 Study: TV Can Impair Kids' Speech
Source: MyFox National Reports Date: 06/02/2009
A new study released Monday says that watching TV can impair the speech development of young children. The study found that parents and children virtually stop talking to each other when the TV is on -- even when they are in the same room.
Since
there is less time interacting with parents, the possiblity of lags in
language development increase, according ot the study.
"We've
known that television exposure during infancy is associated with
language delays and attentional problems, but so far it has remained
unclear why," lead researcher Dimitri Christakis told Live Science.
Christakis,
who is the director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior and
Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute and professor of
pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, added
that "hearing adults speak and being spoken to are critical exposures
that play a role in infants development in language."
For
every hour in front of the TV, parents spoke 770 fewer words to
children, according to the study of 329 children, ages 2 months to 4
years, in the June issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine. Adults usually speak about 941 words an hour.
Some
of the children may have been left alone in front of the TV causing the
lack of communication from their parents. In other cases, parents
simply zoned out themselves while watching TV with a child and there
was no communication.
Parents
may not realize how little they interact with children when a TV is on,
Christakis explained. A mother may think she's engaged with a baby
because they're both on the floor playing, but if a TV is on in the
background, the two of them talk much less, he added.
The
American Academy of Pediatrics discourages television watching before
the age of 2, a time when critical development, such as language
acquisition, occurs. While there is still some debate about whether
watching television is harmful, Christakis said there's no evidence to
show that it's helpful.
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