In the article, Infants, Toddlers, & Television; the Ecology of the Home by Kelly M. Schmitt she discusses her research and findings for a group of twenty typically developing children ranging from ages 7 months to 33 months while they underwent a study focusing on the behavioral and cognitive effects of television as part of the overall ecology of the home (naturally). Schmitt discusses the physical space and social context in which the individual families use television in a ten-day period. Two cameras were used.
One camera recorded what the child was doing while the television was on, the other recorded what program(s) they were watching. In the study, each parent had different views on the use of television in the home. Some parents believed in encouraging their child to watch educational programs such as Sesame Street, Teletubbies, and Baby Mozart, while others forbid or strictly limited television of any kind and some parents did not moderate their child’s television watching at all. In every occasion however, the children being recorded/studied lived in homes where there was at least one older child present.
During her study, Schmitt found some limitations for her study due to the increase in technology, added number of televisions in one home, and a greater number of mothers entering the workforce, increasing the number of out of home child care institutions. Schmitt found on average, ten infants observed 7. 5 hours of television a week and toddlers observed 10. 5 hours a week. However, many of the situations were different. Some parents placed their child in a crib, seat or floor while they cleaned, others came in the room for a short period, others placed the child near the older child and let them watch TV for longer periods of time.
Schmitt classified nine categories for the television the children were exposed to; child education, child animated, child live entertainment, adult informative, sports, comedy, drama, action, and talk/game show. Her findings showed an attention to television increased with age, mainly because as children get older they are able to understand more content. She found that younger children (infants) could have the TV on in the background and do other activities such as play with games, sing/talk, read, eat, and move around, but did have a preference for certain programs or characters.The younger child also wanted to touch the screen and reached for the characters in an exploratory way.
As the child got older, his focus was spent largely on the television and its content. The older child (toddler) could was also beginning to notice the difference between content made for them and content created for adults. Schmitt research found that a large percent of the children preferred to watch age appropriate shows in which they could understand the content. She believes that when a child is old enough or cognitively “ready” to make sense of simple, age appropriate content, it could benefit a child’s language development.
Schmitt believes that while some programing is beneficial to children’s cognitive development, parents and caregivers need to be more informed and sensitive to the impact of watching television. Schmitt also says that more studies are needed in order to see how media should be included into developing young minds. I choose this article because I was interested to see how a television producer viewed the introduction of media into a developing young mind. As I read the article I was a little confused as to what direction she was taking and also, my own thoughts on the topic.
Toward the end of the article both Schmitt and my own views had been acknowledged. I have to say, although Schmitt’s position had made me believe she was going to lean toward introducing educational television to a developing young child, I was still a little shocked my the out come. I think that it is pretty obvious the reason for introducing children at that young age to television – laziness! I believe that sticking a child in front of a television, whether educational or not is an excuse of laziness on the part of the parent or caregiver.I do however, understand that days are long and sometimes children wear you down and you may need a break, but there are other avenues to take.
There are games, toys, songs, books, activities, the list is endless that a parent could use to replace the television. If a child is never introduced to TV in the beginning, he/she will never know to want it. I believe that television does have its purposes both educational and for down time. However, television is for older, school age children and adults.It is very useful for teaching purposes and to use as a model or for instructional purposes, but it does not belong in a young developing mind. Moving forward in my career and (hopefully) as a parent I would use this information to educate others of the importance of not using television on young children and to be more sensitive as so what you as a teacher or parent are watching/doing and what your other (older) children may be watching/doing.
This will be my stance as a teacher and as a parent in the future.
