Screen time

(Image Source)

This is the second part of my guide on ‘How to introduce television to toddlers (without turning their brains to mush)’. If you missed it, you can find the first part here.

Ironically, the first take home message was to turn off the TV and wait.

But wait for how long?

Exactly when you should introduce TV to babies or toddlers is a tricky question – one that’s sure to fire people up on each side of the argument.

Most official sources, including the Australian Federal Government, recommend zero television for babies and toddlers under two years old (despite this recommendation being largely ignored by most Australian households¹). Although I can’t find any research that explains why ‘two years old’ is such a magic number. Children do not necessarily develop at the same pace.

I believe families should take into consideration their own child, family, situation and priorities.

Personally, in the Banya household, we maintained a zero TV policy until JJ was 1.5 years old. It was at this age that JJ started to show the signs that she was ready for TV. She was able to maintain interest and follow a simple storyline from the start of a book to the end. She was showing signs of interactive play with adults and other children. She was starting to show an interest in arts and crafts.

She was showing signs that good quality children’s TV² would actually aid her brain development rather than hinder it.

But in order for TV to aid, we decided to actively watch television with her. Every day, either Mr Banya or myself, sang along, danced along, and helped explain the various themes that were introduced to enable JJ to watch television in an interactive way.

We set our DVR to automatically record, so we could play what we want, when we wanted.

At first we introduced one 25 minute episode per day. JJ often watched the same episode repeatedly for days in a row.

During our daily play, JJ and I would expand upon any new themes that had been introduced. We’d borrow relevant library books, role-play the various characters, retell the stories and sing the songs.

There were tears. Here is a clip of Mr Banya and JJ, when JJ had finished watching her second episode ever. You can just hear her saying “I love it” at about frame 0:50. So sad!

Thankfully these post-TV tears subsided a few days later, once JJ realised that TV would always finish, tears wouldn’t put it back on, and that it would indeed come back again the following day.

But soon, JJ started asking to watch. Throughout the day she would ask “Watch Playschool?”. We used this as an opportunity to teach her about telling the time. Not only did she stop bugging me to watch TV, but she also started to understand about clocks and time, and she started to self-direct. Win-win-win!

A one-sticker solution!

But regardless of when is right for you, once you do decide to turn the TV on which shows are the best to start with? And which shows to avoid? I’ll be tackling these questions next…

xx
Danya

(Image Source) It didn’t take long for JJ to be interested in the allure of television.

At around 3 months old, she would turn her head towards a TV whenever it was on. Of course at that age the attraction relates more to the flashing lights, than the stellar Grey’s Anatomy plot, but still…

We decided to turn off the TV for a few years.

And that includes all TV – kids TV, adults TV, movies – everything.

We did this because:

1) Studies show a link between  early TV watching and attention disorders¹. Whilst this link hasn’t necessarily been proven to be causal, it is still worrying enough. The theory is that TV, with its flashing lights, rapid scene changes and sped up story lines, is overstimulating for babies and young toddlers. Fast paced, overstimulating TV effectively rewires their brains to expect real life to be ‘faster and flashier’ as well.

2) The first three years are a vital period for the development of children’s brains. It is during this time that the brain kicks off myelin production, forming connections between the different parts of the brain. In layman’s terms – more myelin and more connections = smarter child. And the best way to encourage this brain development is to actively play with your child. Sing to them, bounce them, help them play with toys – interact with them. TV on the other hand, is very uninteractive. Kids, even babies, get mesmerised by TV. And very little neural activity happens in this mesmerised state. Aside from potential damage (see point 1), there is also the opportunity cost to consider. Time spent watching TV is time that is not spent in healthy interactive play.

Source

3) There is a temptation to put on adult shows when babies are ‘too young to know what’s going on anyway’. Swearing, violence, adult themes – these shows are just not appropriate IMHO. And when adults are watching TV, they are distracted from interacting with their child. Less interaction = less brain development (see point 2).

4) Even TV shows designed for young kids sometimes still have negative messages. There are shows with scary bad guys that can bring on nightmares. There are shows, usually with some sort of moral at the end, that show kids behaving poorly – and younger kids often emulate the bad behaviour without understanding the moral behind it.

5) From a parent-sanity point of view, delaying TV introduction means that your kids don’t yet know about the latest fads. My daughter wasn’t begging me for the latest Wiggles gizmo or thingamebob, (although she knew about Dora and Disney’s princesses seemingly by osmosis, so this theory isn’t totally fail-proof).

This might not be groundbreaking stuff, but from my sporadic anecdotal ‘research’, most Australian kids watch a lot of TV from a very young age. I often hear parents saying that the television is on in the background and their kids don’t even really watch it. This dumbfounds me – if they are not even watching it, why have it on? If you want background noise, then put on some music instead! It doesn’t have to be children’s music – maybe you and your baby can have a little lounge room dance party. 🙂

If you really need a break, and we all do from time to time, then there are plenty of non-TV options. They just might need a bit more planning. Google is your friend. My favourite easy ‘down time’ activity is to fill a baby-safe room with toys, safe kitchen utensils, kids books etc and let her crawl around. She picks something up, sucks on them, bangs them together, and then rolls or crawls off to play with something else. Meanwhile I can sit on the floor nearby, read my Kindle and have a mental break from parenting for a while. We’re both happy.

There will come a time when your baby is a baby no longer. You’ll (probably) want to introduce TV – I chat more about how and when to do that here. But for now, enjoy your baby and have her enjoy you – while she’s still at her most impressionable.

xx
Danya

¹ A few interesting articles:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2004/04/040406090140.htm
http://www.additudemag.com/adhd/article/826.html
http://www.whitedot.org/issue/iss_story.asp?slug=ADHD%20Toddlers