This article is not off topic IMO

[Guest guest]

because it has to do with the fact that It is becoming more and more

difficult to have a quite mind.

 

Even Good TV is Bad For Kids

"How NOT To Raise a Gifted Child.")

 

 

 

The relationship elements required to create a bond are simple and

straightforward. They flow naturally between parent and child in a

ceaseless rhythm. Reciprocal eye contact, movement, smiles, sweet

food, and touch form the foundations of creating attachment between

people. These interactions are initiated with mother-infant bonding

and are extended to the classroom, the courtship dance, and

friendship formation. Forming healthy attachments is critical to

becoming an emotionally healthy adult with the ability to function

fully in society. The problem for conscientious parents then becomes

how to optimize attachment interactions and minimize activities that

compromise the bonding process.

 

While the answer is complex and tied up in numerous day to day family

interactions, one response must not be overlooked. The use of

television must be closely and consistently monitored. The less time

children spend in front of the television the better. It is not the

content of television which compromises brain and personality

development - it is the process of watching.

 

In a society tied intrinsically to sports, news and entertainment

generated by television studios the decision to limit viewing is

difficult to carry out in practice. Regardless of how difficult it

is, it is still an important decision to make for numerous reasons.

Some of those reasons are tied to bonding and attachment, some of

them are tied to physical growth and development and some of them to

intellectual and educational achievement.

Bonding and Attachment

Reciprocal Eye Contact

Television viewing requires intent visual attention, however there is

no reciprocal response. As hard as those in front of the camera try

to connect with their viewing audience by staring into the lens, they

are doing merely that - staring in the direction the viewer can

interpret as personal eye contact. They cannot actually make eye

contact, only give the perception of it. Adult viewers easily discern

this pretense. They know the person on the screen is not really

talking just to them. Small children lack that discernment. They

believe the character represented is actually talking just to them

and they get caught up in what the character is saying to them -

finding the words and actions to be warm and caring. The character on

the screen is always fun and entertaining to be around, never asks

them to pick up their toys, never tells them it is time to go to bed,

in short, never makes demands on them. Contrast that character to the

ones the children actually live with and who looks more attractive as

a companion? When times get rough with their parents and siblings,

where can a child find solace? In front of the television, spending

time with those they have been led to believe really care about them,

thus avoiding the hard task of working through their relationships

with people who do not pretend to care, but actually care.

Reciprocal Smiles

Smiles, laughter, joy and fun can be found in abundance in children's

programming. However, they are not reciprocal. Rather than being

engaged as a participant in creating fun times, the child is merely a

spectator. Rather than learning how to entertain oneself, both as an

individual or as a member of a group, the child's inner drive is

dulled. The joy derived from being an observer of someone else's fun

is superficial and short lived. It has no deep satisfaction.

Sweet Food Lovingly Given

A cotton candy stick shared at the circus with someone who loves you

has a bonus. The sweet confection becomes connected in the mind and

heart with the person you are sharing it with. When parents, during

the course of a fun activity, give their child gooey food which would

otherwise be considered objectionable, the fatty sugars take a detour

on the way to the stomach. They go first to the brain and heart and

fix a message in the psyche, which forever links goodness and light

to the giver of the sweet gift. When the child eats a similar treat

in the future the unbidden memory will intrude and the child will

connect the treat to the presence of the loved one. Repeatedly

stuffing oneself with soda, candy and potato chips during the course

of an afternoon spent in front of the television just goes straight

to the stomach and creates fat.

Touch and Movement

Obviously none of the receptors in the skin or the inner ear are

aroused by watching television. Since they are not being stimulated

none of the chemicals in the brain which connect an activity to a

pleasurable relationship with a person are released. In short, none

of the bonding interactions are present while a child is watching

television. In terms of emotional development it is wasted time.

Physical Growth and Personality Development

Children who are sitting in front of a television are not practicing

running, jumping, hitting a ball, or swimming. They are not learning

the complex coordination skills which will enable them to enjoy

participating in physical activity. Their muscles are atrophying.

Watch a child watch tv. Not one competency skill is being exercised.

Visual tracking skills, eye-hand coordination, gross motor skills,

social skills, motivation, initiative, creativity, problem solving

abilities are all inhibited. John Rosemond calls television watching

a "deprivational experience for the young child" as it deprives the

child of the opportunity to discover and delight in his or her own

potential.

 

Writing, coloring, drawing all require increasing mastery of fine

motor skills. These skills are not developed in front of the

television. They are achieved when young hands cut and paste, build

with blocks, and assemble puzzles. When children play in the mud and

fingerpaint they are increasing their tactile sensitivity, something

television cannot provide.

 

Television also compromises the development of cause and effect

thinking and value development. Characters on screen, particularly

children who sass, talk back, lie to their parents are often not held

accountable for their actions. Instead the laugh track kicks in.

Programming frequently shows sexual activity with no sense of what

happens in real relationships when people are promiscuous. Both the

good guys and the bad guys engage in violence, however, the clear

message is that it is OK for people who are right to solve their

problems in violent ways. The philosophy of redemptive violence, that

is that good people must become violent for the good of the people,

is pervasive. The goal of television producers is to make money by

attracting advertisers. Stories are not told because they have a

message to tell, but because they have a product to sell. Whatever

elements which need to be incorporated into the plot to keep the

viewers attention through the commercials will be used. The

commercials then depict the results which occur as a result of using

their product in unrealistic and mind twisting ways. Advertisers

spend enormous sums of money to determine which tone of voice, which

colors, which actions, which words will motivate people to buy.

Children are not sophisticated enough to withstand the expertise of

people who devote their lives to figuring out what will appeal to

them.

 

When children are accustomed to watching television, they become

accustomed to being entertained. When parents take control of the

television the child does not initially know what to do, so bugs mom.

Mom doesn't want to entertain her child and so after the constant

barrage of "I'm bored", gives in and the child returns to the

television. When turning off the tv parents need to realize that the

home environment will get worse before it gets better. However, once

it bets better and the child begins to exercise all the physical and

mental processes that were dormant, it will be very good indeed.

Intellectual and Educational Achievement

The window of opportunity for children to become aware of their

potential is very small - only the first few years of life. By the

time a child enters kindergarten the bath of physical, emotional and

intellectual stimulation determines the future direction of brain and

personality development. If that bath is full of activity, colors,

sights, sounds, movements, experiences and relationships then the

brain and personality will continue on that track. If the bath is

empty of experiences then the brain and personality development will

continue on that track. Parents choose.

 

Eric Erickson wrote extensively about the stages of human

development. He stated the developmental tasks of 3 and 4 year old

children was "initiative and industry" because it is during these

years that children are learning to entertain themselves in creative

and engaging ways. When children become enraptured with television

instead of discovering and developing their own gifts they become

functionally retarded.

 

Parents tend to assuage their guilt and rationalize that it is OK for

their child to watch television because it is "Sesame Street". None

of what the child is expected to derive from Sesame Street is so

important that it can't wait until kindergarten. The reality is that

Sesame Street is just as bad for children as other programming as it

is the process, not the content which compromises a child's

development.

 

Most of the learning and excitement to learn in the early years stem

from the child's relationship with parents, first, and kindergarten

teacher, second. Being able to turn to someone close at hand to have

questions answered is a critical part of the initial steps of

learning. Establishing trusting relationships with others and using

them as a source of companionship and answers initiates a life long

learning process for children. Television doesn't allow for specific,

individual questions which arise from the child's experience. Those

can only be answered by someone in the child's immediate environment.

Using television as a primary source of information means a child

will only get what someone else determines the child will get and

compromises the child's ability to seek information elsewhere. Any

questions or thoughts which arise in the child while viewing are lost

in the relentless stream of information which keeps flowing.

Eye Movement

Watching television requires that the eyes learn to focus on the same

spot. While there is movement within the spot, the spot itself does

not move from side to side or forward or backward. It remains static.

Training the eyes to remain focused on the same point requires

training which can be pleasurably accomplished if the focal point is

entertaining. This television gladly provides. However, reading

requires an entirely different set of eye movement skills. Reading

requires that the object being observed stays still while the eyes

move across it. In order to learn to read the eyes must learn to move

from side to side, up and down and in and out. These eye movement

skills are developed by playing with puzzles, Legos, swinging on a

swingset, going down a slide, whirling around on a merry-go-round,

and jumping rope. None of these activities are compatible with

watching television. The eye development skills required for

television are exactly the opposite required for learning to read.

Creativity

Books read in early childhood are amply illustrated to draw children

into the excitement of the printed page. As books become more

difficult to read and the information in them becomes more complex to

absorb there are fewer and fewer illustrations and the words must

perform the communication work all by themselves. This they cannot do

unless the brain is actively engaged, forming the pictures, filling

in the sights, sounds, movements, tastes and colors. The brain must

conceptualize the words on the page and create meanings for them.

Assembling puzzles, listening to stories being read out loud,

creating colorful mosaics, drawing all give the brain practice

creating order out of random sights and sounds and giving them

meaning.

 

Watching television, however, does not require that the brain perform

any of those tasks. The individual behind the camera provides the

color, action, tastes, sights, and sounds. Nothing is left to the

imagination. The images move so quickly the brain can do little more

than absorb what it has seen. Brains which have spent too much time

in front of a television do not have the creative processing ability

to make reading entertaining and enjoyable. The child looks at a

printed page and sees nothing but black squiggles. The concepts,

energy, and excitement which can be generated when those squiggles

are interpreted are lost to the brain deadened by television.

Delayed Gratification

Television has little connection to real life experiences. The

stories are told in such a way that the problem is presented and

solved within an hour. This is not representative of the problems

faced daily which may take days, weeks, months, years to be resolved,

if they ever are resolved. When the problems are resolved the

solutions are not nearly so neat and tidy as seen on television. The

Huxtables are not the measure against which we want to compare our

family life.

 

The rewards of hard work is a concept which is totally lost in

television land. To the viewer everything looks easy. Hard tasks are

accomplished during commercial breaks. While the child is being sold

a box of cereal the heroes solve their problems and return.

Attention Span Development

Television images pass by the eye and change on average every 3 - 4

seconds. The child watching tv does not have to watch the same thing

for more than 10 seconds before the entire color, action, personality

content changes. In contrast, learning to read requires that the

child be able to hold the focus on a black squiggle for much longer

than 10 seconds before the skill is developed to decipher it more

quickly. Not having the ability to do that, the child quits in

frustration. Oddly enough, the more time spent in front of the

television, the shorter the attention span.

When Can Television Be Incorporated Into a Child's Day

Does television have to be an ogre in our child's lives? No. There is

much to commend it and numerous examples of worthwhile programming.

What is damaging to the child is not watching television on occasion,

but spending hours in front of it to the exclusion of other, more

worthwhile activities. There are two key points to remember when

assessing whether or not your children will not suffer in the long

run from watching television.

 

One is that bonding and attachment are critical achievements for a

healthy adulthood and that no bonding activities take place in front

of a television set. When children are adopted or have had other

breaks in the bond, parents are hard pressed to make up the lost time

without having their child wasting it. The world presses in on all

sides and makes every minute available between a parent and child of

precious importance.

 

Two is the skills for physical and intellectual growth must take

precedence over the entertaining qualities of television. Once a

child is able to read and has learned the enjoyment of self-directed

activity then the foundations of healthy development have been laid

and there is less chance of lasting problems being caused by watching

television.

 

To not take control of the television when its hazards are so clear

is a form of child neglect which will not have ramifications for many

years. At the time, peace in the family is assured. The price,

however, will be paid in the future, when children are not as

motivated and skilled to successfully tackle the responsibilities of

real life as they could have been. They have become "learning

disabled" and their brain and personality development have been

irreparably stunted.