Comments on: TV Can Slow Language Development, Even in the Background

By: Angie

Angie — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 21:16:01 +0000

I think Grant made a very important point, that seems to be ignored a lot. Moral deprivation due to certain things shown on TV. That´s a vital issue. As for documentaries on TV… I do find them educative too. You can also create child-safe internet and read online (Walt Disney has a lot to offer, e.g. http://www.findingnemo.com)

By: Adrian

Adrian — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 12:38:05 +0000

Hi, my name is Adrian and I am a TV aholic. Yes, the TV is on all the time when we are home. I can say that watching educational content is great but even then we are saturated with the show’s content, advertising content, and the visual stimuli. Basically, brain overload. With that being said the retention of all the info is soon erased by the next show.

I would like to try and turn off the TV more often, my children are becoming addicted as well. My 4 year old has his ’shows’, which entails him sitting on the couch like a lump, having all creative and imaginative ideas fed to him. We have to correct this in our home.

So hopefully, spending more time on non-tv related activities will help all of us use our imagination, communicate amongst each other, and bond with each other instead of the flat screen.

By: Grant H

Grant H — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 02:19:20 +0000

The television. It’s something I have a few opinions about. I see it as a tool. It can be used for entertainment, like an office computer or gun powder can, but it’s suited for far more.
So what about entertainment… When watching a movie or TV program and the morals depicted don’t quite match with your own sense of acceptable and wrong, do you dismiss it as just entertainment with no bearing on your ideals gained through life? Or do you re-assess the validity your own point of view? Or do you just absorb the life guidance messages (for lack of a better term) without thinking about it?
We are careful when we operate a power tool, we know there are consequences to not being present in mind. I think the TV has dangerous consequences as well when used mindlessly.

By: Gwenny

Gwenny — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 20:57:19 +0000

THAT’S why my kids are so smart and have such huge vocabularies . . I never shut up. LOL

By: Sam

Sam — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:51:00 +0000

Sure, it would be interesting to differentiate, but the fact that they didn’t doesn’t invalidate their data, which clearly shows the detrimental affect of watching the TV *in the way that people are watching it.* The data show that the children in the study would be better off, on average, with less TV watching.

By: Francesca

Francesca — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 19:21:14 +0000

Why don’t these studies differentiate between the types of TV content being watched? How can we equate parents watching Sesame Street or LeapFrog videos or nature/science documentaries with their children, which involves a lot of conversation between child and parent in my experience, with parents who have a game show on while ignoring their kids? Children pay a lot of attention to content – either live or virtual. Sit them in front of inappropriate mind-numbing shows and ignore them, and of course you will see language impact. Watch animated letters jump and sound their ways across the screen? Educational and a lot more fun than flashcards, and a lot of exercise as the kids (and parents) copy it as well. But arguments that equate all TV viewing as equal are simply ridiculous. Books are wonderful, reading is wonderful – but to dismiss additional virtual, gaming and television options out of hand seems to be indicative of an “we didn’t do that when we were kids so it must be bad” kind of attitude.