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  We need a mature look at the risks television poses to the young |
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 | Reported by guardian.co.uk
on Tuesday, 20 October 2009
(on October 20, 2009) |
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The issue is not just how much TV children watch, but how they watch itYour article (Not in front of the children?, G2, 14 October) comments on the "outrage that has greeted reports that the Australian government is to issue cautious guidelines advising parents and carers to prevent children under two from watching television", and reports fears that the "country is in danger of becoming a politically controlled nation closer to communist China".Yet the initiative referred to was guidance drawn up by the Royal Children's hospital in Melbourne and expected to be published by the Australian government as part of a national anti-obesity drive.Research from around the world is providing similar evidence: one major study found that 10% of children had attention problems at age seven.
These children were watching an average of 2.2 hours of television per day at age one, and 3.6 hours at age three.But what we also need to consider is what it was that the children were watching, and how they were watching it.
It isn't enough to look simply at the evidence about whether "TV is bad for young children", as the article suggests.
Reporting that "scientists concede that they do not yet know precisely how TV affects the cognitive development" reinforces the misleading notion that there is a direct correlation between TV access and child development problems.Research shows that, where parents take a special interest in children's television, and they watch programmes with their children, the children tend to watch less television - and they also gain more from the experience.The key lesson to be learned from the case of television is in fact transferable to all screen-based media: where there have been problems, they have not been the result of the media or the technology itself, but the way in which it is sometimes misapplied.Children in the early years should have lots of verbal interaction; solitary viewing is, even at its best, a distraction from that.
But television and home computer programs often provide valuable contexts for rich verbal interaction, and this is something that we can promote.Most Guardian readers probably don't need to be told that they shouldn't leave their two-year-old alone in front of the TV for two hours a day.
But given that a minority do need to be told, we should be pleased that guidance like this is being distributed.
In the past decade we have developed pre-school and family services that are envied around the world.When people criticise the "nanny state", perhaps we should ask what they have against nannies.
My Nan was pretty cool, and if there are kids who haven't got a nanny looking out for them then maybe we should all be chipping in with whatever support we can offer.The example of TV highlights the importance of all of those working and living with young children being aware of the potential risks, and of them learning how to make the most of all the established and emerging information and communications technologies.John Siraj-Blatchford is an honorary professor at the University of Swansea.
His most recent book is Using ICT in the Early Years: Parents and Practitioners in Partnership
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