This paper reflects on three papers which report the results of researches and experiments conducted, to study the effect of media on language acquisition and language development of children under the age of three years. The papers report observational studies and experiments done in the U.S. and Thailand, and assessment was done based on the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) scores, various Peabody Individual Achievement Tests for reading and comprehension, Memory for Digit Span assessment, and Denver – II developmental assessment. All the three papers conclude with similar findings that there is a negative association between intense TV viewing by children of 8 – 16 months and language development. Increased TV or DVD/videos viewing has a deleterious effect on a child’s language development, along with other cognitive problems such as impaired reading, attention problems, and impulsivity. More longitudinal and population based researches have been proposed to be done, which have long term follow-up. Also there is a need to generate more awareness in parents about activities which will promote healthy cognitive development in their children (Christakis 2008).
Television has become an integral part of families ever since its invention in 1950 and its so affordable now that every household possesses at least one TV set. Nowadays there are a large number of programs and channels for children, which makes them spend more time watching TV. Infant TV viewing is on such a rise now that the current average US sale of baby DVD’s is $500 million (Christakis 2008). Various researches and studies have been performed to evaluate the effect of media exposure on children under the age of two years. The American Academy of Pediatrics has in fact recommended that children under the age of two years should not have any screen time at all (Zimmerman 2007), as commercial videos and television programs do not benefit children and cause problems related to attention, impaired reading, mathematical proficiency and language development. However, many top-selling videos on Amazon.com made claims in 2005, that the videos teach language and logic, patterns and sequencing, analyzing details, etc. (Zimmerman 2007). This is a marketing strategy used by companies to attract parents and lure them into buying such videos for their children. Some parents believe that watching TV for infants is ‘good for their brains’ (Christakis 2008), and indulge their little ones into it, and about 21 per cent allow TV viewing for their young ones, so they can get some free time for themselves.
In one study it was found that young children in the U.S. spent an average of 3 - 4 hours per day watching TV. This means that children under two years of age, who are only awake for 10 – 12 hours in a day, spend 30 – 40 per cent of their waking hours watching TV (Christakis 2008). This is alarming because for an infant’s developing brain, flashing lights, quick edits, scene changes and auditory cuts may be overstimulating, affect attentional capacity of children and cause an impulsive behavior (Christakis 2008). It also decreases their interaction with parents or caretakers. In an observational study of over 1300 children, a strong association between TV viewing before the age of three and problems related to attention and impulsivity was found (Christakis 2008).
Acquisition of language is one of the most critical parts of cognitive development in early childhood. Many experiments under controlled circumstances have been done to prove that a child learns language better through a native speaker and live experiences, rather than from TV programs. But there are many TV programs such as Baby Einstein’s Language Nursery which claim to improve language development (Christakis 2008). Nevertheless children can be protected from the harmful effects of some TV programs and benefited by some which promote cognitive and behavior outcomes, by the presence of an adult supervision.
In a survey in the states of Minnesota and Washington, 1008 parents of children between the age of 2 – 24 months, were surveyed by telephone and questions were asked regarding interaction between parent and child, child and parent demographics, and various content types of videos and television viewed by the children. The study was conducted on only one child per household and the sample population belonged to the higher income and higher education category. Parents were given the following kinds of content types and they were to report their child’s viewing of these programs on a typical weekday and weekend - educational television programs (such as, Sesame Street, Blue’s Clues, Arthur), children’s educational DVD/video programs (such as Sesame Street on DVD), children’s non-educational television programs (such as, Sponge Bob Squarepants, Bob the Builder, Cartoon Network), movies on DVD/videos (such as, The Little Mermaid, Toy Story), baby DVD/videos (such as, Baby Einstein, Brainy Baby) and adult television programs (such as, The Simpsons, Oprah, sports programs). Parent interaction with the child, in terms of storytelling, reading and music was also an important aspect of this study. A standard instrument for measuring children’s language development, called the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI), was used as it is reliable and valid. The analysis of the survey, revealed a negative association between viewing of baby videos/DVD and vocabulary development in 8 – 16 months’ old children (Zimmerman 2007).
Rapid brain development takes place in the first three years of a child’s life and a newborn brain grows three times more in size in the first two years, in response to external stimulation and environmental influence. Heavy viewing of baby videos/DVD is one environmental influence that has a deleterious effect on early language development (Zimmerman 2007). An early exposure to a rich and varied verbal and conversational environment is required for language development, but background TV disrupts children’s activities, playtime, and interaction with parents (Pruksananonda 2008). This kind of an effect may be transient and disappear as the child grows, but the occurrence of the effect is confirmed.
In another cross-sectional study (assessed by the MacArthur Bates Communicative Development Inventory) done on 1000 children under the age of two years, no benefits to infant viewing were found, instead the children between 7 and 16 months were found to have poorer language skills. The Peabody Individual Achievement Test Reading Recognition Scale, Peabody Individual Achievement Test Reading Comprehension Scale and Memory for Digit Span assessment from the Wechsler Intelligence Scales for children reported deleterious effects of TV viewing by children under three years of age (Christakis 2008).
A more recent study in Thailand suggested that intense exposure to TV (i.e. two hours or more) led to a sixfold increase in the probability of language delay. It was found that many children below three years of age watched cartoons meant for older children and there was a high number of these children with delayed language problems. One of the reasons was that these children started watching TV ten months before they could even speak their first meaningful word and 60 per cent of the children were left alone to watch TV (Pruksananonda 2008).
Policies regarding TV programs for young children have to be revised and educational claims made by companies should be based on scientific data rather than parent testimonials. Parents also need to be more aware and informed about activities which really promote healthy cognitive development for their children. In this regard France has taken a bold step and banned all programs directed at infants (Pruksananonda 2008).
The pace of research and growing media presence has not been able to match (Christakis 2008); therefore more resources are needed for extensive research in this field. Till date small laboratory based or observational researches have been done. Now there is a need for population based experimental studies with long term follow-up and real world experiments of media exposures (Pruksananonda 2008). Besides conducting studies, there is a dire need to introduce preventive approaches to curb excessive or inappropriate TV viewing by children.
Chandhita Pruksananonda. (2008). Television viewing associates with delayed language development. Acta Pediatrica, 97. Retrieved from
http://0-onlinelibrary.wiley.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.00831.x/full
Dimitri A Christakis. (2008). The effects of infant media usage: what do we know and what should we learn? Acta Pediatrica, 98. Retrieved from
http://0-onlinelibrary.wiley.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/doi/10.1111/j.1651-2227.2008.01027.x/full
Frederick J Zimmerman. (2007). Associations between media viewing and language development in children under 2 years. The Journal of Pediatrics, 151. Retrieved from http://0-www.sciencedirect.com.skyline.ucdenver.edu/science/article/pii/S0022347607004477
