Toddlers and TV: Early Exposure Has Negative and Long-Term Impact, my opinion not just Toddlers

ScienceDaily (May 3, 2010) — Want kids who are smarter and thinner? Keep them away from the television set as toddlers.

Source

A shocking study from child experts at the Université de Montréal, the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center and the University of Michigan, published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, has found that television exposure at age two forecasts negative consequences for kids, ranging from poor school adjustment to unhealthy habits.

"We found every additional hour of TV exposure among toddlers corresponded to a future decrease in classroom engagement and success at math, increased victimization by classmates, have a more sedentary lifestyle, higher consumption of junk food and, ultimately, higher body mass index," says lead author Dr. Linda S. Pagani, a psychosocial professor at the Université de Montréal and researcher at the Sainte-Justine University Hospital Research Center.

Ha! and they said TV would rot your brain. It seems that instead it is allegedly rotting society. Although I feel that a lot of the root causes for the conditions mentioned in the article are associated with causes from additional origins other than TV. Then again, with the amount of Reality Shows and other nonsensical programming on TV these days. I can see why they would make this correlation. What ever happened to going outside and playing, hide & seek, tag, mud pies, slip & slide, etc etc.

Good Times!!

[edit on 5/8/2010 by UberL33t]

[edit on 5/8/2010 by UberL33t]

I absolutely agree with this study's assessment. I don't have a child of my own (yet!) but it absolutely abhors me to think of parents using the television as a alternative to parenting. Even something as simple as talking to your toddler everyday can increase their cognitive abilities.

reply to post by VneZonyDostupa


I concur, as well, I think the internet plays a vital role in development as well. There was a very informative discussion about this subject tonight on ATS Live Radio. The topic stemmed from intrepid's thread:

If You Have Teen Girl, This is a Must Read.

But I think TV and the Internet play a role in the topic, not to mention the pseudo parenting by the two as you mentioned.

[edit on 5/8/2010 by UberL33t]

reply to post by UberL33t


I'll definitely look over that thread. I obviously don't have a teen girl myself, but I was one not too many years ago, so it should be an interesting read

We thought we were getting away from TV by ending our cable subscription. But the world of kid DVDs is appalling as well. At least you can lose the most objectionable ones. But look at what is available. Winnie the Pooh's Great Adventure was totally scary. All kinds of scratchy scary monsters chased them all over the place, finally meeting the Skulla-saurus in the Eye of the Skull. Foosas in Madagascar terrified our little one. We put it away for a while and he's gotten over his fears. He was standing around the corner of the TV so the foose couldn't see him. The Backyardigans levitated a rock with a magic chant that our kid repeats over and over, Diego retrieved the jaguar's spirit that the monkeys have captured in a bottle. A glorifying of the occult seems to be written in to toddler DVDs and you don't get any warnings. You have to prescreen them. I finally lost Diego's Jaguar "Rescue."
Watching DVD's is especially bad because they watch them over and over and over and memorize the dialogues.
Other things are just bad info. Watch Diego retrieve the moon from the ocean floor, it's about the size of a balloon. Not very scientific.
Pinky Dinky Doo had an episode where some park rangers looking like National Guard were called in to clean up some mess. Is this some kind of early indoctrination? Get them ready for socialism?
I really hated Winnie the Pooh for that. It's like they are deliberately trying to terrify our children. Do you remember the Gentle Giant and Mr Rogers? Is there some conspiracy in making our kids nervous wrecks or acclimatizing them to being terrorized?


[edit on 9-5-2010 by m khan]

I'm less likely to think that the more tv you watch the less healthy you get (for the most part) and more inclined to see it as an indication of environment.

For example, house A exposes their children to 25 hours of tv a week. House B exposes their children to 10 hours a week. House A is more likely to engage in less healthy lifestyles in general (not just tv).

While I won't discount tv, there is a wide range of programming out there and not all of it is bad or bad for you.

Pinning it simply on tv volume seems foolhardy to me as I'd be more inclined to suggest it's one indicator of lifestyle, i.e. directly proportional.

thank GOD a study like this is out. TV is so bad. If you get hooked on TV at a young age you will probably become dependent on it as you are growing up. It's so easy for parents just to plop their kids in front of the TV so they can go do something else for 30 minutes or an hour. Focus on more books and make your kid smarter.