TV Before Two
The AAP and child care experts are pretty unanimous when it comes to TV-watching: before your kid is two, don't let him watch TV โ at all. Unless you don't own a TV set, it might be hard to enforce a completely TV-less existence for your two-year-old, especially if he has older siblings. With 61 percent of children under one watching TV, it appears that most parents are ceding to pragmatism rather than expert advice on this one. Still, most parents likely don't want their babies staring at booty videos all day.
PBS suggests "it might be more practical to think of how TV fits into your child's overall development." Of course, this is coming from a network whose programming consists of Elmo and Clifford the Big Red Dog, admittedly not the most offensive shows on the air. PBS's recommendations โ not to let TV replace playtime and to avoid frightening shows โ are probably morsels of common sense everybody can use. With the rise of new programming for children under two, such as baby sign language on Baby First TV and Baby Einstein videos, some parents feel that their kids might even benefit from some guided TV-watching, though child-care experts say there is no evidence this kind of programming actually benefits very young children.
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