MONTREAL — Early exposure to television is detrimental to children's
health, academic achievement and social development, warned a Canadian study
published on Monday.
Researchers found that every additional hour spent watching television at 29
months, beyond US recommended guidelines, corresponded to small decreases in
classroom engagement, math achievements, and time spent on physical activity in
later years.
As well, it lead to increases in victimization by classmates, higher consumption
of soft drinks and snacks, and more body fat by the time children reached the
age of 10, according to the study.
"Common sense would suggest that television exposure replaces time that could be
spent engaging in other developmentally enriching activities and tasks that
foster cognitive, behavioral and motor development," the researchers said.
Past studies of adolescents' television viewing habits found this to be true.
This study is the first to look at how television affects much younger children.
"Broadcasting has an educational orientation when targeting preschoolers, which
might have some cognitive benefits," the researchers opined.
"Nevertheless, preschool televiewing remains a cognitively passive activity at a
time when key experiences for developing attention and behavioral
self-regulation are expected to occur."
Children in this "critical period," for example, learn how to process
information, interact with their environment and eventually use logic to
understand math and science.
Television watching had no impact on reading skills, the study noted.
The researchers asked parents to note their children's viewing habits at 29
months and 53 months of age. At 10 years, parents and teachers then reported on
the 1,314 children's academic abilities, health and well-being.
The American Academy of Pediatrics discourages any television exposure during
infancy and less than two hours per day beyond two years of age.
Children in the study at 29 months watched an average of 8.82 hours of
television per week, rising to 14.85 hours by 53 months.
The study led by the University of Montreal's Linda Pagani was published in the
current issue of the American Medical Association's Archives of Pediatrics and
Adolescent Medicine.
Source : AFP
