Television and Toddlers

An article published by the American Academy of Paediatrics in 2011 suggested that children under two years should be avoiding tv/media time to help foster their development. The study's findings might appear rather obvious to some. Results showed that every hour that under twos spent watching t.v alone, they lost virtually the same amount of time in meaningful interactions with with parents, caregivers or siblings. Many children from households considered high in their media/t.v time were also read to anywhere from 25-38% less than children who were not from households considered high media/t.v users.

So, if your child is watching t.v at least for a short time each day, how does a parent choose the best programming? As you may have guessed, not all programming is created equal! At the American Speech and Hearing conference in Chicago, an interesting study was presented by Grela, B, 2003 on this topic. The study looked at preschool children and their vocabulary growth as a result of watching specific television programs. Dora the Explorer, Sesame Street, Blues Clues, and Barney and Friends were some of the shows evaluated.

You may or may not be surprised to learn that the most successful programs in teaching new vocabulary words were those shows that mimicked the features of a real conversation. They described some of the key characteristics of television shows that boosted vocabulary words in preschoolers from a pre-show baseline. Key factors were:

• The characters frequently speak directly to the viewer (i.e. the child), as opposed to speaking to other characters in the program  
• The programs elicit participation from the child and provide an opportunity for the child to respond
• The characters frequently label, define and visually depict objects
• There is a strong narrative
• There is visual appeal

Ultimately, we know that the world is a tech-savy one and screen time is likely not something most families avoid all-together. To summarize, it is obviously important to choose quality programming for your child and to limit the time they spend watching t.v  each day. Encourage conversations about what they're watching and new vocabulary words they may be exposed to. In the end, nothing replaces face-to-face interactions!

(Linebarger & Walker, 2005)

For more information check out:

Fisch, S., & Truglio, R. (Eds.). (2001). “G” is for “growing”: Thirty years of Sesame Street research. Mahwh, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 

Grela, B., Lin, Y.J., & Krcmar, M. (2003). Can television be used to teach vocabulary to toddlers? Poster session presented at the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association Convention, Chicago.

Linebarger, D., L. & Walker, D. (2005). Infants’ and toddlers’ television viewing and language outcomes. American Behavioral Scientist, 48(5), 624-645.