TV Means Children Talk Too Little
A new study has found that children and their parents talk less when a television is playing in the background.
A study published in the Archive of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine conducted by Dimitri A. Christakis (Director of the Center for Child Health, Behavior, and Development at Seattle Children's Research Institute and a professor of pediatrics at the University of Washington's medical schoo) suggests that television watching by young children may affect their language development .
The major finding of the study, which included over 300 children, was that adults spoke on average 770 fewer words for every hour that the television was playing. The children themsleves also talked less during this time.
Young children learn from experience; the more words that they hear and are exposed to, the better their language development, and their vocabulary, reading and writing in school.
The study adds to a growing body of research that television has negative as well as positive effects. It highlights the need for parents to carefully manage their children's environment, as technology becomes increasingly prevalent in society.
Click here to read more about the study in Time Magazine.
