14 DAY TRIAL // Infants who spend a lot of time in front of the TV may set themselves up for difficulties in learning later on in life, a new scientific research shows. It would appear that even babies under 1 or 2 years of age are capable of “zoning out” in front of the screen, and that this type of behavior may translate into less time spent with their parents, and, possibly, difficulties paying attention and learning when they grow a little older. The investigation was ordered and paid for by the LENA Foundation.
“We've known that television exposure during infancy is associated with language delays and attentional problems, but so far it has remained unclear why,” shared for LiveScience University of Washington School of Medicine professor of pediatrics Dimitri Christakis, who was also the lead researcher on the new study. He is the director of the Seattle Children's Research Institute Center for Child Health, Behavior and Development. The paper detailing the conclusions appears in the June issue of the journal Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
Long before the new study came out, the American Academy of Pediatrics announced that it didn't support or encourage parents making their children watch TV before the age of 2, mostly because that's the time when the youngster's brain triples in size. Billions of neural connections are made during these years, and language acquisition happens during this time frame as well. Any disturbances from the “natural” flow of things during the first two years of life, and the effects could become very severe a few years later.
For each hour of television a child watched, the researchers noted during recorded sessions, some 770 words (7 percent) were lost. The babies also spent less time interacting with their parents, or vocalizing sounds, a very important part in the speech formation process. “Some of these reductions are likely due to children being left alone in front of the television screen, but others likely reflect situations in which adults, though present, are distracted by the screen and not interacting with their infant in a discernible manner,” the experts wrote in the journal paper.
“The reason it's concerning is because we know that hearing adults speak and being spoken to are critical exposures that play a role in infants development in language. My recommendation first is that children under the age of 2 be discouraged from watching television,” Christakis concluded.
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