Getting 'square eyes' from watching too much television may just be a prospect that we tease childen with, but excessive viewing can indeed lead to serious developmental problems.
Early years experts are worried by the Independent Television Commission's recent annual survey of viewing habits in the UK. Television: The Public's View found that more than one third of children under the age of four now have television sets in their bedroom. The number has risen dramatically from 21 per cent in 1999 to 36 per cent last year, prompting fears that children's social and physical development are being undermined. The National Campaign for Children's Radio is now pressing for the return of radio programmes aimed at pre-school children (Nursery World, 27 September) that would stimulate the listening skills and the imaginative powers that television can repress.
Gila Falkus, head of community early years speech and language therapy for Riverside Healthcare Trust in London, has witnessed the harmful effects of television on young children through her work. She warns that too much can cause language delay.
'Language delay is a very significant problem and one of the most common problems in pre-school children,' she says. 'We have children referred to us because they are not talking and when we do assessments we often find they are not understanding what is being said to them. This tends to be because they have poor attention and listening skills. There is a strong association between watching a lot of television and lack of listening and attention.'
She believes that children under two should not watch any television and those aged two to four should not watch more than 30 minutes a day, preferably in the company of an adult. 'The pace of television is fast, so there is nothing to sustain their attention for long, and children need to have fluent oral language skills before they can learn from it. They need to be able to grasp the topic and follow the story. They cannot often do that before they are four or five. Children younger than that need to develop a lot of skills and these are not fostered by television.' The passivity of viewing is also a problem. 'Learning language needs lots of interaction,' says language and early years consultant Marian Whitehead. 'Children do not learn to make eye contact through watching television, but it is so important because it helps children understand how to begin and end a conversation. Also at the basis of communication are gestures and facial expressions.'
Substitute parents
Philip Gammage, a professor in early childhood research in South Australia, who is education adviser to the State Department of Education in Australia, says that in many ways television has taken the place of an adult in a child's day.
'It is highly likely, if one extrapolates from Australian and American research, that many British three-year-olds generally spend more time in front of the TV than they do with their caretakers or parents - something well over 20 hours per week,' he says. 'TV and peers have effectively taken over much of the early socialisation of the young child. Sitting with TV has in many cases replaced sitting with mother and father and a cloth book or story.'
Independent literacy expert Sue Palmer agrees that television has become an 'electronic babysitter'. She says, 'In the olden days when a child was fussing they would be put on their parent's knee and talked or sung to. This helped children to develop through rhymes and songs and was brilliant for tuning them in to language and perfect for developing literacy skills. These traditions have now died out and have been replaced by the television.'
Marian Whitehead stresses that for TV to be beneficial to young children it must be shared with an adult. 'Watching television can be just as stimulating as a visit out or helping with an activity, because children can see and remark on interesting and exciting things,' she says. 'If children have the chance to share their viewing and the opportunity to talk about what they see and follow it up, it can then become a rich source of stimulation.'
Solitary viewing, on the other hand, may hinder social interaction. Jennie Lindon, child psychologist and early years consultant, says, 'If a child is just slumped on a sofa watching television it can become a habit and contribute to becoming inactive and overweight. Children are designed to be active, and they usually are, but if a child gets into the habit of watching excessive amounts of television they may not build up an enjoyment of play.'
Violent images
Another concern is that solitary viewing or having unlimited access to television in their bedrooms will expose children to images that they lack the emotional ability to handle. Philip Gammage highlights a report by the Australian Psychological Association that contains worries about the impact on young children of images of violence and of the stereotyping of gender and race on television.
'Almost all expert reports over the years express anxiety that TV can influence the very young and that images of violence are especially insidious,' he says. 'American psychiatrists like Kotulak and Bruce Perry have stated that violent images affect the release of noradrenaline and cortisol. The theory is that high levels of cortisol kill brain cells and reduce the number of cell connections, actively shrink the hippocampus, impair selective attention and create anxious behaviour. Noradrenaline is the alarm hormone which can create high arousal and outbursts of violence.' Sue Palmer believes that we would not be seeing so many behaviour problems and cases of Attention Deficity Hyperactivy Disorder (ADHD) if children only learned to listen, a skill that television may interfere with. Children who do not learn to use their ears as well as their eyes will struggle when they start school.
'It is one of the most critical things for education at the moment and nursery education is on the front line,' she says. 'Nursery children now have problems making eye contact and listening. Nursery teachers are having to take responsibility for making up that lost time. The more they can do to help parents know what is important in the home, then the better.' Jennie Lindon adds, 'Attention comes from looking and listening, and children need to do both. If a child is in a noisy place, such as in a room with television background noise, it is difficult for them to develop their listening skills because they have to screen out the extra noise. Also a child can be over-stimulated with noise and vision. If children spend long amounts of time watching television it gets reduced to sound and visual wallpaper; if they are not concentrating and watching things through to the end, it may disturb their development of attention.'
Radio options
Susan Stranks, co-ordinator of the National Campaign for Children's Radio, thinks that one antidote would be radio programmes specifically for young children. She argues that because in radio the sound is paramount, it encourages children to listen, engages their imagination and helps early language skills. She is disappointed that the BBC is not introducing children's radio and has supported Digital Radio Group, a consortium that will air singalong music mixes, nursery rhymes, light classics, stories and quizzes specifically for young children.
'We are trying to get digital radio into all state-funded and private nurseries in Greater London,' says Ms Stranks. 'We plan to do an evaluation of our service in nurseries and hope to show how good radio is for the early years.'
Gila Falkus would support the move. She says, 'Unlike television, radio requires children to listen and it also leaves room for children's imaginations. Children are a significant part of the population, but there are currently no dedicated children's radio services, which is very surprising because there is a lot that can be done on radio to help young children's development.
'We cannot disinvent television but we need to encourage responsible viewing limits. Parents need to encourage children to select what they are viewing and help them understand what they see and be critical in their viewing.
'Young children under four having a lot of access to television is not at all recommended. But in practice TV is often just used as a babyminder - the flickering blue parent.' NW
