TV Under the Age of Two

Dr. Cason:

I know the AAP recommends no screen/TV time before the age of 2. My question is, if the AAP recommends that, how come there are so many videos for children under 2? (Baby Einstein) I don't allow my daughter to watch a video or TV (Sesame Street) unless I'm desperate to have her entertained while I'm getting ready to leave in the morning. I feel guilty and I feel that I'm somehow ruining my child!

Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Don’t feel too bad, a lot of parents are not only allowing their children to watch TV but actually encouraging it. TV is the babysitter that gives parents a break and lets them get dinner made or a shower completed. I admit it. I’ve done it at times. In fact the picture is of my oldest when she was only 18 months old! I too have been worried about what TV does to kids so I did some research and this is what I found.

Gradually since the introduction of television there has been debate whether TV is harmful to our kids. In 1999 the American Academy of Pediatrics - AAP- released a policy statement recommending no television programs for children under the age of two. They stated that “research on early brain development shows that babies and toddlers have a critical need for direct interactions with parents and other significant care givers for healthy brain growth and the development of appropriate social, emotional, and cognitive skills.”

Recommendations are one thing but reality is another. The reality is that kids all over America are still watching TV… A lot of TV. Most people aren’t aware of the AAP’s recommendation. The Kaiser Family Foundation in a 2003 study researched America’s media habits. They found that 49% of parents thought educational videos were "very important" in the intellectual development of children and only 6% of parents were aware of the AAP’s recommendation of no TV under two years of age. When the study was repeated in 2005, there was a slight improvement in perception. Now only 38% thought that videos were very helpful. But despite this, they still found that 61% of children under the age of two, watch TV, a video, or a DVD for 1 hr and 19 minutes per day.

Until recently we didn’t know a lot about TV and its effect on our children under the age of two. Recent studies found that it might not be all that harmful for a child over the age of two. In fact a study in the November 2006 issue of Pediatrics, A Systematic Review for the Effects of Television Viewing by Infants and Preschoolers found that educational TV may have a positive effects on toddlers and preschoolers. Researchers conducted a literature search and found 376 articles dealing with children and television. Of these, 12 met the criteria of being a controlled trial. They were conducted between 1973 and 2000 and focused specifically on television content viewed by children under age 6 and its impact on learning, racial preference, aggression, pro-social behavior, self-regulation and imagination. It was concluded that there is evidence to suggest that educational television programs, such as Sesame Street and Mister Rogers, can help in the acquisition of general knowledge plus improve overall cognitive knowledge among young children. It can also improve their imaginative play and racial attitudes. However “there is evidence that television viewing can increase a child's display of aggression. Children who watch aggressive programs and cartoons with lots of violence can be more likely to engage in aggressive behavior than those that do not.”

None of these previous studies looked at infant television viewing or examined the content of videos designed for children. Not until recently that is. A new study was published in the Journal of Pediatrics titled Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years It appears it is the very young baby who is affected most by these videos. Researchers found that for every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants 8-16 months understood an average of six to eight fewer words than infants who did not watch them. For toddlers 17-24 months of age, Baby DVDs and videos had no positive or negative effect on the vocabularies.

Now that recent studies show that TV under the age of 16 month may be linked to impaired language development, the question remains: How does this affect the “Baby Media” market. Are they responsible for informing their consumers of these findings? The Campaign for a Commercial free Childhood thinks so. I’ll talk more about that tomorrow.

Sheila Cason, MD

TV and Children Under the Age of Two: Part Two