Baby's Developement & Television

HI there

Okay firstly my son does watch TV. We don't allow much during the week, but he gets up early so weekends we allow him to watch some telly tubbies and a movie or two.

Having said that, there was a woman who gave a talk at the toddler sense seminar regarding TV and toddlers and it was clear that TV is really not good at all. IT IS NOT EDUCTAIONAL!!!. They sell all of these products as educational material to make money. Until the child is 2/3 they don't understand what it is they are seeing, plain and simple!

There was a study done where they had a normal environment with kids and adults and they put the tv on in the background. They then counted the number of words spoken and the results were shocking. Even though nobody was watching tv at the time, they were actually watching without realising and were not communicating. archpedi.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/163/6/554

If I were to use this study in relation to your daycare it may be a worry and I would not be happy at all to have my child in a daycare where all they do is watch tv. Sorry but your child needs to play and move and sing and dance with interaction from a teacher and other kids.

The woman did say that if you do watch tv, that you are to sit with your child and talk to them about what they see and ask questions.

Babycentre www.babycenter.com/0_tv-watching-guideli...lers_11746.bc?page=1

pregnancy.about.com/od/yourbaby/a/babiesandtv.htm

This is a really informative article about TV and babies and toddlers:

www.toddlersense.co.za/articles/babies-watch-tv.html

I have been told that children love Barney and that Barney is one of the most educational kiddies programmes to watch...

Personally I believe everything in moderation.

Luke is 11 months old and he watches very little TV - he might lay in bed with me and watch a little TV on a Sunday or Saturday morning - but that is about it so far.

I have got Vol 1 to Vol 12 of The Gummi Bears for him and for his Birthday I have bought him a 3 DVD set of Barney. So I am gradually going to introduce this.

I swore my child would not watch more than x amount of tv a day....now she'e 2.5yrs old and I don't care how much she watches. There's a lot of educational shows...Barney, tellitubbies, Dora the explorer and it helped with my child's development as far as I'm concerned. She can count in spanish, knows all her colours, count, etc. Sure our wonderful nanny has a lot to do with it, but I've watched those shows and I see how they teaching the kids...whether they know it or not.

7m is a bit young...we only introduced tv after a year and it was only educational stuff. Now she is older she watches movies...but at that age I'd ask the creche to put more age appropriate shows on if they insist on having a tv on. Or ask them if its not possible to have it on only for 1hr a day....perhaps they're just forgetting to put it off and its looping all day?

Ladies I would love to hear everyone's insight regarding this topic.

Is watching television good or bad for baby's developement?

I am asking because we are not pro this, but at my lb's daycare they have a television turned on ALL day. For about two weeks all they watched was "Liefling" the movie. Sometimes it is on with cartoons all day.

I do not like this at all, BUT I am so happy with the daycare centre otherwise. My boy is always smiling when being dropped off. So he is happy.

Please let me know what you think.

Have a lovely day!
Christa