by Jennifer M
(Currents December 2000/January 2001, Children's Corner Column)

The time for New Year's Resolutions is at hand! Many people busy themselves with trying to loose weight, trying to spend less money, trying to be a nicer person, etc. But this year, why don't you try to resolve to do something to benefit your children?! My suggestion: get them to watch less tv!

I know, I'm guilty of it myself; popping the favorite video into the VCR so my daughter will sit quietly for 30 minutes, and I can take care of whatever needs to be done. It is The Lorax by Dr. Seuss; it is educational and has a valid message (nature preservation) so what can be so terrible about that?

According to a recent article in Die Zeit (October 12, 2000), Joseph Chilton Pearce, an American intelligence research scientist, warns that watching tv over-stimulates the child's brain with external images at exactly the time when the child's brain should be learning how to create inner images on its own. This external interference with the brain's ability to form mental images leads to reduced vocabularies, learning disabilities, speech impediments, emotional numbness, hyperactivity due to lack of movement and other communication deficits. Children who watch too much tv have no one to talk to so no one notices speech and/or grammar mistakes and no one corrects them.

Even watching so-called educational shows which children love actually do more harm than good. More than once I have read negative reports about the Teletubbies, even though I hear from mothers all over that their kids love the show. Critics claim that the baby-talk the creatures use to communicate has a negative influcence on children's own speech development. Critics also claim that the show handles children on a much lower intellectual level than necessary; and, therefore, not only over-stimulates the brain with external images but, at the same time, also under-stimulates the intellectual capabilities of most children.

In addition, many school-aged children watch tv mostly in the evenings, when the programming has basically already switched over to adult-geared shows. Children are not yet capable of processing the complex array of external images involving violence, human relationships, emotions, social issues, etc.

The best solution is to reduce the amount of tv children watch in the first place. The next best thing is to watch tv with them and to discuss what they have seen and heard afterwards. But instead of watching tv with your child, why not read a story or a book?! You can spend quality time being close to your child, you can support the brain's development of mental imagery and you can instill the joy of reading in your child!

Happy Holidays!