A recent study done to evaluate the current trend of young children regarding television viewing has provided some alarming results, with nearly 60 percent of kids younger than age two watching more than an hour of TV a day. The hours of TV watching is also consistently high amongst 3 to 5 year olds who watch TV for an average of two hours or more.
If you are under the impression that letting your kids watch television for as long as they like will help you finish the household chores quickly, you are highly mistaken. Television viewing has a lot of disadvantages than you can foresee. The research study has proved that kids tend to be less attentive to parents instructions while watching television. Moreover, kids spending more hours in front of the TV often fight with each other more Kids under age 3 who watch television also demonstrate a poor academic performance with lower scores in maths and reading sections. Some people argue that kids can be allowed to watch educational programmes on television to improve their general knowledge. Although it is true that there are benefits to educational programs, the study that the negative effects outweigh the benefit.Several options have been provided by the researchers to reduce the ill effects of television viewing. Children over 2 years of age should not be allowed to watch more than one hour to two hours of quality programming a day. Also they should be allowed to watch television after completion of homework and other assignments. Those under 2 should strictly avoid watching any TV or videos.
A few other options that could be considered is shifting the television from your kid’s bedroom and encouraging them to participate in outdoor gaming activities. In addition, helping them learn about computers would be an ideal alternative.
