Turning Off TV

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Parenting by Marilyn Heins : Don't use TV for background noise; do give children some quiet time
Parenting by Marilyn Heins
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 10.14.2007

Q: Would you be able to tell me some of the effects of TV on a 1-year-old child?
My husband is the kind of guy who turns on the television when he walks in the room, and I am trying to tell him that it can affect our daughter. But I don't want to be giving misinformation. I have heard that it can lead to attention-deficit disorder (ADD) in the future, as well as a possibility for aggression if it is more mature content.
A: First, the facts. Children ages 8 to 18 watch television nearly four hours per day and spend almost another two hours per day on the computer or playing video games. Total reading time in that age group? Forty-three minutes a day.
Sixty-eight percent of children in this age group have a television in their bedrooms. Sixty-three percent live in homes where the television is usually on during meals, and 53 percent have no family rules about watching television.
Even young children are heavily exposed to media. Thirty-six percent of children 6 months to 6 years of age have a bedroom television and watch it close to two hours per day. Only 6 percent of parents with children younger than 2 are aware that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children younger than 2 not watch any TV screen as there is evidence that TV watching can adversely affect a young child's developing brain.
"Baby videos" have absolutely no positive effects on infants and toddlers while there is recent evidence of significant language delays in babies 8 to 16 months old who were exposed to these videos. There is also a relationship between early TV watching and later problems with attention.
Violence in the media is ubiquitous, and it has deleterious effects on children. More than 1,000 studies have shown there is a connection between watching media violence and violent behavior in children. Violence on television also can cause anxiety and sleeplessness in children.
If medical science identified an environmental toxin that increased the rates of obesity, substance abuse, sexual risk behaviors, eating disorders, sleep disturbances, anxiety and violence, outraged parents would demand that the government intervene to remove this toxin so their children would no longer be exposed. I have been saying for years that television is an environmental pollutant that has a greater adverse effect on children than it has on adults. Parents don't need to wait for government intervention; they can simply turn off the TV switch.
Parents have a duty to use television responsibly. This means limiting the number of hours children can watch (one to two hours per day maximum for children older than 2), not allowing children to watch inappropriate programs, and explaining both content and advertising claims to children.
Televisions and all screen media should be placed in family areas and not in children's bedrooms. Parental TV watching correlates with how much TV children watch, and children of parents who set rules watch less TV.
I am against television being on in the background in any home and for children of any age, especially those younger than 2. Children need a quiet place for their "work," which is called play, so they can focus on what they are doing.
Background noise from television or any gadget that plays music is not a good idea. When you want to play music, listen to it and encourage the baby to listen, dance and sing.
A word to the father of the baby in today's letter. When you go into the same room your daughter is in, you should interact and play with her. Not every minute, of course, but certainly when you come home. She has missed her daddy. Even if you are reading the paper, glance over and watch her play. Catch her eye. Make her laugh. She will grow up so fast your head will spin, so enjoy these precious moments!
● Address parenting questions to Dr. Marilyn Heins, Arizona Daily Star, P.O. Box 26807, Tucson, AZ 85726 or marilynheins@ earthlink.net. Heins' book, "ParenTips," is available at her Web site, ParentKidsRight.com.