the contrary. Bad marketers, bad, bad, bad. Well, not really. Uninformed is more like it. You may be surprised to hear that the field of marketing is dominated by women, many of them mothers. What you may not find surprising is that, they, like many of us, are unaware of the guidelines set out by the American Academy of Pediatrics or the rationale.
I’ve written about some of the many reasons to avoid TV here. What I’ve spent less time on is what to do instead. I do believe that parents need a break from time to time and TV is a handy and helpful babysitter. It’s instantly available and requires no instruction. The Catch-22 is though; the more parents rely on TV to entertain children, the less they are able to entertain themselves, which of course sets children up to watch even more TV.
The parental education gap is then perhaps not only making parents aware of the deleterious effects of television but, also teaching them, especially those younger parents who grew up with TV, what to do instead!
I have some ideas and some great resources. Check back with me later this week!