Opinions about article: It’s Official: To Protect Baby’s Brain, Turn Off TV

[nuria2012]

I have found many testimonials about all the advantages of early learning. As everybody knows, this early learning is carried out, I think, by means of mass media such as TV, or internet, or our laptop. If I am here is because I think that it is possitive for my LO, but today I have found this article, what is your opinion about its content??

I would like to take my LO her nursery school again so that she spends less time in front of screens. I have read many articles expressing the opossite point of view.


http://www.digitaldirk.com/2011/10/its-official-to-protect-babys-brain.html

[MarthaT]

I've always been a believer that tv is detrimental to a young learning mind. We avoid it as much as possible.

[CVMomma]

"Their verdict: It’s not good, and probably bad.
Media, whether playing in the background or designed explicitly as an infant educational tool, “have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children younger than 2 years,” concluded the AAP’s report, "

I wonder what kind of infant educational tools they researched??  Was it just the mainstream Sesame Street type of programing?  If so, then I could understand their verdict.  I can see such wonderful positive effects from my child using Brillkids programs and Reading Bear and Starfall. I don't think she would have advanced as quickly with just my homemade cards, etc, if we hadn't added in the media also.  I just couldn't add the pictures, fonts, number of words, etc. to compete with it.   How could Signing Time, Twiddlewink, Sparkabilities be considered harmful?

I can see how most "educational" programs would be detrimental though.  And we avoid those even though she is over two years old.  Yes, I would say turn off mainstream TV, but don't throw it all out just because they haven't really studied Early Learning.

[seastar]

"Their verdict: It’s not good, and probably bad.
Media, whether playing in the background or designed explicitly as an infant educational tool, “have potentially negative effects and no known positive effects for children younger than 2 years,” concluded the AAP’s report, "

I wonder what kind of infant educational tools they researched??  Was it just the mainstream Sesame Street type of programing?  If so, then I could understand their verdict.  I can see such wonderful positive effects from my child using Brillkids programs and Reading Bear and Starfall. I don't think she would have advanced as quickly with just my homemade cards, etc, if we hadn't added in the media also.  I just couldn't add the pictures, fonts, number of words, etc. to compete with it.   How could Signing Time, Twiddlewink, Sparkabilities be considered harmful?

I can see how most "educational" programs would be detrimental though.  And we avoid those even though she is over two years old.  Yes, I would say turn off mainstream TV, but don't throw it all out just because they haven't really studied Early Learning.

I agree. I really don't think you can compare Peppa Pig with Baby Signing Time!

[mario]

Nuria,

Another great topic.

Well I'm not an expert but I'm not also radical.

I think I have the same opinion as CVMomma.

Sometimes I think if these kind of research are based on old violent cartoons like Woody Woodpecker.

I can't imagine how Baby Sinning Time can be harmful. Even Mickey Mouse today is much better.

Some can say that CRT TVs were harmful for the eyes. But are LED/LCD also harmful? I think all these articles need a better explanation. This is my only concern.

In my case, I never let my son watch local soap opera. TV is one of the resources I use to make a better environment for the foreign language I teach him, and so far, in our house, this high tech from 50's is doing well.

[teachingmykids]

I agree with CVMomma too. I like to see studies with programs like brillkids, reading bear or starfall. A lot of the studies I have seen on this have used programming like baby Einstein as "educational programming" and that isn't really educational. My kids didn't watch TV or computer programs before 2 but if I had more I would do Brillkids, Reading Bear or Sttarfall with them and nothing else. A lot of the studies also commented how that if TV was on as background that the babies and toddlers were hearing less speech from their care givers. I think that was the main problem with TV. I don't think really short lengths like on Brill kids will make a difference especially with attentive care givers.

[Lappy]

This is a excellent topic, and one of our most frequently discussed subjects here in the forum. Is it really okay to teach using the computer and the TV?

There are several angles or issues involved and this has been a concern of many parents too - we did a bit of research on the issue and talked to several pediatricians and electronics experts about it, and this is what we understand:

DO WE GET RADIATION FROM A COMPUTER SCREEN?

Radiation coming from computers is negligible. If it is harmful to a baby, then it's also harmful to you and you would find many people telling YOU to stay away from computers, not just your baby!

One point that isn't mentioned much though relates to 'positive ions.' Unlike what it sounds like, POSITIVE ions are actually bad, and NEGATIVE ions are good. (Do a search on negative ions and you will see the difference.) Now, the old CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors, you know, those big bulky ones, do emit a lot of positive ions. People who are particularly sensitive to positive/negative ions (estimated to be about 20% of population) tend to get certain ill effects from prolonged exposure to it, like lower immune systems, moodiness, etc. Thankfully, more and more people nowadays use LCD monitors, which do not have this problem. And as for TV, where there are still many CRT TVs in use, the important thing to do is to keep a distance from it, and minimize the time spent in front of it.

WHAT ABOUT EYE STRAIN?

This is a common cause of complaint, for children and adults alike. I think the seriousness of the problem here depends on the monitor, and in particular, on its refresh rate. Old monitors (especially the CRT ones) have very low refresh rates - if you look closely at these old monitors, you will see the screen flickering. Over time, this tends to cause eye strain. Again, thankfully, modern monitors have very high refresh rates and this problem has been reduced considerably. Many people who used to have eye strain problems with old CRT screens no longer have problems with modern-day LCD/plasma screens.

Most PC monitors nowadays also have an adjustment setting for the brightness and the contrast of the display - make sure to use this to your advantage, and adjust the settings to comfortable levels, especially if you plan to use a computer for long periods of time, regardless of whether you're teaching a young child, sending our emails, or even just surfing the BrillKids Forum!

One final note here is glare - make sure the lighting is adequate!

IS TV IS HARMFUL TO BABIES?

Actually, when most people talk about the problems with watching TV, they are actually referring more to the content aspect of it. This question is so important that we wrote an article on it, which you can read here: http://www.brillbaby.com/early-learning/related-topics/babies-and-television.php

In a nutshell - make sure you accompany your baby as much as you can for all TV/computer-watching so that you have stimulation coming from you and not just the TV, and try your best to make the entire process interactive - encourage your baby to respond, ask your baby/child questions (even if they can't talk yet), etc., instead of letting it be purely a one-way process where your baby just stares at the screen for long periods without needing to think or respond.

[mario]

This is excellent Lappy. Thank you!

[nuria2012]

Thank you for your positive arguments towards using computers, DVDs players and TVs with educational ends. Before the birth of my daughter, I was sure that my daughter was going to see only educational programmes and cartoons, especially in my second language in order to develop her language learning process in English. I am sure that everybody here uses them with these goals. At first, I was also a believer that tv is detrimental to a young learning mind. Later, bythe time my child was two months, I found Brillkid forum and everything was amazing.  I was very happy, joyful even euphoric. What an useful and practical programme to use with my two month baby. However, the continuous use of the computer was one of the obstacles that I found when buying the product immediately. Well, I could read in the instructions that each session only lasted 4 or 5 minutes, but for a baby.. . Then I looked and looked in the forum and found more and more testimonials that reinforced the positive and constructive of use of the mass media with my goals, that is to say, educational aims.

I agree with you, how can be harmful programmes such as Brillkids, Baby Einstein, … There is a long list. I have found a large number of youtube videos on the web. She is not always watching TV, of course. However, to be honest I like using the mass media, perpaps two hours and a half per day. Perhaps, is it two much??? She began her pottery training two or three weeks ago. I wanted her to be quiet while she was in her potty. How could I do it to make a daily routine? Well, I am using my laptop, when she is in her potty, early in the morning. And it works very well. She sees a pair of short videos when she is doing her poo poo….  For example, a good morning song such as <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/d_LEvxdW3kw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/d_LEvxdW3kw&rel=1</a> or <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/ovTilDXLvyI&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/ovTilDXLvyI&rel=1</a> numbers telephonehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyZkgcAblC4 numbers train or part of these videos <a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/H563FeVdPYw&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/H563FeVdPYw&rel=1</a>    It is a collection of videos, alphablocks is very good. 
Anyway, I have to spend more time with her in the park, for example. I love playing with her at home. I consider that playing is an essential part of learning in order to develop physical skills, selfsteem and confidence correctly. However, I should go out more so that she keeps in contact with other babies. Now she is one year old, when she is able to walk, she will go to a nursery school, I think. Being in contact with more babies is something very positive. I am always doing housework… It is an endless job… and not very interesting…

Well, I also agree that this topic is very important and outstanding. I will go on working with early learning programmes, but I will have to do more outside activities.

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