Effects of TV on Children

Effects of TV on children has been an ongoing discussion for a long time. While using TV provides various benefits, its misuse can have adverse effects on children. Your child's Television watching can become an addiction, if you do not monitor her watching times. If left to herself, she would probably like to spend hours watching TV everyday. This can affect brain development and also weaken the ability to focus on tasks such as school homework. Such children may also start to prefer watching TV passively to interacting with you or other kids. It is a good idea to refrain your toddler under two years of age from watching any TV at all. Even older children benefit hugely from very limited viewing time – under 2 hours a day.

Unfortunately, many parents use television as a source of distraction or to keep their children occupied. The child tends to remain "glued" in front of the television and this helps the parents to go about their chores without disturbance. Also, in India, watching mega serials for long hours is common among most households. It is natural for young children to join their parents. But, all these can result in many adverse effects of TV on children which can hamper their lives without the parents' knowledge.

Adverse Effects of TV on Children

• She may fall into a trance in front of the television and refuse to communicate with anyone else. This can affect or delay her speech and language skills.
• If your toddler is under two years old, she may associate the television as a range of colours, images and sounds. Her little brain hardly understands what is actually being portrayed.
• Many kids programmes display adult content and violence in animated form. These may leave an impact in your child's mind.
• As your toddler is too young to differentiate between "real" and "reel", they can easily get confused by what is shown on the television. This may hamper her learning abilities and she may not be able to differentiate right from wrong. Also, those scary programmes may not frighten her just as she watches them. But, they can end up being a nightmare for her later on.
• If your toddler gets addicted to the television, you may have a tough time in getting her involved in other activities such as playing, reading or other physical activities. Activities that entertain growth and development get curtailed. This can also result in your toddler becoming obese due to long hours of sitting in front of the television.
• Your toddler may have higher cholesterol levels because of a unhealthy diet triggered by snacking on junk food shown in televison advertisements.
• Studies have shown that toddlers addicted to television grow up with curbed intellectual and social development along with aggressive behaviour. It becomes impossible or difficult to change these traits in your child in her later years.
• Long hours of television watching can result in Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
• Extensive television watching can result in less creativity and imagination in your toddler.
• Your toddler may end up missing out on the fun and joy of reading.
• Too much of television watching can hamper family ties.
• Research has shown that long hours of watching mega serials have resulted in late dinner, dominant negative attitude and homework not being done.

The television watching patterns that a toddler establishes often last through her childhood. These reflect both the amount of time they watch TV and the kind of programmes they watch. Although excessive television watching can cause a negative impact on children, television can also benefit them greatly if you encourage wise viewing principles.