Children Watching Tv

Tiffany Ball
English 1111
Evaluation
Children Watching Television I know majority of people realize children spending all their time watching TV is not good for them. Some consider it a good thing so they have a “babysitter” or think it is good because of educational purposes. There are many different studies done on children and the amount of television they watch. On one website I saw that one study showed children who watched a lot of TV grew up aggressively and ended up in jail, in the next sentence it says there are new studies showing it can improve kids behavior. Some doctor’s argue that TV can make children antisocial and aggressive. Also, they say that children will imitate what they see on TV so parents should be aware of that. The study was done on 1,000 different children and followed from birth to the age of twenty-six. Studies also say TV has no educational benefits for children under two and they need more interaction with humans. It also says it takes away time from children to develop language, motor and social skills and that these skills are critical for development in the first two years. Another study shows that children who watch TV at pre-school age show poorer reading skills at the age of 5. A doctor who did studies on families found that children whose families have television in the background have more trouble paying attention to things, it also shows children who watch TV don’t like to read. A lot of controversy over children watching television is their actions due to things they see and all the negative influence it can have. TV can keep children form interacting in physical play and exercise which is not good and can make kids lazy, children need exercise and it seems more video games and other forms such as DS and portable game systems are making it easier for children not to participate in physical activity. Some claim there are many benefits of children watching TV. Most of the beneficial studies say TV is good because of the education children get. One study showed that children who watch such shows as Mr. Roger’s, Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow etc. show that they had higher academic testing scores. Certain shows can also give kids good morals through acting out situations and doing the right thing. Barney shows children to share and clean up after themselves and the importance of friends. It also says that children easily engage in shows because it is easy to comprehend for them. Another claimed benefit of television watching is that families can limit the time but also bond over sitting together and watching TV. Children can also watch TV and see other cultures and how they live and expose kids to other places they may never see otherwise. They also argue that if a child sees something that spikes their interest in a certain topic it may will a child to want to further their knowledge on it and read or study it. Another benefit of television is exposure to other languages, Dora the Explorer teaches words in Spanish and practices and encourages children to repeat after her. They also believe that kids who are not social and feel they don’t belong can build relationships with characters and feel a sense of belonging. Television for parents who want extra help or just don’t have time to sit and practice with kids there are shows that help teach abc’s and how to count and colors! Personally I don’t think it is healthy for children to watch TV. I believe kids should be out playing with other kids, learning from books and being worked with one on one. I have been around many kids, I have godchildren and nieces and nephews. All of which were allowed too much time in front of the TV and not enough human interaction. My nephews are now obsessed with any gaming system they can get their hands , my nieces want to be on computers and tablets or phones, my god children watch TV constantly and don’t even like to go outside and play. I agree with certain benefits like culture, other languages, counting and morals… but those can be taught by parents or other influential people in a child’s life. A TV cannot sit and go back to where a child is getting confused or go to specific areas that they’re having trouble with. I believe that letting children spend too much time with a TV can make them withdraw from social activity and human interaction. My daughter is fourteen months old and does not show interest in TV yet, and I hope it stays that way. When I was young I would have much rather sat with my nose in a book than on the TV, in school I got good grades and always had an easy time and got good grades. I think that was due to me being interested in books and other things than TV. My sisters and I spent most of our time as children outside, my mom did not allow us to sit in front of a TV all day and we obviously did not have the gaming systems and other distractions there are now. Even phones are another form of TV, my niece loves getting on tablets just to watch Netflix! Everyone has their own opinion on the subject. I think it will always be a controversial subject. There are benefits and down falls to almost everything. With more television shows and electronics coming out I think this problem is just going to get worse. Even in school teachers use television to help teach. My daughter’s daycare plays movies all day in the babies’ room that my daughter is in. I can only hope that my child does not get sucked into being obsessed with TV, I will encourage book reading and hands on learning as much as I can. I think the belief that TV can serve as a friend or a child who is antisocial can “bond” with a TV character is absurd. Who would want their child to not have interactions with other kids and only have a fictional TV character as their friend? I think that allowing kids to watch inappropriate shows for their age can influence them to pick up bad behaviors. Even if a kid is watching a children’s show there are so many commercials that are terribly inappropriate. I am shocked at some of the things I see while watching a television show and a commercial comes on that is making sexual references on salad dressing commercials or a burger commercial. I think the only solution to this problem is to limit the amount of time you are letting your kid or kid’s to sit in front of a TV. Family bonding is very important and my husband and I will sit and watch TV at night when he gets home from work and after my daughter goes to bed, but there are plenty of other ways for a family to bond. Taking a child to the park to introduce them to other kids can help with social skills and learning to interact with other kids. Sit with flashcards or repeat your abc’s to help a child with leaning them and counting the same way. Get books to learn color’s and use examples of things outside or in your house; there are also tons of educational toys for for those purposes. Use small words in Spanish throughout the day to teach your kid another language slowly or whatever language you want. If you want your kid interested in books then read to them, TV doesn’t have to spike a child’s interest to make them more interested in a topic to read about. My daughter sees me read and plays with her books all the time, even if she’s not reading yet it shows me she is interested in them. Culture is very important but there are a lot of books that show pictures of how people dress in other cultures ad what they eat, and music to help give them an idea of what other cultures listen to. TV is not everything and I think it’s ridiculous how much people rely on it to teach children things that are so easy to work on, on your own. I’m sure I will not be able to keep my daughter from ever watching TV considering we do watch it sometimes and relax in front of it, but I will try to keep her interested in other things. I think sitting in front of a TV is a problem in obesity too, if people were not sitting in front of a TV so much it would get them an opportunity to get outside and have more physical activity. Although some shows do promote kids to get up and dance with them and move around. I do like some shows for children and like some of the educational benefits from it also. Although I don’t like the idea of doing nothing but sitting in front of a screen I agree there are advantages to children getting useful information from watching television, especially educational programs.