by Wyatt Myers
June 07, 2010

Why is television so appealing to toddlers? Whether it’s the bright lights or the colorful shapes, it’s almost like my 14-month-old son is transfixed with the tube the minute I turn it on. Though it’s tempting to spend a few minutes in the kitchen while the TV acts as babysitter, I just can’t do it.

Like most of you, I know that television is bad for babies and may stunt their intellectual development. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) discourages any TV watching for children under the age of 2. In 2008, Dimitri Christakis, M.D., with the Seattle Children’s Research Institute took a look back at every study that examined the effects of television on cognitive development. What he found was that not a single study demonstrated benefits for infant TV viewing. This includes even so-called educational shows and videos. A new study indicates that infant TV watching is not only bad for babies’ mental development, but bad for their physical health as well.

Research
The study, conducted by researchers from the University of Montreal and the University of Michigan and published in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, surveyed 1,314 children on their exposure to television and subsequent development.

As part of the study, parents reported to researchers how much television their children watched each week at the age of 29 months and then again at 53 months. When the children reached 10 years of age, their teachers and parents reported on the children’s psychosocial, academic, and physical development, including a measure of their body mass index (BMI).

Results
Once the researchers began to analyze the data on these 1,314 children, the results were compelling. “We found every additional hour of TV exposure among toddlers corresponded to a future decrease in classroom engagement and success at math, increased victimization by classmates, a more sedentary lifestyle, higher consumption of junk food and, ultimately, higher body mass index,” says Linda S. Pagani, Ph.D., a psychosocial professor at the University of Montreal and lead author of the study, in a press release. “Between the ages of two and four, even incremental exposure to television delayed development.”

According to the researchers’ results, each additional hour of television watching per week translated into a:

• 7 percent decrease in overall classroom engagement
• 6 percent decrease in achievement in mathematics
• 9 percent decrease in physical activity
• 13 percent decrease in weekend physical activity
• 10 percent increase in snack consumption
• 9 percent increase in soda consumption
• 5 percent increase in overall BMI

The outcome of the study was worse than Dr. Pagani had anticipated. “We expected the impact of early TV viewing to disappear after seven and a half years of childhood,” she says. “The fact that negative outcomes remained is quite daunting. Our findings make a compelling public health argument against excessive TV viewing in early childhood and for parents to heed guidelines on TV exposure from the American Academy of Pediatrics.”

Recommendations
The AAP recommends that kids under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than one to two hours a day of quality programming.

Here are what a few other experts have to say on the subject:

• Just keep it off. If you’re looking for the research that says it’s okay to set your child in front of the TV before the age of two, it just isn’t there. Every study on the subject has concluded that TV does more harm than good, even the so-called “educational” shows. “Experts at University of Washington reported that for every hour each day that infants watched Baby Einstein videos, they understood an average of seven fewer words than babies who did not watch the videos,” says Heather Armstrong, M.D., a pediatrician in Broward County, Florida. “Babies who spend more time in front of the TV will miss out on the face-to-face bonding time that is crucial to their development.”

• Choose wisely. If you’re going to put your child in front of the TV, choose educational shows and interact with your child during the show. Henry D. Schlinger, Ph.D., director of Applied Behavior Analysis at California State University in Los Angeles, says that educational shows are better than non-educational ones, and that interacting with your kids during the shows is better than letting them sit there passively. “I wouldn’t want to say that TV watching per se is good or bad, but I would say that to the extent that TV does what good parenting would do—that is, to model appropriate behavior or to expose the child to sounds, words or ways of talking that parents want them to hear, it may be beneficial,”  he says. “Of course, without the interactive component, there isn’t much of a possibility for the child’s behavior to be rewarded.”

• Keep it to two. As your kids grow older, TV almost certainly becomes an inevitable reality. Your best approach is to control it rather than restrict it. No more than two hours per day after the age of 2. And, shut off the TV when your kids are done watching the program. Don’t keep the screens on even if it’s seemingly background noise. Turn on some music instead.

Personally, when I feel the urge to turn on the TV for my 14-month-old, I reach a little lower on the entertainment center and flip on the stereo instead. The music keeps us both happy and entertained.

Get active. Go to the park. Visit a museum. Kick a soccer ball. Fingerpaint. Read books. Dance and sing. Whatever activity you choose, remember this: turn off the TV and tune into your children.