Into the Minds of Babes by Lisa Guernsey Ch. 1-4
I found Into the Minds of Babies to be wonderfully enlightening. Not just for its content on how the television impacts children, but also because of its information on the stages of cognitive development. Some statements/definitions that I found particularly interesting are:
-90% of a child's brain is formed before age 5
-An hour of tv viewing among 0 - 2 year olds was linked to a 9 percent reduction in creative play during the week and an 11 percent reduction on the weekend.
-Attentional Inertia is the term used to describe that the longer children watch tv, the more they want to watch, regardless of the cuts.
-Teletubbies target audience begins at 9 months
-Repetition is a key ingredient for children's programming. Some things will be repeated up to 6 times in one show.
-Babies can hear before birth
-At 4 months babies can distinguish color
-At 6 months babies have the depth perception and visual acuity as an adult's
I was amazed by some of the research that was conducted. Especially the research that related to children of 18 months and their inability to distinguish between 2D and 3D objects. I was also amazed by the research done on ADHD and autism. However, my initial feeling on tv have remained the same. I think that tv is not necessarily a good or bad thing, and that is should be done in moderation. And by no means should it replace interaction between a parent and child.