TV Can Never Replace the Gift of Parental Attention

Many parents use television as a baby-sitter while they’re doing housework, cooking meals and other necessary chores. Some TV, as long as the programs are educational and non-violent, can be a good thing for children, but too much of it may cause attention deficit problems, according to researchers at the University of Washington Child Health Institute. Jane M. Healy, PhD, is an educational psychologist and author of “Your Child’s Growing Mind: Brain Development and Learning from Birth to Adolescence.” Her opinion is that children who watch too much TV "lack experience in shifting and maintaining their own attention because the television is directing them."

According to Dr. Henry Shapiro, chairman of developmental and behavior pediatrics at the American Academy of Pediatrics, “Watching TV is far inferior to playing with toys, being read to or playing with adults or talking with parents.” Reading aloud to your small children has been shown to help them develop the language skills they’ll need in school and throughout their lives. Another reason you should be reading to your children is that it bonds you to them as you cuddle them, give them eye-to-eye contact, share storybook adventures and laugh together at the silly things characters do.

Spending quality time with children as they grow and mature is the most important thing parents can do. In today’s hectic world, studies show that working parents typically will spend only about 30 minutes per day with their young children. As children get older, that time drastically diminishes. A teenager may receive only three minutes per day of quality time with a parent, according to Robert Evans, author of “Family Matters: How Schools Can Cope With the Crisis in Childrearing.” The best gift you can give a child is yourself.