Quote Originally Posted by Fun&care View Post
I often think and wonder why TV has such a bad rap. If you look at someone reading a book vs watching TV there aren't many differences aside from the obvious fact that the one reading is practicing, well, reading skills. But both parties are sitting and processing a story. Why is it the end of the world if the story is coming from a screen? Plus so many shows are educational these days and like someone else mentioned TV can actually be great for developing vocabulary, I see a huge difference in my kids French skills when French TV is on more often.

I am in no way saying that it's ok to plop kids in front of the TV all day. We do have set limits for screen time here and at our house TV, ipad etc all count into that time. It's just that I've actually been putting a lot of thought into this issue lately. It was bothering me that my son plays a lot of video games with his dad but when I take a step back I realize that there is actually a lot of problem solving (at least in the games they play....no violent stuff here) and other elements such as achieving goals and needing a certain amount of "coins" or whatever to "buy" things....that doesn't seem so bad after all, it's actually kind of educational in its own way.

And in the end, I grew up with restricted TV, while hubby played video games hours upon hours and guess what? We BOTH turned into productive members of society. So who knows. Like everything else, moderation and balance is key.
There is actually a HUGE difference between reading a book and watching tv. I won't even pretend to understand it enough to properly explain it but there is plenty of research that has looked at what is happening in the brain while watching tv, and different types of tv and the brain is going on rapid fire overload. Research shows that while watching tv the brain is reacting the same as it does when under attack, the brain is in fight or flight mode trying to access the situation.

The reason I try to stick with the show caillou is one of the studies looked at the difference between todays common cartoons and caillou since caillou is incredibly slow moving and has very little stimuli in it the children's brains were much calmer in response than to other shows.

I am not against tv by any means but I do limit it for young children, I don't think it is wise to have it on in the background all day and I think it is worthwhile to choose your shows wisely. It is incredibly different than reading a book. Brains need time to process and rest. Tv does not allow this. Using tv for 'rest' time is counteractive as while the child's body is still it is only because their brain is so overloaded that the body freezes trying to process. The brain can't process anything it has learned until it sleeps therefore sleep is more important than rest.

There is no doubt that there is plenty to learn through tv and other screen time. But the brain can't actually learn it if it is overloaded and on high alert...so the brain needs a break from the screen to process and learn. Which basically brings it all back to having set limits on screen time. But, reading and tv are incredibly different in what is happening in the brain.