Children and Television

Television is a big part of everyone’s life, including young children and it is a concern for parents if it is in the child’s best interest to watch different programing. There are a lot of different shows that are directed to children, but not all of the shows are age appropriate. The ratings along with the content can help with deciding what children should watch. A variety of studies have been done in regards to how television can impact children in different age groups and whether it is beneficial (Kirkoria, Wartella, & Anderson, 2010). Everyone has their own opinion on the effects that television can have on children, but it also depends on what they are watching because there can be inappropriate shows or some that are only focused on entertainment. There are also a lot of shows that are created for educational purposes that can help children develop essential skills for school and help them learn. Educational programming can be very helpful for children within the appropriate age group to develop academic skills for school.
As soon as children are born they are automatically going to start to learn based on what they see in the environment they are growing up in. Although, children younger than the age of 18 months learn better when the adult teaches the child or they experience things with physical actions rather than watching objects on television. According to Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson (2010) “As a result, children cannot process television content and therefore cannot learn from it,” their study result show that newborn up to or around the age of 18 months are not capable of learning from what they see on television because they can’t process the information.
Of course as children get older they have a better understanding and are able to process the information as they watch television shows. It also resulted that as children grow older they are able to watch shows and start noticing the difference between object changes and different movements in the television shows. As children reach between the ages of two through three then they know what television is and that they are able to watch shows for entertainment.
They also understand the difference between reality and what is on television will not be a real object that they can touch. Also as a part of television there are commercials and young children do not understand why there are commercials and what they mean. It takes children till the age of five to be able to determine the difference from their regular programs and a commercial break. It would definitely seem that as children grow up they also grow to understand how television works along with the difference between reality and the advertisements shown on commercial. Meanwhile there are a lot of different television shows, but not all are appropriate or educational for children. It is important that if children watch television they watch educational programming appropriate for their age that will help them learn. Studies have been completed on specific learning shows that are directed to the age group of two and up (Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson, 2010), these shows include Sesame Street and Blue’s Clues. The purpose of the shows are to teach children to learn academic, social, and problem solving skills that they can use in the future. It has shown positive results in the studies that kids that watched learning shows on a regular basis were more likely to have a better understanding and follow methods in to how solve problem, which will prepare them when they attend school. (Kirkorian, Wartella, &Anderson, 2010) The results were even better when children watch the same episode repeatedly because they had a better understanding in problem solving solutions or academic learning. On the other hand, there have been some negative results that have been shown as an effect of all the access to media and how children are entertained. Television, video games, and computer games are created for learning and also entertainment that kids lose track of other regular outdoor activities or just reading a book at home. Media has given them the access to do several different things online or watching television at home that they no longer participate in any or minimal physical activities. If children do not participate in physical activity on a regular basis during the day then they can suffer from obesity and develop health issues. Children as their growing up they start to develop their own interests as in to what they enjoy to watch on television and not everything is going to benefit them when it comes to their learning because there are a lot of violent or inappropriate programming. Also watching television for children younger than the age of three years old has had a negative effect in academic achievements, but it was beneficial for kids over the age of three. Those results can be a cause in what the child is watching that might not include just educational programming that can result in the negative effects on academics. Programming that are not focused on education purpose can include inappropriate or violent content that can affect a child in a negative way. Parents will have to stay cautions with what children watch and set rules for appropriate programming choices. The fact of the matter is television have a responsibility to provide educational programing for children. Since “The Three-Hour Rule” created in January 1997 (Jordan), which also requires television broadcasters to provide a certain amount of educational programing at a certain time of day for children. All the major networks having that responsibility to provide educational programing can be very helpful in proving the appropriate programming during the day for younger children that are at home with their parents, but not all networks ably by the rules so the important thing is to always pay attention to what the children watch.
Even though there have been a variety of studies conducted since television started most results concluded that television does provide kids with essential skills in social, learning, or academic. There are some negatives to watching too much television, but it would mainly be focused on the lack of physical activity that children are involved in because of them being entertained inside. Lack of physical activity in children can result to overweight issues for children starting at a young age. They are also not outside making friends and communicating with other children. Watching television takes children away from completing manual tasks or activities, like arts and crafts. They don’t get the opportunity to be creative by making art or coloring pictures because they are to be busy entertained with cartoons. Television shows also intervene with a child’s emotions because they can react to so many different things that happen on a show that their feelings can change form happy to sad in an instant.
There’s no control over what will happen next on the show because it will happen regardless of how the child feels. (Burke, 2005) It all goes to having a control over what your children watch and how it will benefit them in regards to their educational needs, but there should also be a limit as in what is too much television to watch, so they can also stay active. There needs to be rules children’s life to accommodate with how much television and physical activity they get in a day. It should include enough of other activities to stay physically active, but also focus around educational programming when young children do watch television. In the end, television can be very beneficial to children in helping them learn or develop skills that can help them prepare for school. In all the different studies results it has been shown that children younger than the age of two do not benefit from watching television because they are not capable of understanding what they are watching and are too young to process the information because television moves fast. As kids get older watching educational programs can help them develop social, learning, and academic skills. Although all shows are not created for learning it needs to be determined by the parents as in what shows their child can watch to help them develop those essential skills. There were some negative effects for children and watching television, but those can be controlled based on what the child watches and how much time they spend inside the home watching television. Parents have a big responsibility to control what children watch and to make sure it is appropriate for the child’s age because it can result to be positive or negative. However, these studies are filled with many different results, but all children learn and develop differently as well as benefit in their own way from educational programing.

Reference Page

Kirkorian, Heather, Wartella Ellen, Anderson, Daniel.(2010) Media and Young Children's
Learning. Vol 18/No. 1. www.futureofchildren.org)

Burke, Mary G. Spring 2005. Reasons to Turn off the Screen.Encounter: Education for meaning and social justice.Vol 18, Number 1.)

Jordan, Amy B. The Three-Hour Rule and Educational Television for Children. The Annenberg Public Policy Center. Popular Communication 2(2), 103-118.Copy Right 2004. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc.

Lazarfeld, Paul F.Why is So Little Known About the Effects of Television on Children and What Can be Done. Public Option Quaterly. Fall 1955 P.245-256