Site search
sponsored by
News
We should ban or limit the number of electronic wizards in a child’s bedroom! A television set, an electric one eyed wizard now invades approximately 70 percent of youngster’s bedrooms and kids turn on the electronic “big brother” or computer and they watch it and play violent games on it as well. Who invited this invader into so many homes? We did! When we wanted peace and quiet in the living room we allowed it to happen. We all must plead guilty as charged.
Ironically, there is a strong connection between educational problems and the location of a TV set or computer in a child’s room. Studies have show that children with TVs in their bedrooms actually have more sleep problems, score lower academically and even tend to be more prone to overweight or obesity. With an average of 30 hours of entertainment available to them there is no incentive to create their own games and entertain themselves. A kind of passive boredom sets in and all other activities are ignored. Worst of all, watching a TV set in the bedroom allows kids to watch more and their parents rarely know how much they are watching.
In a study of children ages 4 to 7 in Buffalo, N.Y. the presence of a TV set in the bedroom was responsible for kids watching more hours of TV per week. When the amount of time kids spend watching TV in their bedrooms were compared with similar youngsters without TV sets in the bedroom, the amount of viewing time decreased from an average of 30 hours to approximately 21 hours per week. Parents also had greater control of what their children were watching when the TV sets were placed elsewhere.
As for the issue of poor sleep, think of the last "Crime Scene Investigation", "Law And Order " or other police dramas or violent films you watched and ask yourself whether or not you would like your ten, eleven or twelve year olds watching them before bedtime.
Removing a TV set from a child’s room seems to suggest a punishment and youngsters will rebel and scream foul. Unfortunately bad habits are much harder to eliminate than good ones and removing the set does not necessarily lead to more exercise, but it did decrease the snacking and weight gain. To paraphrase a comment made by Mark Twain, bad habits must be coaxed slowly down the stairs rather than corrected quickly.
The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine reported on a recent study of 400 youngsters and their TV watching habits. The bedtime TV watchers who had TV’s in their room demonstrated academic scores that were consistently lower on the areas of reading skills, language-arts and math. The presence of a television set, computer and video games in their bedroom and the constant stimulation and distraction of these electronic wizards does have an adverse effect on school performance. TV watching promotes sedentary behavior. Apparently the greater tendency to engage in sedentary activities also poses a high risk for overeating and even early smoking.
Kids with TVs in the room behaved differently and the studies found that there was definitely a significant increase in early smoking (42 percent) as compared with the (16 percent) of youngsters who were encouraged to play outside, engage in healthy sports and entertain themselves did not have access to TV in their rooms. Behavioral patterns of sitting, watching TV or playing computer games tends to encourage excessive eating, soda drinking and early smoking. These habits all seem to occur with longer periods of TV viewing.
Parents have serious decisions to make. Do you allow this unsupervised viewing of adult style programming or do you limit your child to adult approved programs? Do you settle for full time uncontrolled distraction or do you limit viewing, control access and filter out what you consider to be inappropriate program?
Healthy activities keep youngsters minds involved. Can your children learn to entertain themselves or must they be constantly stimulated by the antics of others? This is your choice for your children. Impose common sense controls and “may the force be with you!”
For further information contact Helen Ginandes Weiss, M.A and Martin S. Weiss, M.A., Learning Consultants. 970-390-2528; P.O. Box 38, Twin Lakes, CO 81251; eduworks@realwest.com.
Ironically, there is a strong connection between educational problems and the location of a TV set or computer in a child’s room. Studies have show that children with TVs in their bedrooms actually have more sleep problems, score lower academically and even tend to be more prone to overweight or obesity. With an average of 30 hours of entertainment available to them there is no incentive to create their own games and entertain themselves. A kind of passive boredom sets in and all other activities are ignored. Worst of all, watching a TV set in the bedroom allows kids to watch more and their parents rarely know how much they are watching.
In a study of children ages 4 to 7 in Buffalo, N.Y. the presence of a TV set in the bedroom was responsible for kids watching more hours of TV per week. When the amount of time kids spend watching TV in their bedrooms were compared with similar youngsters without TV sets in the bedroom, the amount of viewing time decreased from an average of 30 hours to approximately 21 hours per week. Parents also had greater control of what their children were watching when the TV sets were placed elsewhere.
As for the issue of poor sleep, think of the last "Crime Scene Investigation", "Law And Order " or other police dramas or violent films you watched and ask yourself whether or not you would like your ten, eleven or twelve year olds watching them before bedtime.
Removing a TV set from a child’s room seems to suggest a punishment and youngsters will rebel and scream foul. Unfortunately bad habits are much harder to eliminate than good ones and removing the set does not necessarily lead to more exercise, but it did decrease the snacking and weight gain. To paraphrase a comment made by Mark Twain, bad habits must be coaxed slowly down the stairs rather than corrected quickly.
The Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine reported on a recent study of 400 youngsters and their TV watching habits. The bedtime TV watchers who had TV’s in their room demonstrated academic scores that were consistently lower on the areas of reading skills, language-arts and math. The presence of a television set, computer and video games in their bedroom and the constant stimulation and distraction of these electronic wizards does have an adverse effect on school performance. TV watching promotes sedentary behavior. Apparently the greater tendency to engage in sedentary activities also poses a high risk for overeating and even early smoking.
Kids with TVs in the room behaved differently and the studies found that there was definitely a significant increase in early smoking (42 percent) as compared with the (16 percent) of youngsters who were encouraged to play outside, engage in healthy sports and entertain themselves did not have access to TV in their rooms. Behavioral patterns of sitting, watching TV or playing computer games tends to encourage excessive eating, soda drinking and early smoking. These habits all seem to occur with longer periods of TV viewing.
Parents have serious decisions to make. Do you allow this unsupervised viewing of adult style programming or do you limit your child to adult approved programs? Do you settle for full time uncontrolled distraction or do you limit viewing, control access and filter out what you consider to be inappropriate program?
Healthy activities keep youngsters minds involved. Can your children learn to entertain themselves or must they be constantly stimulated by the antics of others? This is your choice for your children. Impose common sense controls and “may the force be with you!”
For further information contact Helen Ginandes Weiss, M.A and Martin S. Weiss, M.A., Learning Consultants. 970-390-2528; P.O. Box 38, Twin Lakes, CO 81251; eduworks@realwest.com.
