Television affects children's education

The more time children spend watching television the poorer they perform academically. Excessive television viewing has been blamed for increasing rates of childhood obesity and aggressive behaviour, while its impact on schooling have been inconclusive. A recent study found that television viewing tended to have an adverse effect on academic pursuits. Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore found that, children in third grade (approximately 8 years old) who had televisions in their bedrooms watched more TV and scored lower on standardized tests than those who did not have sets in their rooms. In contrast, the study found that having a computer with access to the Internet resulted in comparatively higher test scores. Consistently, children who had a bedroom television but no computer access had the lowest scores and those with home computer access but no bedroom television had the highest scores. American homes with children have an average of nearly three televisions each and children with televisions in their bedrooms averaged nearly 13 hours of viewing a week compared to nearly 11 hours by children who did not have their own sets. The American Academy of Pediatrics has urged parents to limit children's television viewing to no more than one to two hours per day - and to try to keep younger children away from TV altogether. In other studies it was found that children who regularly watched television before the age of 3 ended up with lower test scores later on. Children and adolescents who watched more television were less likely to go on to finish high school or earn a college degree. Researchers from the University of Washington reported that 59 percent of U.S. children younger than age 2 years watch an average of 1.3 hours of television per day, though there is no programming of proven educational value for children that young. They studied 1,800 children over a decade, which showed that television viewing was linked to poorer cognitive development among children younger than 3 and between the ages of 6 and 7. TV watching appeared to help 3 to 5-year-olds with basic reading recognition and short-term memory, but not reading comprehension or mathematics, so the net effect of television watching is limited in its beneficial impact. Similarly, in another study it was found that children and adolescents who watched more television had less educational attainment regardless of their intelligence, socio-economic status or childhood behavioural problems. Parents should be encouraged to incorporate well-produced, age-appropriate educational TV into their children's lives. Such programming represents a valuable tool for stimulating children's cognitive development.