4/14/99 -
What About TV and My Child's Brain? Part 1

April 22 through 28, 1999 is National TV-Turnoff Week. Why would anyone celebrate such an event?

In this age where science and education are so focused on the growing body of information regarding brain development, time spent watching TV has come under close scrutiny. Researchers have physical evidence exposing concerns about television viewing, once thought by many to be groundless. In a compelling article written by Jane Healy, Ph.D, author of the book, Explaining the Childhood Brain-Drain, Dr. Healy discusses the inability of the brain to create neuro pathways without experience.

Neurons in the brain, responding to sensory stimuli, build new physical connections, called synapses, to neighboring cells. The synapses form networks that are the neurological foundations for reading comprehension, analytical thinking, sustained attention and problem-solving. Active interest and mental effort by the child are crucial to the formation of these networks. Every response to sights, sounds, feelings, smells, and tastes makes more connections.

When a young child doesn't have the job done for him and displayed in front of him, his brain must go to work to create a picture using his imagination. This results in new connections as the brain analyses and solves problems to complete its understanding of a concept. Dr. Healy goes on to explain,

The more work the brain does, the more it becomes capable of doing. Yet by ages three to five - the critical period for developing language and cognition - the average child is watching television approximately twenty-eight hours per week.

An authority on hemispheric development at the University of Chicago, Dr. Jerre Levy, bio psychologist, says,

When children commit time looking at TV, they're not spending time reading. When a child reads a novel, he has to self-create whole scenarios, he has to create images of who these people are, what their emotions are, what their tones of voice are, what the environment looks like, what the feeling of this environment is. These self-created scenarios are important, and television leaves no room for that creative process…Brains are designed to meet cognitive challenges. It's just like muscles: if you don't exercise them they wither. If you don't exercise brains, they wither.

When a child of three to five years of age is watching TV, the opportunity to use her imagination to create images is greatly diminished. The images are already there for her on the screen. When the time comes to draw upon creative thinking skills in school and other settings, the connections in the brain required for the task aren't available. There is no prior experience for imagining what a scene in history the teacher is describing looks like or what an angry crowd in the scene might sound like. The child is scrambling to make sense of what she is hearing from the teacher, but there is no pathway in her brain for coming up with an image to inform understanding. Also of concern is the effect when images flash and change across the screen in rapid succession. There is a potential of further compromising children's ability to maintain focus and attention.

While cutting out television entirely may prove unrealistic given societal views on TV, and perhaps unnecessary since some useful and educational television exists, there are ways to safeguard our children.

• Chose programming that doesn't include a lot of rapid changing of scenes and images for young children.

• Help children budget their viewing time by selecting shows from weekly TV listings instead of watching whatever comes on TV.

• Include movies and video games in this allotment of time, too.

• Watch television together and discuss what you see. Young children either cannot, or have difficulty telling the difference between what is happening on TV and reality. Ask questions of your children about what is happening on the television shows and movies you are watching. Explain and discuss what you are seeing on television and in movies with your child.

• Just say, no! As parents we are often concerned about the particular programs our children watch, but the potential for battle wears us down and we don't always exercise our parental prerogative to say, no to certain programming.

• Be ready with alternative activities. Have materials on hand to make these other activities attractive and useful. For example, if your child shows an interest in the subject of a TV show or movie (for example, animals or mysteries), take your child to the public library to check out a book on the topic. Next time try a trip to the museum, or visit a Web site for more information on her topic.

• Foster interests by providing materials for arts, crafts, and music.

• Demonstrate that there are more interesting things to do than the passive activity of watching TV. Let your children hear you saying how anxious you are to get back to your book!

• Encourage activities where children get exercise, such as sports, dancing, and bike riding.

• Find a need where children can volunteer.

• Model by your example! Do the alternative activities with your child.

• Check out ideas offered in Easy Ways for Families to Help Children Learn for useful ideas.

• See related information in Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do About It and Failure to Connect: How Computers Affect Our Children's Minds-for Better and Worse by Jane Healy, PhD.

• Be informed and aware by looking at Television Statistics.

• Help your children to create healthy and useful expectations for themselves rather than expecting unlimited TV viewing as their right.

It is much easier to form healthy expectations when we start to do so early. It is important to keep in mind though that helping children at any point will help them throughout life. Children need to recognize that some of the expectations they set for themselves can get in the way of making better choices. Children hear a lot about what their friends watch on TV, and in general what they do with their time. Sometimes the result is that children come to expect that they deserve to spend a certain amount of time watching TV, because everybody else does. This expectation to watch can get in the way of exercising their minds in useful ways such as by playing, doing their homework and interacting with family members and friends.

For instance, when children learn early the expectation at school age is they be the best students they can be, it is more likely their habit will be that TV comes only after homework is completed regularly and in a quality manner. Expectations often become habits. Dr. Jane Healy says of habits, Habits of the mind soon become structures of the brain. It is exciting when we begin early, with our preschoolers to create the expectation that quenching our thirst for knowledge and information through reading, conversation, investigation, playing, and other forms of getting answers is a pleasurable pursuit.

In an effort to keep the Hot Topics articles presented here short and readable, other critical information concerning your child and television viewing will be presented in two weeks in, What about TV and my child's brain? Part II.