In this age of rapidly accelerating technology, it is important for
us to consider what impact this has on our children, especially
television. Television has become a big part of everyday modern life for
many people. If you walk into the average 'civilized' house, you are
likely to find the television placed in prime position in the main room
of the house, with the furniture carefully arranged around it so that
everyone can get a good view. Added to that, many homes how have
televisions in the bedrooms and other areas too. Television can be a
useful source of information and entertainment for most adults, but
children are not in the same stage of development as adults.
When
speaking to parents about their children's television watching habits,
many parents will often reassure me that they keep a close eye on the
types of programs their children are allowed to watch. They claim that
many shows now are specially aimed at children, and some of them are
even educational. I would like parents to consider that it's not the
'content' of the programs their children are watching, but the act of
watching itself that can be the problem. The more the television is
used to entertain a child, the more the child needs to be entertained,
creating a vicious circle as their lack of imagination prevents them
from initiating more enriching play. There are plenty of studies that
confirm the connection between violent behaviour and its connection to
television viewing, and in addition to these findings it is very
important to look at the neurological impact of television on developing
brains.
Did you know that babies' brains are developing in unique
ways during their first 3 years? This is a crucial stage of brain
development that is complete by age three. For their brains to develop
properly they need to move, to play, to explore, to be nurtured by and
interact with people around them. They don't get this kind of
stimulation from a television, which means many are missing out on
crucial brain development during this short window of time, which can
never be recovered. In fact, if you look at children while they are
watching television, it can be quite disturbing indeed. They go into a
very passive state, their eyes look empty, and they become receptive to
whatever messages the television is putting out. They also have not yet
developed the filters to discriminate between fantasy and reality, no
matter how much an adult explains the difference, so they are very
impressionable and take everything in at face value. In fact, while
watching television, people go into such a passive state that a steady
flow of 'startle' flickers must be programmed into a show to keep the
brain alert. 'Startles' are sudden, unexpected sounds or scenes
designed to keep the brain awake and involved. Quick changes of camera
angle, unexpected or surprising sounds, sudden actions, rapid-fire
scenes - all of this startles the brain enough to hold its attention and
creates just enough stress to activate body preparedness for defensive
action...thanks to a continuous, low-level stream of cortisol entering
the viewer's bloodstream.
Cortisol is part of our body's
"flight-or-fight" response, and it takes from eight to twenty-four hours
for cortisol to clear the bloodstream after entry. Advertisers often
insist that a certain number of startles appear in each show segment.
It's part of their contract with the television producers. The
neurological impact this has on kids is akin to child abuse. It impedes
normal brain development, decreases intelligence, and interferes with
the nervous system and emotional response patterning. The impact on
pre-borns is even greater, because of the blood-tie between the mother
and her fetus. The growing fetus can be flooded by mum's cortisol again
and again. This is why it is so important for pregnant women to live
in as stress-free an environment as possible. For a fetus, baby or
young child to be subject to constant levels of cortisol in their bodies
from watching television, keeps their brains in the lower
'flight-or-fight' patterning, which inhibits them from developing their
higher consciousness and imagination.
By putting babies and young
children in front of a television, we are literally re-wiring their
brains and preventing them from reaching their potential. The evidence
of this damage doesn't become obvious until about the age of 7, when the
child starts exhibiting learning difficulties, often labelled as ADHD.
Other problems include lack of empathy, desensitization to violence,
unrealistic expectations of reality, limited imagination and swinging
between physical lethargy and bursts of scattered energy. Television
may also blunt a commitment to language by delaying the development of
the verbal areas of the brain at a crucially language-sensitive age.
Children learn to speak through imitating, listening to and conversing
with real, live people. Mechanically reproduced voices on television
are no substitute for real conversation. Of all the damage wrought by
TV, impairment of internal imagery may be the most serious. All higher
forms of intelligence, such as empathy, compassion, love, as well as
science, philosophy and religion are based on capacities for abstract
thought and symbolic structures developed through internal image-making,
which begins formation in the first year of life. Television radically
undermines the development of image-making in that it offers a verbal
sound and provides the matching image. The image is already there with
the sound, leaving the higher creative levels of the brain with nothing
to do. The vast fields involved in image-making lie idle and eventually
atrophy. "Use it or lose it" is nature's dictum. And we are losing
it. TV entertains the mind, and clearly entertainment is not play. By
the nature of the neural fields involved, neither can TV educate. But
it can condition very well. Television is a powerful, multi-sensory
teacher of values. Even under the best circumstances, it can be
difficult for parents to be as persuasive.
Even if we as viewers
grow blase about the barrage of image-sounds now used in both TV and
movies, the ancient parts of the brain have no such discrimination.
They continue to release their shots of cortisol even as our higher self
expresses indifference. The result is that the body lives in a
constant state of threat. A further by-product of constant startle is
over-production of reduntant neural connections, which are thought to
cause a considerable reduction in brain efficiency. But an even more
serious impairment results from keeping the brain on hyper-alert. All
living organisms threatened in their early developmental period, even
plants, tend to reproduce very quickly. It is as if an external threat
is saying "Your time is short, breed!" And this is just what the
ancient mammalian brain will bring about, thus we have the trend toward
premature genital sexuality. The disappearance of childhood we have
long lamented takes on vast implications, which is combined with the
brain's mal-adaptions explained earlier.
The good news is infants,
toddlers and children don’t need television to distract or entertain
them. Humans raised children for 50,000 years before television sets,
and you can do it, too. Your children can learn to entertain themselves
or play with your supervision. We humans learn best through
interpersonal relationships and hands-on activity, not television.
How
do we break the TV habit? The easiest first step to reduce television
viewing in your household is to move the television set/s to a less
prominent location. TV is far less tempting when it is not accessible.
Also remove TV sets from your children’s bedroom, and instead create a
calming atmosphere with materials and toys to encourage more imaginative
play. Keep the TV off during dinner. Meals are a great time for
conversation. Place clear limits on television viewing, and designate
certain days of the week as TV-free days. Don’t use TV as a reward or
punishment. This increases its power and can lead to conflict over its
use.
Avoid using TV as a babysitter. This creates a vicious cycle
of dependence, and rather than giving you more time to do things, it
makes your job as a parent harder in the long run as you end up with a
child unable to concentrate or entertain themselves. Involve children in
household activities and meal preparation. The task might take a
little longer, but the teamwork and interaction are worth it. Turn
regular household activities into a game. Give them an opportunity to
help out. Don’t let the TV displace what’s important: family
conversation, exercise, play, reading, creating, thinking and doing.
Consider living without television. We ditched our TV before our first
child was born and have a much more fulfilling quality of life now. We
still watch the occasional DVD on our computer, but our household is
much more peaceful and fulfilling than it could ever be if we still had
the insidious electronic box lurking in the corner. Remember that the
more energy you invest in quality interaction with your children now, it
will be repaid a thousandfold as they mature. By sticking your
children in front of the television, not only are you losing your
connection and influence with them, but they are being subject to the
damage explained above.
Offer more attractive activities for your
children so they don’t feel deprived without their television. Do some
baking together, go outside and plant some seedlings with them and care
for them as they grow. Even if the weather is raining, put on your
gumboots and raincoat, take your umbrella and go for a splashy rainy
walk. My children love this, and so do I. It is so much fun! After
all, it’s only water. And when you get home you can take off any wet
clothes and have a nice warm bath. Go to a national park or beach for a
few hours. Make a kite together and take it for a fly. Read some
books. Tell some stories. Make some simple sock puppets as characters
for a play. Play ‘I-spy’, and depending on the age of the children you
might want to use colours as the clue. Do some crafts, with some paper
and glue make a special card for grandma and grandpa and then go to the
post office and post it. Build a tent in the loungeroom from blankets
hung over chairs. It really is amazing the amount of activities that
you will begin to imagine as fulfilling alternatives to the box. And
the interesting thing is, the more activities you do, the more your
imagination will be fired up to think of more, and life gets even more
fun! Connecting with your children in this way not only deepens your
bond with them which is invaluable in itself, it also nurtures their
imagination, encouraging them to develop into the brilliant, ingenious
and creative beings they truly are.
Alice Fisher © 2007
References:
Beyond the Indigo Children – P.M.H. Attwater, L.H.D.
Who’s Bringing Them Up? – Martin Large
The Plug-in Drug – Winn, M
Endangered Minds – Healey, J
You Are Your Child’s First Teacher – Rahima Baldwin Dancy
The Genius of Play – Sally Jenkinson
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