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Kids and TV

TV leaves kids jittery ― that's why they never want to turn it off. Stay tuned for more

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Originally published in Today's Parent October 2009

Dimitri Christakis doesn’t want to kill your TV. But he does think you should know more about what it does to your kids. The paediatrician and co-author of The Elephant in the Living Room says many popular beliefs about television are outdated or misguided. Here’s what he told Today’s Parent:

TV doesn’t help your baby learn “In 1970, the average age at which children began to watch television was four years,” Christakis says. “Today it’s four months.” Teletubbies and Baby Einstein videos purport to help infants “discover the world.” But there is no evidence that very young children learn anything from TV, says Christakis. Babies and toddlers learn by interacting with people, and Christakis’s latest research shows that when the TV is on — even if no one is watching it — parents are less likely to talk to their kids. And “the more audible the TV was, the fewer words the babies spoke and the shorter the duration of their speech,” he says of his study. Christakis recommends zero TV for kids under two.

You’re better off letting kids watch sports than the news Young children simply cannot understand the context of news reports, and they wind up anxious and afraid. By contrast, taking in a game can be healthy. “Watching sports is associated with doing sports,” says Christakis. “It gets kids excited and provides inspiration.”

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