Effects of television watching on children language development
Introduction
It is difficult for kids to avoid watching a television. Television watching is fun, enjoyable and interesting such that kids want to keep on watching cartoons especially. Most kids are exposed to television watching even before they start schooling. This is according to research and analysis carried out by Kaiser Family Foundation. Kids spend almost 2 hours watching television daily while teens are seen to spend four hours watching television and videos. America academy of pediatrics advocate that children below two years old should not watch television while those above two years should not be allowed to spend more than an hour watching television since it causes negative sight problems to them. Small children are still in the process of development and exposing them to more television watching will affect their process of development both mentally, psychologically and physically. Television watching can affect performance of children since it interferes with reading habits in most kids. Television watching have huge impacts on the development of language in young children. The essay will describe both positive and negative effects of television watching on children language development and growth process.
Negative effects of television on performance
First, watching television in small kids affects performance of kids in schools. Watching television affects children in their homework, readings, acquiring enough sleeping time and acquiring hobbies. The effects of television watching on education are harmful and intense and termed as long-term effects. TV watching hinders a child from achieving goals in life from the research carried out. TV watching increases chances of children dropping out of schools because of negative peer influence. For example if a child watches a program that shows how another child dropped out of school and became successful later on in live, most children will also tend to follow such inaccurate lessons (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). Children who are exposed to TV watching at an early age are not enrolled in universities and colleges since they will tend to drop out more likely than children who are not exposed. Some children learn bullying skills from television become violent in schools. Such children are expelled thus shattering their dreams.tv watching as learnt causes bad and harmful effects on education of kids, which should be avoided. The most violent students in most schools were in one way or another exposed to TV watching at the age of below four years.
Positive effects of television on education
Television watching however can influence positive development in children. There are many educational programs on the TV, which support good mental growth and development in children. The parent should watch those important and educational programs together with the children and help them learn from those programs. Sesame Street is an educational program, which can boost education performance of children if the program is well utilized with help of parents. It educates children and enhances good language and communication skills in children. Educational programs on the TV enables kids learn numbers and reading skills thereby improving their performance. Children programs on the TV are important since they boost the child’s thinking capacity and ensure that the child is able to learn development skills (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). They increase the interaction process in children and boost relationship among kids in the society as they come together to discuss interesting child programmers’. Children programs encourage creativity will boost the mental attitude in most kids. TVs promote culture diversity since kids are able to learn language, religion and culture of other people in a convenient manner. Children are able to watch importance of other people’s cultures. Children are well entertained by video games and cartoons on the TVs. TVs occupies children’s time instead of committing unnecessary crimes. Children should watch TV for limited number of hours, as they need to remain informed on the occurrences taking place worldwide. Early childhood education is offered by televisions and kids are able to learn lessons from other people’s cultures in the globe (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). Children are kept updated on sports activities, which are fun and entertain most kids. Televisions help in shaping the language of most kids. It enables kids differentiate between different colors and objects.
Effects of television on social development and skills
The second negative influence caused by watching TV is the fact that it interferes with the social skills and development in children. Spending long time watching TV would affect the children’ social skills and keep them isolated from the real world around them. This is because most of the children who spend most of their time watching TV are said to be less socially and do not want to play with other children (Ferguson & Donnellan, 2014). This means that the child have less social skills. Additionally, children in their early ages start developing some kind of social interaction and need to communicate with people around them. Moreover, children’s brains grow very fast and even faster than the adults’ brains (Ferguson & Donnellan, 2014). However, children’s brains are not grown enough and capable to interpret what is been showed in TV which may cause some confusion that must be avoided in this stage of their life and brain development. Studies conducted by the American Academy of Pediatrics states that children are extremely in need to direct attention and interaction from their parents for healthy growth of their brains and the development of their social and emotional skills. It is the responsibility of every parent to use other means of calming the baby rather than allowing the child to watch Television as it has some effects on his or her social and brain development.
Effects of television on sleeping in children
The other negative effect of television watching is that it causes sleeping troubles to small kids. It causes sleeping disorders and disruptions especially in small kids and young teens. It is important and healthy for children to get enough sleep. Some children suffer negative effects after watching horror programs on the television such as horrible and scarily dreams such that they are unable to sleep alone (Calvert & Wilson, 2011). A current analysis suggests that small kids who watch TV for long hours have irregular habits of sleeping. Most teens who watch TV for more than four hours experience sleeping disorders during their adulthood. Amount of sleep in children should be quantity and enough sleep in order to ensure that their brains remain active during the day. Sleep ensures good growth and clear understanding in children throughout the day. Children who get enough sleep remain active throughout the day. This promotes good performance in schools. Lack of enough sleep can have a negative effect on performance of most kids. Sleep should be enough and quality. Children who sleep in class from the research are those that are exposed to watching TV for long hours (Ferguson & Donnellan, 2014). Watching TV should be limited and regulated especially for kids and teens since it causes them sleeping disorders in the future.
Adult conversation versus television watching
In another perspective people have argued out that television watching does not contribute much to language development in most children. Most research carried out shows that adult conversation contributes more to language development and has effects on it that television watching. Watching television according to other research has effects on children since many media houses use vocabulary that are sometimes confusing to many kids. Many kids are not yet exposed to hard vocabulary at schools and exposing them to watching television confuses them more (Balter, 2000). Parents should avoid conversing in similar hard vocabularies like the ones in televisions since research shows out that children are keener on conversation than television watching. Parents should ensure their children watch the right programs on television. Parents should talk frequently to their children instead of exposing them to television watching. Research decisively demonstrates that social interactions between children and parents should not be substituted with television for language development (Ferguson & Donnellan, 2014). Parents should interact more with their children and show them importance of homework instead of letting them watch television since it is harmful to them.
Relationship between speech development and television watching
Television contributes to positive and negative impacts on children during their language development processes. Children who watch television much are likely to have problems in their speech than those ones who do not (Hamaguchi, 2010). Young children should not be exposed to harsh vocabulary and terms since they get confused. Children who are exposed to hard vocabulary on television are not able to express themselves fluently since they get confused. Television watching teaches children some values which are not taught in schools. Children are able to learn some vulgar language (Hamaguchi, 2010). This affects most children at schools since vulgar language is unacceptable in schools and public institutions. Parents should buy their children reading materials instead of exposing them to television since they are exposed to wrong values. Reading materials are the best and contribute to language development in a positive and acceptable way.
Conclusion
From the above discussion, it is clearly seen that watching television has both negative and positive impacts to child’s language development process. Parents should be on the watch and dictate what is appropriate for kids to watch as well as discouraging continuous television watching. Children should be exposed to watch educational programs and programs, which emphasize and encourage healthy living habits and lifestyles. Watching television should be discouraged since it leads to negative effects to the kids who are not yet developed mentally and physically. It is therefore the responsibility of teachers and parents to discourage children from watching television. Children should be involved in other constructive activities instead of getting involved in TV watching. TV watching hinders proper growth and development in most kids, which should be highly discouraged. Although television also contributes to children language development, it has various shortcomings as it depends on the quality of content and the quantity of television watched. Therefore, research conclusively demonstrates that social interactions between children and parents should not be substituted with television for language development.
References
Balter, L. (2000). Parenthood in America: An encyclopedia. Santa Barbara, Calif: ABC-CLIO.
Calvert, S. L., & Wilson, B. J. (2011). The handbook of children, media, and development. Chichester: Wiley-Blackwell.
Chonchaiya, W., & Pruksananonda, C. (2008). Television viewing associates with delayed language development. Acta Paediatrica, 97(7), 977-982. doi:10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00831.x
Ferguson, C. J., & Donnellan, M. (2014). Is the association between children’s baby video viewing and poor language development robust? A reanalysis of Zimmerman, Christakis, and Meltzoff (2007). Developmental Psychology, 50(1), 129-137. doi:10.1037/a0033628
Hamaguchi, P. M. A. (2010). Childhood speech, language, and listening problems: What every parent should know. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
