Pressured to raise brilliant children in an era of shrinking family time, American parents are turning to television to educate, entertain and soothe their babies.
Forty percent of 3-month-olds are watching television regularly, despite recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics that babies be TV-free until age 2 years. By 24 months, the number rises to 90 percent, according to a study published Monday in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
While other studies have examined TV viewing among young children in a general way, this is the first study to “take a magnifying glass” to the youngest group of viewers, said Frederick Zimmerman, lead author of the study and an associate professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Washington.
Researchers conducted random telephone surveys of more than 1,000 Minnesota and Washington families with a child born in the previous two years.
While the study doesn’t conclude that TV viewing is good or bad for young children, “it’s a wake-up call,” Zimmerman said.
Previous studies have shown that excessive viewing before age 3 is associated with problems of attention control, aggressive behavior and poor cognitive development, he said.
No one knows why yet. “This is the research frontier,” he said.
One thing Zimmerman is adamant about, though, is that he doesn’t want to blame parents. Much of the baby boom in TV viewing is probably the result of a massive marketing push to convince parents they need screen time to give their children an academic edge.
Despite its popularity, baby TV is unnecessary, said Zimmerman and his fellow researchers, Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician and researcher at Seattle Children’s Hospital Research Institute and a UW associate professor of medicine; and Andrew Meltzoff, co-director of the UW’s Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences.
“High-quality social interaction with babies, including reading and talking with them, provides all the stimulation the growing brain needs,” Meltzoff said.
Babies have no idea what they’re watching, Zimmerman said: “They’re responding to changes in their visual field – scene changes, shifting colors, lights, noise stimuli.”
Besides findings on very- young viewing, the researchers also discovered:
The median age for infants to be regularly exposed to TV, DVDs or videos is 9 months.
Average daily viewing time is one hour a day for children younger than 12 months, and more than 90 minutes a day by 24 months.
29 percent of parents said they believed television and DVDs were educational or good for children’s brains.
23 percent said viewing was enjoyable or relaxing for the child.
21 percent said they used these media as an electronic babysitter so they could do other things.
Only about half the infant viewing time was in what researchers classified as a children’s educational category. The rest was split between children’s noneducational programs, baby DVDs or videos, and adult programs.
Zimmerman said parents don’t need to give up television, just be smarter about it.
Pick programs that have some educational value, such as “Sesame Street” or “Peep in the Big Wide World,” he said. Keep it limited and under control. Look for other ways of getting a break, such as reading a book together.
