How Does Television Affect Crucial Developmental Skills in Babies and Toddlers?

            Do you have a child entering kindergarten? One that has a couple years until they enter? One who's already entered but seems a bit behind when compared to the other children? Consider how often they watch television, have you thought of there ever being a connection between your child's ability to build developmental skills and how much TV they watch? 

            When entering kindergarten, children are expected to know how to do things like hold a pencil, speak clearly, understand simple questions and start to comprehend numbers and letters. To succeed in these tasks there must be a grasp on fine motor, social and cognitive skills. There are certain ways of play that engage children more when it comes to which skills they are gaining, and TV has it's positives and it's negatives. It's becoming increasingly common to see very young children, as young as less than a year old, to be sitting in front of a TV that's constantly playing. What's on that TV? Oh, children's programs, so it's fine, right? Not exactly.

So, Why is TV Seen as Being So Negative?

             

            Children under 2 years old who watch TV, even shows aimed towards children, will not gain anything from the media they're watching. Generally, children don't start to speak until around 12 months old, and between 12-24 months is when they'll start to comprehend language. Therefore, allowing them to watch TV around this age where they can't fully understand what is being said won't help them gain their social skill. Even when watching educational programs that allow kids to solve simple problems and answer simple questions, children under 24 months old aren't going to understand. However, when children become toddlers, watching these educational programs will start to be helpful as they now have better social skills and will comprehend what's playing on the screen a lot better than before. Since they'll now be able to solve these problems and answer these questions from their shows, they'll grow their social and cognitive skills and continue to learn, but still making sure they don't excessively watch TV. And if you've noticed, they're not gaining any fine motor skills while watching TV, no matter the age, so what can children do to gain this skill and better gain the others?

   

Ways That Children Can Play to Encourage More Skill Building         
                

            Have children be involved in hands-on, interactive activities to get them more engaged in the new skills they're learning. To build their fine/gross motor skills, activities like arts and crafts, sports, physical activity outside, and building blocks are beneficial. To build their social skill, toys like dolls and action figures, reading, singing, and pretend play (also known as "make believe", which is used in pretty much every aspect of play for young children as they create scenarios to play in with their peers or by themselves) are great ways to develop this skill, especially when playing with others. Lastly to build their cognitive skill, things like puzzles, visiting new places, matching games and measuring, grouping, and sorting activities will encourage the development of this skill. Of course, there is overlap between these activities and which skills they learn, like arts and crafts engaging both motor and cognitive skills, so the more hands-on activities you implement will be even more beneficial to your toddler, and will be more fun for them too!

                It's important to realize that in order for our children to succeed, we need to be giving them the best we can give so they can become the best they can be. With increasing amounts of children's programs being made on TV, streaming and video creating websites, there's an increase in the amount of young children watching and an increase in the amount they watch. We need to keep in mind that this is not at all the best way for our children to be learning; we want them to be comfortable talking to other children, be physically active, and not be afraid of solving new problems. Start them off at a young age, allow them to have more fun and encourage more skill building! 

Some References

Anderson, D. R., Subrahmanyam, K., & on behalf of the Cognitive Impacts of Digital Media Workgroup. (2017, November 1). Digital Screen Media and Cognitive Development. American Academy of Pediatrics

Lin, L.-Y., Cherng, R.-J., Chen, Y.-J., Chen, Y.-J., & Yang, H.-M. (2014, December 25). Effects of television exposure on developmental skills among young children. Infant Behavior and Development

Hosokawa, R., & Katsura, T. (2018, July 25). Association between Mobile Technology use and child adjustment in early elementary school age.

About the Author

Madison Santos is a senior at Westfield State University studying Sports Medicine as well as minoring in Psychology. Her future consists of having a career in Pediatric Occupational Therapy, specifically Birth - 3 years old, to aid the growth of important developmental skills in children who are falling behind. You can contact Madison at madison.santos1313@gmail.com.