Impacts of television on Language Development in Children - Essay Example

Impacts of television on Language Development in Children Number Impacts of television on Language Development in Children Children in their early childhood stages undergo rapid and development. They learn and develop behaviors that will influence their mental, psychological and physical wellbeing. As an imperative period to the young person’s physical and mental development, any unfavorable influences can precipitate permanent impairments on the child during their later stages of life. Watching television among children has been arguably destructive to children’s development (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). As a consequence, early parenting options are relatively certain that infants should not be allowed access to television shows. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, children who are under the age of two years should not watch television because television impairs their language development. Background of the issue Most families have television sets in the living rooms, which expose young children to complex television videos long before they reach the right school age (Topping, Dekhinet, & Zeedyk, 2011). For the young children, television footages are very different from the events that happen in the actual world (Bittman, Rutherford, Brown, & Unsworth, 2012). The incapacity of the toddler to actualize what is broadcast on television screens in the real world can have permanent repercussions on important body processes, including vision, memory, cognition and attention which all have a bearing on language development (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). Language Development Toddlers learn well from their interactions with members of their families or those who are in their immediate environment. The relationship between parents and their baby is important to the latter’s social interactions, brain and physical development which contribute to language acquisition. Bittman, Rutherford, Brown and Unsworth (2012) note that a television impairs this relationship by weakening the bond between parent and child and the resulting learning process that comes out of the engagement (Chonchaiya & Pruksananonda, 2008). The American Academy of Pediatrics indicates that a small baby’s brain is genetically programmed to grasp new vocabularies from their social engagements in the real world of parents, caregivers and their fellow children. Limited parent-child connections will limit conversational engagements with the growing child and take toll on their acquisition of language skills and symbols (Bittman, Rutherford, Brown & Unsworth, 2012). Impacts on language developments Learning to pass and receive messages is one of the most important developmental achievements during the early stages of child development. Learning language is a very complex process in which auditory, dialectal, mental, and environmental forces are at play (Haines, OBrien, McDonald, Goldman, Evans-Schmidt, Price, King, Sherry, & Taveras, 2013). Television video causes an imbalance in these forces, thus limits language development. According to Topping, Dekhinet and Zeedyk (2011), the kind of linguistic ideas a child obtains can have remarkable impacts on how regular the child really speaks and what vocabulary they use. On their part, Bittman, Rutherford, Brown and Unsworth, 2012) argue that the amount of linguistic contribution mothers make towards the growth of their children along these lines is outperforms television by far. This implies television viewing has the potential to reverse these gains because the programs are remote, the language used is more complex and there is no emotional or physical connection between the television and the young language learner. According to Haines et al (2013), recent pilot studies carried out to establish the connection between television viewing and delays in language development have disapproved of the technology. The studies have established that children who were exposed to television viewing early on in their lives were about six times less likely to achieve standard acquisition of language as their counterparts who were not exposed to television. Additionally, researches have established that toddlers who are exposed to television viewing do not watch educational material; rather they watch cartoons which are meant for their older counterparts (Topping, Dekhinet, & Zeedyk, 2011). The bulk of children who have language delays are said to have begun watching television content when they were under one year of age and more than half of such cases watched the television programs alone. In light of this, neglectful parenting which normally couples television viewing has been established as one of key factors linked to language delays in children. Vocabulary knowledge Television viewing has also been said to have significant impacts on the acquisition of vocabulary knowledge (Chonchaiya, & Pruksananonda, 2008). To investigate the issue, researchers split their outcomes into specific categories and established that television programs in which the characters address the children directly oftentimes generate positive outcomes in terms of expressive language (Sweetser, Johnson, Ozdowska, & Wyeth, 2012). In contrast, television programs which do not directly engage children have been established as having negative outcomes on language development. The failure of the latter programs, which form the bulk of programs broadcast on television, presents more than the young learners can grasp. The infusion of different musical input and imagery including the use of difficult expressions normally complicate learning development for toddlers (Sweetser, Johnson, Ozdowska, & Wyeth, 2012). In addition, most of the television programs such as Sesame Street do lack adequate support that can stimulate language understanding (Haines et al, 2013). Researchers are of the opinion that despite a number of television learning programs being advantageous to toddlers in terms of language acquisition, most programs are clearly not helpful (Haines et al, 2013). Similarly, Bittman, Rutherford, Brown and Unsworth (2012) indicate that infants are more likely to acquire knowledge about new vocabulary from speakers in their social environment as compared to television programs because under the latter conditions, chances of repeating new words are slim, and the speed at which the words are spoken is normally unforgiving to the young learners. In addition, the small cognitive abilities and brain mass in children make it difficult for them to concentrate on one issue and obtain new vocabularies from it from television videos. Television programs are full of different, conflicting stimuli, which only serve to confuse the young language learners more and delay their language development. According to Bittman, Rutherford, Brown and Unsworth (2012), the sensory burden is arguably too unbearable for toddlers to handle. The disconnect in learning is usually caused by the difficulty that children might experience in their effort to sift through the information provided by television puppet-like characters that do not engage them directly through long eye contacts. According to Sweetser, Johnson, Ozdowska and Wyeth (2012), infants learn best when the instruction process segment is somewhat casual and when they are sure of where and who is the source of the new knowledge. Therefore, that alone guarantees them adequate learning experience that is commensurate with their level of cognition and attention span. Low attention span According to Topping, Dekhinet and Zeedyk (2011), Asian pediatricians have linked delayed development of language and poor social skills such as inadequate communication or eye contact in toddlers with inordinate time which children spend watching television and footages aired on screens. According to Bittman, Rutherford, Brown and Unsworth (2012) such minors often exhibit minimal language understanding, pointing traits, and poor fine motor skills. Yet, new research indicates that child-victims of delayed language development tend to practical short animated videos, feature-length animations, and infant education (Haines et al, 2013). In light of these findings, it is conceivable that young infants with delays in language development watch footages passively. The imagery in these footages does not address viewers directly and thus they do fail to stimulate the development of new language development through conversation. Conclusion Television viewing has been established as one of the factors impacting language acquisition in children, especially those who are under two years of age. Research findings indicate that children who are exposed to television are tremendously vulnerable to delays in language development. On the contrary, parents who limit their childrens exposure to television videos in their early childhood are expected to have better cognition, improved fine motor skills, and higher level of attention. These factors play a pivotal role in facilitating language acquisition in children. Research findings which suggest limiting television exposure to children under the age two years are based on the fact that the footages aired on the screens balkanize the young brains, developing brains with too much stimuli which only serves to strain their nascent brains. In addition, television characters are too remote to address the emotional needs of toddlers. Programs that engage toddlers are said to have better outcomes in terms of language development, but they are very few. In a nutshell, the body of evidence which disapprove of the conceptual link between television viewing and better language development outweighs those that suggest the practice improves new vocabulary acquisition, better expressive communication and social skills. Appendix I used the Ebscohost online database to obtain the scholarly articles which I have used in this paper. To obtain the right sources I ran searches using “Television and language development” as the key words, before narrowing down on the sources that focused on children in their early childhood stages. Although all of them are primary sources, each and every one of them carries a significant body of secondary research in the literature review section. References Bittman, M., Rutherford, L., Brown, J., & Unsworth, L. (2012). Digital natives? New and old media and childrens language acquisition. Family Matters, 91, 18-26. Chonchaiya, W., & Pruksananonda, C. (2008). Television viewing associates with delayed language development. Acta Paediatrica, 97(7), 977-982. Haines, J., OBrien, A., McDonald, J., Goldman, R., Evans-Schmidt, M., Price, S., King, S., Sherry, B., & Taveras, E. (2013). Television Viewing and Televisions in Bedrooms: Perceptions of Racial/Ethnic Minority Parents of Young Children. Journal of Child & Family Studies, 22(6), 749-756. Sweetser, P., Johnson, D., Ozdowska, A., & Wyeth, P. (2012). Active versus passive screen time for young children. Australasian Journal of Early Childhood, 37(4), 94-98. Topping, K., Dekhinet, R., & Zeedyk, S. (2011). Hindrances for Parents in Enhancing Child Language. Educational Psychology Review, 23(3), 413-455. Read More