Television and Language Development - Essay Example

The articles read for this assignment suggest the 18 month old to 24 month old children are the ones most affect. Generally by the age of three, partially due to communication with others than the caregiver, children can overcome the negative effects of television on language development. The effects of watching television for young children are detrimental to language development. Our earlier population survey of the effects of TV viewing on development of 18-month-old children in three areas of Japan indicated the same result; that children with heavy TV viewing (more than 4 h per day) may have delayed development of meaningful word speech (not speaking more than one word) even with parental talk while watching TV, and that children who watched TV alone for long hours had delayed development not only of speech but also of language comprehension, pointing behavior and fine motor ability.

In logistic analysis, factors affecting delayed development of language were suggested to be childrens television viewing for long hours and male sex, parents not reading picture books to children, not singing songs to children, not talking to children while doing housework and not talking to children while viewing TV. (Okuma & Tanimura, 2009) Children that get used to watching long hours of television by themselves tend to have delayed development. The child gets used to being satisfied with the television.

Without any encouragement to interact or speak correctly, children do not use their language skills. Other than not learning these language skills from a caregiver, the child does not practice language skills due to the lack of motivation. Children that watch long hours of television lack language skills due being resistant to interacting with others. This interaction is not just between a conversation of child and caregiver. These children want limited interaction with adults.