The kids who don't watch TV

DURBAN: 060314 Learning PICTURE: GCINA NDWALANE

DURBAN: 060314 Learning PICTURE: GCINA NDWALANE

Published Mar 24, 2014

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Durban - My son, who is nearly three, wakes at 6am every day. That includes Saturdays and Sundays.

 I’m certain all little children have a penchant for prising their parents’ eyelids open, shouting in their ears and claiming everything, including hunger, to drag us out of bed.

In December I devised a plan. It was called DStv.

And he bothered me less. I could fall back to sleep on the couch so long as Handy Manny, Thomas The Train and Barney and Friends were around.

My plan has, however, backfired, because now cartoons are all we watch and we seem to be watching them all the time.

Is television all that bad? “Yes, nitwit,” everyone says.

The American Paediatric Association issued a caution in 1999, urging parents to avoid exposure to the screen for children aged two and younger.

 In 2008, the CSA (French Broadcasting Authority) banned the screening of programmes designed for children less than three.

Yet, everyone who knows this, watches TV and allows their children to.

I decided to track down a family who weren’t just anti-TV but lived by that principle.

Reservoir Hill’s couple Lorna and Nandha Soobramoney gladly offered their story but chose to clarify that TV is just the technology – it’s the nature of programming they take issue with.

The academic and the stay-at-home mom have been raising their four children in a house without a television for more than 20 years.

They are not allowed television. They own computers and receive cellphones in matric but Mxit, Facebook and general chat spaces are not allowed.

Lorna says it was a conscious choice that she would stay home with the children and raise them the best way they knew how.

As a result, she says: “The kids love the public library and enjoy reading. They also play sports after school each day.

“TV has never been an issue, in fact, when we go away on holiday and find a TV set in our hotel room – I am always the first to switch it on. It has never been a factor in their lives.”

Incidentally, all four children excel academically and their parents have not experienced any teenage “drama”.

While their choice is inconceivable for me, Lorna says it is received by others with admiration and respect.

“I think people respect us more, once they understand our values,” she says of friends and family.

One of the reasons they are what you might call anti-TV is the way in which relationships are portrayed.

“We found that almost everything on TV – including cartoons and kiddie movies – had a romance at its core. We didn’t want that to be a central focus in our children’s lives.”

The children were allowed to date.

Lorna says when one of her sons met a girl he liked, he approached them first to ask if he could get permission from her parents to call her.

“Dating” is clearly different for these children who, from the sound of it, don’t leap into relationships.

Lorna explains, “Our kids know better than to play with someone else’s feelings. For instance we don’t just say ‘I love you’ to anyone. We’ve taught them not to make promises and break them.”

The family perceives the world differently from the mainstream.

And the parents in this situation have been able to fashion who their children will be.

For someone like me, the idea is appealing, but seemingly impossible and perhaps too extreme.

However, by virtue of the fact that these children are so different, it does prove that the removal of multimedia streaming into the lives of children gives parents a better chance at being the ones to raise their children.

Carolyn Robinson, principal at Tree Tops School in Musgrave, says TV can be a good or bad thing in the lives of young children, depending on what they watch and how often they do so.

“Parents should ask themselves whether the content is developmentally appropriate and whether it has been designed for young children.

“Often bright colours, lights, music and rapid changes are created to specifically ‘hook’ children’s attention (and reward them by releasing dopamine in the brain).”

She also warns against commercials flighted between children’s programmes, deliberately aimed at children and getting them to want the various material objects. “It builds a first level of consumerism/brand conscious kids who develop what the advertising industry sometimes refers to as ‘pester power’.”

Other factors include where the TV is situated in the home, and whether children watch alone or with an adult.

She says, “The answers to all these questions, taken together, will indicate whether the way a child is experiencing TV is having negative effects – or if the effects are neutral or even positive.”

Liz Victor, of Toptots and author of Play Learn Know (Metz Press), says there is overwhelming research against TV and at least enough to suggest parents limit the amount of time their children spend in front of the TV.

Her advice is to keep young children, under 3, active rather than passive, to develop pathways in the brain for later learning.

“Toddlers cannot distinguish between on screen and reality, and excessive viewing leads to unsocial behaviour. Studies show that 8 to 16-month-olds who watch more than an hour of TV a day when compared to others understand six to eight words less.

“Excessive screen time can lead to lack of concentration leading to attention deficit disorder in children under 7. Not being active leads to obesity, which in turn can lead to early onset of puberty.”

Robinson says, “TV as a medium is not necessarily an evil for children, rather it is how access and content are controlled by parents.

“It is necessary to protect children against the negative influences of TV, while gradually educating them in ‘media literacy’, so that they can become ‘critical viewers’ in the future.”

Robinson offers these general recommendations regarding TV viewing:

* Ideally young children should not watch TV during the school week (Monday to Thursday). It should be reserved as a weekend treat. Otherwise TV should be limited to half an hour or a maximum of an hour’s viewing daily.

Negative spin-offs of too much TV include: diminished imagination, imitative behaviour and speech, desensitisation and a lack of empathy (which can include acting-out of more anti-social behaviour), less interest in books/leisure reading or activities that require concentration, more limited vocabulary. It also has a negative correlation with educational achievement.

* Children should not watch TV in the hour before they go to bed, as research clearly indicates the link between this and disturbed sleep – with resultant tiredness. This time is best spent in quiet, interactive activities – including bed-time stories.

Watching TV in the morning, before going to school, is inclined to negatively affect children’s ability to settle down and focus on early morning activities.

* Content is very important and there are not a lot of good children’s TV programmes available. Many of them are cartoons and most of them are loud, noisy and violent. In addition, the message in many of them is “kids rule”, with adults portrayed as being less intelligent and not respected.

The better children’s TV programmes and DVDs move in “real-time” and have clear, appropriate language models. It is worth recording good programmes and DVDs, as you can then edit out advertisements and play them at times convenient to the family.

Also, you can press pause to give an explanation or to discuss some important point – about kindness, facing fears, inappropriate behaviour etc.

Children also enjoy documentaries about nature, cooking and we have even had those who have loved watching antique roadshows or home redecoration projects.

* Children should ideally not watch programmes/DVD’s alone (unless you have sat through them with them before). Children need an adult present to mediate meaning in most situations. However, if they have seen it once they can watch it alone at another time – and young children enjoy repetition.

* Never have a TV placed in a child’s bedroom.

It is also interesting that visual-based instruction in the classroom, including TV, has been found to have little positive effect on learning outcomes in older students. (According to Visible Learning, A Synthesis of Over 800 Meba, Analyses Relating to Achievement by John Hattie). - The Mercury

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