My conscience has been weighing on me over the past couple months about the amount of television I had been allowing Reid to watch. I became more lenient on the subject while dealing with the fatigue and nausea that came with my first trimester with Ronin and then it quickly became a habit and way of life. Eventually, Reid was wanting to watch full-length movies, children's television shows and even Pixar shorts on youtube at nearly every waking moment. And because the more I gave in, the more I could get done around the house, it's been a pretty slippery slope. Recently though, I came across an article, which explained the suspected correlation between early childhood television-viewing and attention/behavioral disorders such as ADD and ADHD in a way that made total sense to me. It read,
"...The rapid scene changes common to many TV programs may overstimulate the developing brain of a young child, and could make reality seem boring by comparison.
Hence, children who watch a lot of television may become less tolerant of slower-paced and more mundane tasks, such as school work."
And of course it reinforced that TV-viewing may take the place of other activities that promote concentration, such as reading, games, sports and play. I also came across another article that warned of the affects of background television in babies, as it discourages interaction between parents and their babies, hindering language development. (Apparently, just turning Ronin's bouncy chair away from the t.v. isn't good enough!)
I was finally motivated me to make a change, so Reid and I went three days with no television. I noticed a pretty immediate change in his behavior. While he still requested to watch t.v. repeatedly throughout the day, he took the answer "no" pretty well and was easily distracted by other activities I suggested. His temperament improved, which could very well be from the additional time I spent with him as a result and bed times even seemed (a bit) less dramatic (sometimes).
In just those first few days alone, while house work didn't get taken care of as soon as I would have liked, it proved to be a rewarding trade-off. Reid and I got to play with his state puzzle (he now can name about ten states), his number flash cards (he can count to 20 if you don't mind skipping 7 and 15), and we even reassembled his space train set -no small feat for me!
That is so inspiring! We didn't watch TV last week on vacation and I noticed that it wasn't on at all today, and he didn't even ask for it to be on... so, maybe we will just start a new chapter here during VBS week!
ReplyDeleteMan, I was in the same boat for the longest time but then Lucy went through this change. She is no longer interested on TV. She wakes up and wants to make baby jaguar with playdoh immediately OR wants me to trace her feet on construction paper so she can cut them. It's nice but at the same time I miss my down time!!!! I think part of what got her off the TV kick was these big cabinet space in the kitchen that I filled with supplies to all the crafts you can possibly make (glitter, glue, scissors, you name it, we have it!). Anyway, I put a lock on it and she's now fascinated with what's inside. I thought the novelty would wear off after a few weeks but it's been all summer and she's not tired of crafts yet.
ReplyDeleteI hear ya but I miss the days I could let her watch Curious George for an hour while I got things done, waaaahhhhhhh!!!!
I'm with you... i hate the tv running in the background for sure. I'd rather play some records for them... what does that article say about music? Although, a movie now and then is cool..i think, haha.
ReplyDeleteBob: Yeah, we do allow a movie maybe once a week when we're all needing some veg time. The articles don't mention music, but I, personally am all for it.
ReplyDeleteDanaly: I am so inspired by your craft time with Lucy!