They Say: Maybe a Little Screen Time is Not So Bad
It seems that the recent refund offer by Disney was the spark that reignited the flame of a decades-old controversy: Is television harmful to tots? Are we a society of lazy, selfish parents that use the screen as a live-in babysitter? And if so, are we creating a society of mush-brained mutants that call the remote “Daddy”?
Julia Pimsleur Levine, mother of 2 and creator of Little Pim, an educational foreign-language DVD series for the toddler set, has weighed in with the following letter:
“Although I have mixed feelings about the Disney refund, I believe the ban-TV-for-tots frenzy that has ensued is misguided. Let us contemplate the following:
1. Studies show that 75% of all kids in the U.S. under two watch SOME videos or DVDs. So either nearly 3/4 of the parents in this country are bad people, or letting your child watch a show while you make dinner isn’t as big a deal as some advocacy groups would have you believe.
2. There is a BIG difference between a baby or toddler watching a few minutes of an educational DVD and the 2-3 hours of viewing per day that the American Academy of Pediatrics found to be potentially unsound for young minds and prompted them to issue a warning against ANY screen time for kids under the age of two.
3. We are now living in a digital era of You Tube, 500 cable channels and videos on our cell phones. Our kids will be surrounded by media from their earliest days, whether we like it or not. The question we should be considering is “what” and “how much” screen time is right for them? Parents need to make their own decisions about when the right time to expose their kids to media, and then be encouraged to make thoughtful decision about what that media is. Media literacy should be the issue of the day, not media abstinence.
4. Most parents engage their young children in a variety of ways–reading to them, talking, singing, playing, dancing AND allowing them to watch a DVD from time to time. Most of us do it all. I have yet to read a study that shows there are negative side effects of limited screen time, when it’s part of a verbally rich environment and healthy family interactions.
So, even if the secret is “out” that we sometimes use DVDs as a babysitter, we also know that sometimes we watch WITH your children. We share in their delight at making new puppet friends, learning new words in English, Spanish and Chinese, and acquiring social skills by imitating kids or animated characters on screen. These are moments we can celebrate and cherish; the watching may not make them smarter, but it may help them learn about making healthy viewing choices that will carry over when the are old enough to control the clicker.”
I think Ms. Pimsleur Levine is simply saying that moderation is the key. Isn’t that true for just about everything in life, save eating dark leafy greens and flossing?
What about you? How much screen time do you allow your kid? A little? A lot? None at all?
Image: thinktv.org
15 min per week. 2 yo.
My 17 month old son is only interested in Jack’s Big Music Show, so we watch an episode or two in a day. Otherwise there’s only music coming out of the TV (I need a stereo).
I’m missing the connection: How did Disney’s ticket offer lead to a renewed call for banning TV for kids? Are the children being seduced by the ad and begging their parents to take them to Disney? Is the contention that Disney is preying on young minds? I really don’t get it.
My 3 y/o watches between 30 and 60 minutes of TV or DVD a day, most days, though he does skip days; his 2 y/o brother often misses TV, or only watches about 1/2 the amount because of nap schedule. They only watch PBS or DVDs, so they don’t know what a commercial is, unless they’re watching baseball with the Hubs and me. The elder has picked up words like “decay” and “quadriped” from PBS: Is this a bad thing? I don’t think so. And I’ll admit it, I’ve used the TV as a babysitter, either when I’m morning sick (pregnant with the 3rd) or trying to get dinner made. Considering the comments about how articulate and smart he is that we get from strangers, I’m not too concerned about his mental development. I do think that moderation is key, if a parent doesn’t outright ban the TV (I didn’t have one growing up), but I really don’t think that some screen time matters.
15 min per week? How do you work that? Why even bother?
First child watched no TV or videos until age two and has since been slowly introduced videos and TV. She now usually watches/plays about a half hour a day of videos or video games(Sesame Street). Second child hasn’t turned two yet and, consequently, is not watching videos or TV yet. (My older daughter usually watches videos on the computer and if she’s watching stuff on TV, I take the little one to her room to play or read.)
To be totally honest though, I sometimes wonder if it has made any difference that my kids have been exposed to so little TV. They are bright, imaginative, articulate kids, but so are plenty of their friends who watch a ton of TV.
The few times we have tried to watch a show when our 18 month old is still awake, he either stands in front of it or just turns off the TV.
On the other hand, he also refers to the computer as “TV”, and has become a monster demanding that we turn that ON so he can play with the mouse. FWIW I feel that some intro computer time would be good, but the toddler sites we’ve found aren’t as engaging for him as just randomly pushing buttons…. anybody know a good one?
I don’t keep track and I don’t care. Most of the time when my 2.5 yo has something on it is in the background…just like when I have TV on. We do other things while its on…make art, play blocks, etc. We never just sit and watch, unless she is taking a break for a few minutes or is winding down. She only watches sweet, cute stuff like Book of Pooh, or exercise/kids yoga DVDs and Elmo. She actually has learned alot from these, indirectly. She has no lag in any verbal, spatial or physical development and in fact, is advanced in many areas…walking at 10 months, drawing faces at 26 months, saying more words than I can count for longer than I can remember. Like anything else, there are alot of subtleties involved in making choices…moderation, the *kind* of programming it is, and what else is going on in the child’s life. I am a SAHM who also is still breastfeeding a few times a day and transitionally co-sleeps and co-slept full on when she was little…all things that I think contribute to a child’s development. We all just do the mix that works best for us as individuals.
OH…and we had a couple of the Baby Einstein videos, too, when she was younger. I would not dream of claiming a refund. I think that is ridiculous. Firstly, I would not want to make the admission that my child was not, in fact, a genius (ha ha) and secondly, I would never have thought in the first place that a DVD would make a kid smarter. Someone who would think that…hmmmm…just don’t know about them. I chose the Baby Einsteins because they were innocuous and simplistic.
Kid #1 goes to preschool all morning and hangs out with me the rest of the day sans nap. Kid #2 doesn’t go to preschool yet but takes a long afternoon nap. The *only* “down time” mom gets is if Kid #1 watches an hour or two of TV while Kid #1 naps. The rest of the day is preschool, snuggling, park-going, chatting, book-reading, crafting, etc. She watches commercial-free, age-appropriate shows. Do I feel guilty? Nope. Works for me!
My 2 and 4 yr old watch about a half an hour of TV 1-2 times a week, usually Sesame St or some PBS show, and I often watch with them. I’m not so much anti-tv as it just seems there are so many better things for them to be doing. And since I haven’t used the TV as a babysitter, when I need to take a shower, cook, etc, they have learned to keep themselves busy in ways that engage their minds more.
My 29 month old twin boys watch an hour or so of videos a day. I disagree that they have no educational value. One of my boys counts to 20, and knows all his letters, shapes and colors. The other boy is speech delayed (NOT as a result of watching TV) so he can’t express that he knows these things verbally but he indicates that he does. I know he got much of it from “Brainy Baby” so I think kids can learn a thing or two from these videos. I am not going to get a refund for the “Baby Einstein” videos. My kids like the videos and they keep them entertained and occupied while I get something done. If they learn something, that’s just a bonus.
GP, if you’re not actually sitting down and watching TV, why even have it on? Isn’t this just more “background noise” than is needed? I never understood this practice. (I’m not trying to be insulting here, but I really am curious and find this weird.) I guess that I kind of appreciate it that if my kid is going to watch TV, then he’s going to watch TV — one stimulating thing at a time, not having his attention divided up among three different devices or activities. We don’t have the TV on here at all unless there’s something specific that we’re going to watch, with the same holding true for me and my husband after the kids are in bed. I personally can only handle so much stimuli, and if the TV’s just on, I start to feel stressed and overloaded.
ChiLaura–I totally agree. TV time is just that: TV time. Even though it’s a 1-2 hour daily ritual in our house (judge if you will), then the rest of the time is just play. In fact, if Kid #1 starts to lose interest, then off it goes and we move onto other things.
Often, the material is rather musical and so it kind of operates like background music…like the Sesame Street 25th anniversary DVD…just a bunch of songs strung together with a story line…same thing with another one, Elmo’s Top 10 song countdown…the Yoga Kids, she’ll do some moves….go play…do some more moves…etc. And I don’t let it be on all day long, but I don’t keep track of how long it’s on, either. And, don’t y’all ever “channel surf” you & your husband, ie, not watching something “specific”? I often work, knit or read while my husband surfs between some political show or a ballgame, etc. I very rarely sit and watch anything, except Mad Men, or movies. It should also be noted that I keep the volume rather low, although my husband likes thing louder.
At my kid’s age, we do alot of unstructured time, driven by what she wants to do, interjected with things by me now and then. I don’t think I could make her sit and watch a show at this age and I wouldn’t want her to just sit there. Often, too, the shows inspire her to play things with her toys, like make them do the yoga, or play with the Pooh toys if the Pooh video is on, or dance with the Elmo doll if Elmo is on, and so it turns into play on its own, so its too “organic” for me to be, like, NO, this is TV time! Must sit and watch!
My 2 year old watches sesame street every morning with her milk — not the full hour, but it’s her routine and she enjoys it. She watches an Elmo video prior to bed. Her language skills are off the chart. I’m an artist, my husband’s a musician. We love TV. No complaints.
Oh, I remember when I used to be all worried about tv. But, man, my older 2 (ages 7 and 5) wake up earlier than I do and watch about an hour or so of “tv” before I even get out of bed. (Since they do watch unsupervised, we actually got rid of our cable about a year ago, so they only can watch DVDs–of which we now own tons.)
I don’t actually think all the tv watching (like Baby Einsteins, Dora the Explorer) helps kids. I don’t think it harms them, and that’s where people get confused. Those educational shows? They don’t work. (Except maybe Little Pims. That sounds promising.) As long as kids are getting enough exercise, they are okay.