TV Interferes With Infants' Language Development

Reader Comments
Back to article

rjpuUW

Ezgvvmaz of DE 6:58PM July 15, 2009

Visual stimuli such as TV, videos, computers, etc. are passive entertainers requiring little to no interaction or cognitive effort. The child just receives messages. When we look for developmentally appropriate activities for young children, we seek active involvement, interaction and cognitive effort. These are what promote growth, learning and development. The correlation with vocabulary is that vocabulary is learned through active involvement, interaction and cognitive effort - not passive entertainment.
Your comment is correct in that research has shown that parents who put their children in front of TV sets are also less likely to spend time reading and talking to them.
Instead of visual stimuli, parents should try auditory stimuli such as stories, music, sounds, etc. Auditory stimulus builds vocabulary, awareness, concentration and curiosity just to name a few of the benefits.

Christine of CA 2:56AM June 04, 2009

But wouldn’t this mean that any time spent not talking to your child is delaying language development? If the reason for more tv = less vocab is that during tv time, you don’t talk to your child, then tv isn’t the issue, talking is, but they don’t say “riding in the car and not talking to your child delays language delay,” or “letting your child play with their toys or on the playground instead of talking to them delays language development.” Because that wouldn't plug into fears of mass media's negative effects. I wonder if it’s a correlation, not a cause, and the correlation is that most parents who put their kids in front of the tv for longer stretches are also parents who don’t talk to their kids or read books to them as much as parents who avoid tv.

Chris Perrius of CA 7:07PM June 03, 2009