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The battle rages on…. 

As many of you are probably aware, this week saw new research findings released around the affects of media exposure to young children. I felt compelled to share my thoughts. The study published in the Journal of Pediatrics reported that exposure to television under the age of 2 may slow language development. This is in addition to a report from 2004 that suggests that exposure at this early age also leads to ADHD in school age children. This weeks findings state that for every hour a child watches TV between the ages of 8-16 months he understands, on average, 6-8 words less than DVD free kids. For those of you concerned by this finding don’t despair. The researchers also suggest that young children’s brains are incredibly plastic and that it is impossible for them to know whether there is any long term affect. While there may be “statistical” relevance to the findings in this weeks report, how does that apply to real life? Most responsible pediatricians will tell you that there is a “range” for just about every developmental milestone so is 6-8 words less within the range of normal–my guess is yes. Research has also reported that children who grow up in bi-lingual families sometimes are slower to acquire language but I think most of us would agree that the benefits of this far outweigh any short term loss. The same has been reported about twins. My children were late talkers and I’ll admit, I wondered if something was wrong developmentally. I now know that because they had each other to talk to, they simply didn’t see the need to talk to me. 

Now, there is one thing I agree with in these findings. If you are buying children’s DVDs or any educational games because you think its going to produce an Einstein or a genius you are sadly going to be disappointed. There was an article published in the Atlantic Monthly several months ago called the “Baby Genius Edutainment Complex” that talks about extreme parenting and the desire to create future Ivy League students using these kinds of tools. In my view, these tools simply don’t exist. All the culture cramming, trips to the museum and flashcards will not produce superior intellect. That is something that is nurtured and grown and is fostered by the time you spend with your child. One the other hand, the potentially harmful affect of all of the drilling and pushing early on may turn a child away from learning and to me that is far more devistating. There is a child in my daughters class whose parents make her read to them 45 minutes a day at the expense of other activities (play dates etc.—by the way, she was 5.) At free choice in class I’ve never seen her pick up a book. Sad but true. 

So what’s a parent to do? To me, knowledge is good and it is power, but the onus is still on us to be good parents and decide what is appropriate and healthy for OUR own children. I think if you talked to any of my friends or family you’d find that my children eat mostly organic food or locally grown, we take vitamins and hardly ever have desert but I’ll admit when we took them to last weeks Mariners game they got some nice sugary, gooey cotton candy. This isn’t something we do every day—it’s a treat. And to me childhood is all about the balance between the sweet and the veggies. You have recess but you still have to do homework. You have to have both to appreciate and navigate through this complex culture we live in. Being a mom and running my own business is filled with compromises but I do it because a) I think it’s a great example for my kids. Follow your dreams and do what you believe in and b) because it’s the best way I’ve found to balance being involved in my children’s lives on my terms and still have an income. 

That said, there are some “rules of the road” in terms of what to look for in “good” children’s media (it does exist whether your children are 6 mos or 6 yrs.) 

Ø  Commercial Free : When I say that I don’t just mean PBS. PBS is not commercial free and neither is Baby Einstein. Have you ever watched to the very end and seen the credit role of “where to buy” all the fabulous toys featured? Our children become brand focused and marketing savvy early enough, no need to push it. Braincandy for instance, has no toys featured or commercials. It’s a very controlled media in DVD form that parents can review and evaluate before their children watch. 

Ø  Interactive, “lean forward” : Much of children’s’ media today can be a dull, passive experience, both for the children as well as the caregivers! “Kidified” classical music and toy trains moving around a track designed to “calm a fussy baby” or as I like to think of it, pacify them into a state of sleep. I am here today to tell you it doesn’t have to be like this. Content for young children can stimulate and motivate in ways similar to the real world. The idea is for media to act as an appetizer to the real world giving children and caregivers ideas of how to dialogue about their experience while they’re doing it. Showing positive examples for children to mimic is learning albeit not the kind where your child will repeat it verbally (like learning the ABCs.) 

Ø  Age-appropriate : There is such a thing as “good” and “bad” media. Part of that determination is whether it is created for very young children. I remember when my son had his tonsils out when he was 5 we watched a lot of TV. I was amazed by the content that was called “age-appropriate” for him. For very young children there are few things that are incredibly important. The pacing of the content should be slow, deliberate and repetitive. There should not be a lot of quick cutting and editing that switches from shot to shot at a rapid pace—developing brains are able to absorb this kind of content but again, at a certain point their little brains just shut down. 

Ø  Content :  The focus on featuring young children “engaged” in doing sensory oriented things promotes a healthy sense of exploration. What do I mean by that? Research suggests that young children learn by mimicking what other children or adults do. My daughter mastered the monkey bars by watching other kids and being “motivated” to try it herself. Young children don’t need to be pushed to learn traditional academics like their ABCs –they will learn all of those things in time. In the early years, focus on letting them learn in a more organic way. Believe me, they’re working harder learning how to play in the sandbox with other kids than they are doing anything else. 

Ø  The obvious: No sex, violence or exploitive material. 

And so goes another round in the debate around young children and the media. The researchers suggest the cure for the ills of the television are simply to get down on the floor and play with your child or take them for a romp at the park—do they really believe we’re not doing that as well? Shame on them for creating more mommy guilt by suggesting that we are lazy, dull parents who never interact with our children and rather choose television to babysit them.–I believe that happens but is the minority. I can tell you that when my children were very young we went to the park almost every day rain or shine, my husband and I read to them every night, (and that includes when they were 3 lbs laying in the NICU when they were first born) we remodeled our downstairs to function as a playroom complete with a science table, sensory table (the kind filled with hidden treasures amongst the flax seed) a train table and many other fabulous accoutrement. Never for a moment did I believe that the 30 minutes of downtime I had while my children watched TV wiht me was harmful and I still don’t. 

I supposed in some ways the jury is still out—my children are 2 weeks shy of 7 years old. Here’s what I can tell you about them. They are beautiful, bright, happy, well-adjusted children. They both have lots of friends with sleepovers and playdates often. They both finished kindergarten reading at a first and second grade level and they both can’t wait to start 1^st grade. At this stage, I have no idea whether Harvard or Yale is in the picture and frankly its not important to me. I hope for them that ultimately they find passion in their lives and are able to follow their dreams as Johnny and I have with Braincandy.  

Posted on August 12th, 2007 by Sam
Filed under: Uncategorized