While on our vacation in Bear Lake we stumbled upon the subject of appropriate shows for small children. I shared how I was recently very disappointed with Sesame Street when they had an entire episode on “Mineitis.” All the characters ran around grabbing whatever they could and yelling “Mine.” Their intention was to then show the cure and show that it was wrong, but I was concerned that the age group that watches Sesame Street (my 20 month old) would not pick up on the reverse psychology. I was right. A few days later he began grabbing things and saying “mine!” He had never done this previously. Luckily, he is catching on that it is wrong since he gets in trouble every time he says it.
My sister-in-law mentioned that her friend thought Sesame Street might actually contribute to ADHD because of its short choppy clips. I had never thought of this, but she is totally right. This opened my eyes and I got to thinking I might need to switch our programming choices, though my little guy adores Elmo. (Maybe I will just let him watch the Elmo’s world segment)
I set out on a quest to find a place with ratings on age appropriateness and educational value of children’s programming. In my 15 minutes of research I found something shocking! I knew too much TV leads to obesity and so on, but I had no idea of some of the research out there.
Did you know:
- TV may increase the risk for attentional problems because television images change rapidly, “which is an important contrast to the pace of real life,” he says. He notes that even some well-respected children’s programs – such as Sesame Street — are specifically designed to rely on rapid fire images to keep a young child’s attention. (1)
- In the Academy’s journal Pediatrics the report’s authors write: “Pediatricians should urge parents to avoid television viewing for children under the age of 2 years.” (2)
- TV watching “rewires” an infant’s brain, says Dr. Dimitri A. Christakis lead researcher and director of the Child Health Institute at Children’s Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, Wash. The damage shows up at age 7 when children have difficulty paying attention in school. (3)
- “In contrast to the way real life unfolds and is experienced by young children, the pace of TV is greatly sped up.” says Christakis. His research appears in the April 2004 issue of Pediatrics. Quick scene shifts of video images become “normal,” to a baby “when in fact, it’s decidedly not normal or natural.” Christakis says. Exposing a baby’s developing brain to videos may overstimulate it, causing permanent changes in developing neural pathways.(3)
- Even a child playing with its own fingers has the neural patterning that comes from bending, flexing, stretching and grasping. Scientists tell us that the brain develops in completely unique ways between birth and three years. As a kiddie viddie baby sits “mesmerized”, neural paths are not being created. This is crucial brain development that stops by age three.(3)
- In the study of more than 2,000 children, Christakis found that for every hour watched at age one and age three, the children had almost a ten percent higher chance of developing attention problems that could be diagnosed as ADHD by age 7. A toddler watching three hours of infant television daily had nearly a 30 percent higher chance of having attention problems in school.(3)
- No child under age two should watch television at all, the Academy of American Pediatrics advised in 1998. Doctors blame TV for increasing aggression and obesity in children, now they add ADHD risk to early TV use.(3)
(Sources for quotes listed by number below.)
Crazy isn’t it?! My little one was watching about an hour of TV a day so I could shower or put away laundry. Now that I have read all of this I think I will cut that down to 30 minutes (a mom’s gotta have a break now and then) and seriously look at any programming I may expose him to. I want something that has good values and is educational, does not have choppy clips, and does not annoy me. This is a pretty hard combination to find.
Here are a few children’s shows we like:
The Backyardigans
Little Einsteins
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse
Veggietales
Wordworld (the duck is a little annoying)
Little People Videos
What are some of your favorites?
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My pediatrician told me not to let my baby watch tv. He said the same thing you found in your research. I hardly ever have the tv on during the day and shorty in the evening. He doesn’t pay much attention to it.
Anyway, my ped. said to avoid baby einstein and shows like that for babies because of the flashing things and quick movements because babies don’t know what’s real and what’s not, plus the attention thing. He thinks it contributes to autism as well.
All in all, I don’t freak out if he watches some tv but I don’t turn it on for his entertainment at his age of 1. I also don’t tell others what to do and scorn them for doing so because it’s just what I’ve decided to do for my own child. 🙂 Thanks for the post!
Lucky for me my little guy never liked baby einstein. I only tried a couple of times, but he would only watch like 5 minutes of it. Interesting that it could be linked to autism as well. I am definitely not out here to tell people what to do or scorn anyone’s choices. I just wanted to share this info with anyone who might be surprised by it like me. Do what you will with the info.
Love Word World. We also really like Super Why.
My kids like to watch Word World and Sid the Science guy! I also saw that clip on the MINE-ITIS…..I could not hear what they were saying because the volume was low but I do remember everyone running around grabbing things.
As a Special Education teacher :), I knew these statistics and can attest that TV, video games, and computer games definitely can affect a child’s development and learning.
However, as a mom, I use TV to babysit my child so I can get a few things done. I only let Logan watch a few PBS shows and actually hate Sesame Street. Logan loves Thomas the Train and Sid the Science Kid. World Girl and Curious George are good shows from time to time. You will probably hate this, but we also love some of the Barney DVDs that are mostly music. My little guy LOVES music and we sing together.
I love your blog! I used to have my son watch Baby Einstein all the time and he’s perfectly normal and actually above average with all the other kids in his class. I’m not saying that Baby Einstein made him smart…I’m just saying I never had any problems with either of my kids watching t.v.
I also saw the Mineitis episode and thought it was rather annoying. Unfortunately my daughter picked up “mine” from nursery:( Oh the things they learn there!LOL!
i agree with this, too. my 4 and 2 year old watch very little tv. i have found that the less you have it on, the less the kids ask for it. we have a lot more fun together when there is no tv on. and now when they get to watch, it’s something they’re really excited about seeing. i also have a 4 month old and she will not be watching any tv…unlike my older two who watched an occasional baby einstein.
Kristin-
My niece watched baby einstein as well and same story, she is very smart. I don’t think that if babies are exposed to TV they are doomed, but I was interested to see that the risk factor goes up according to how much they watch. Much of ADHD is hereditary I hear so maybe your kids don’t have that added risk. Lucky!
As for learning “mine” in nursery, I had not thought of that. He started nursery around the same time as that episode starting popping up, so that could have contributed to the sudden possessiveness too. Hmmm.
My kids watch too much TV & I know it’s my fault. I can’t wait til my oldest starts school next week & we can go back to the PBS programs that he’s too old for. Interesting info & thanks for sharing. Sometimes it’s just really nice to let them watch tv so I can do other stuff…maybe I should cut back on the time a little. Live & learn…my kids are ok though. Mine is going to happen even if they don’t watch an episode about it. It’s a natural phase they go through…nobody likes to share everything all the time….even adults…LOL!! Thanks for the info. Never hurts to be reminded that I should do “more” stuff with the kids.
A year later…
Hi,
I have sent this list of educational DVDs out to a bunch of teachers I know, and I thought I would send it on to you as you may either be interested or know someone with kids this age who may be interested in some of them. I love “real” educational videos. These are the best I have seen among the many for teaching letters, sounds, handwriting, numbers, math etc…
I lost the original email I made where I told more about each video… So this is basically a list of links to my favorite K-3 educational DVDs. (My opinion only…I don’t work for any of them… or I wouldn’t need a real job…)
Sue H
Penmanship/letter formation/has a phonic element/3 DVDs (Upper case, lower case, and drawing shapes): http://www.tvteachervideos.com/
Penmanship/letter formation/animated and fun/upper and lower case on one DVD: http://www.incrediblekid.com/
“Meet the Letters, Numbers, Shapes, Sight Words etc.” Fabulous, awesome… as they are animated and have character. The kids love them. http://www.preschoolprepco.com/h/p/video.php
123’s (0-20) http://www.brainybaby.com/shop/html/Products/Videos/123s-51.html
It is the only numbers DVD that goes to 20. Number identification and counting. It is not just for babies…
(Not the letters or phonics videos…)
123’s/Numeracy DVD set: http://www.babybumblebee.com/store/main_baby_bumblebee_dvds.cfm
Okay for older kids too. Numbers, counting, first, second, third etc. (Not the Alphabet/phonics one…)
Language Development plus more…
http://www.babybumblebee.com/store/main_baby_bumblebee_dvds.cfm
These vocabulary Stories DVDs are so cute and appeal to little and big kids. The other videos are cute too, but I like these new ones the best. You can buy them on Amazon on bundled DVDs.
http://www.sosmart.com/
Leap Frog Letter Factory: Best sounds DVD ever!!! Wonderful!!! Love it!!!!
http://www.amazon.com/Leapfrog-Learning-Talking-Factory-Storybook/dp/B000EHQU1W
The word factory one is okay, but so fast it is more like a review for a beginning reader.
You can buy them at Walmart, Target, Toys-r-us etc.
Dolch 220 Sight words etc. http://www.kid2020.com/products.html
sample of DVD: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RemNDNaI5AE
(A bit “flashy”, but my daughter learned them all by the 4-5th viewing at age 5.)
Sight word spelling cheers: http://www.sosimplesightwords.com/ Expensive! More for spelling than reading. One feature is that it stops between each “cheer” for teaching each to a class. (Not so great of a feature for at home.) It has a teacher and a small group of students. Not overly entertaining; however, the cheers are fun to do, and it is good for adding movement to learning.
3rd grade math by DVD2Learn: https://www.dvd2learn.com/index.php
Multiplication #s0-13: Corny, but teaches the times facts. My 4 year old learned them with my 8 year old. (90 min. DVD to break up for learning) You can listen to parts of the songs on this website. (They have CDs of addition, subtraction, division, and multiplication also.)
http://www.googolpower.com/content/
Wonderful songs DVDs that are engaging and teach language and social skills. Super cute! (Not just for Special Education. Wide appeal to all kids!)
http://www.spectrumconnections.com/
Language development: Cute, funny, and engaging and, of course, expensive. (Intro advertisement is long and annoying…) Targeted for autism, but very funny and will appeal to all kids. My typical 8 year old likes them too…
http://www.teach2talk.com/
Instead of showing my kids DVDs – I played with educational flash cards from Galloping Minds.
Alphabet and Phonics.
Numbers, Shapes and Colors
Sometimes – I show them DVDs from Galloping Minds.
Rarely – though, like you said to take a break.
heres the link:
http://www.gallopingminds.com