Pedagogy

    The development of a child from birth till they reach the age of five years old is very critical.  It is not only the physical development of the child that is vital at this early age, but their social and emotional development is also being shaped by what they are learning at this stage. Watching television has become so much a part of todays children daily life, it was said that on the average a particular child is spending more or less eight hours in front of the television.  If this is the case, one can just imagine the impact and influence of this medium of communication to a childs brain development.

    A number of studies have been conducted to explore the effects of watching television on young children.  Is it positively or negatively affecting a young childs brain and language development This is the most common underlying interest that fuelled studies on this particular concern. Although one can argue that delayed in language development cant only be attributed to watching childrens programs on television, and that such is caused by a complex interaction between a childs biological development and the environment that influences his or her personal and cognitive development. This paper will limit its presentation and discussion on the effects of watching television on a young childs language development.

To address the said concern, this paper will then review three studies that look and explore the correlation between watching television and its effects on the language development of young children.  This paper will explore if indeed watching television is detrimental to young childrens language development.

Review of Literature
    An article that was published in Newsweek last August 2007 highlighted the findings of a study conducted by a group of pediatrics from the University of Washington. Results of the study which was published in the Journal of Pediatrics, showed that watching television, in particular children educational and non-educational shows as well like Sesame Street and SpongeBob, respectively, have not contributed much on the language development of the children watching it (Interlandi, 2007). The study even cited that even educational videos that were developed to primarily help or assist in the language development of children have fallen short of the expectation that they will help boost childrens cognitive skills development (Interlandi, 2007).  A comparison between children who are frequently watching the shows and those who doesnt showed that in a set of ninety (90) words, those who are watching TV learned a little less than eight words than children who are not exposed to television. However, researchers raised the concern that instead of answers this study has resulted to more questions (Interlandi, 2007).  The researchers didnt claim that the results of this study is absolute, instead, more studies or researches in this concern were suggested by the researchers. This study was declared just the start of a number of studies that will still be conducted to determine the effects of watching television on the language development of very young children.

    The study entitled Teaching by Listening The Importance of Adult-Child Conversations to Language Development, and was conducted by Zimmerman (2008) have examined the effects of television viewing on the language development of younger children. This study has presented interesting findings with regards to the correlation between watching television and language development of young children. The study was participated by a total of 334 respondents. The sample excluded parents who reported that their children are experiencing delay in language development. The research heavily depends on the active and honest participation of the parents, since the monitoring and reporting of data were done by the parents themselves. Parents, according to Zimmerman (2008) were told to monitor the time their child woke up and the time they go to bed, with the option of not reporting that which they think will intrude the familys privacy. The monitoring and recording were done for a period of six months deploying the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) software (Zimmerman, 2008). Together with a hardware which can fit a small pocket, the software is actually a digital sound analyzer that produces estimates of the childs exposure to adult speech, child speech, and television during the recording period (Zimmerman , 2008). The research also takes into consideration the environment that surrounds the children.  Such environmental factors that are considered in this study are the following homes, playgrounds, schools, and anywhere else where children hear and use language (Zimmerman, 2008).

The study did not only focus on the effect of television on the language development of the child, it also examined the effects of adult-child conversation on the development of the childs language. Cross-sectional and longitudinal regression analyses were the statistical treatment that Zimmerman (2008) applied in the study. The following are the variables that were considered in the study measures of adult word count, conversational turns, and television (Zimmerman, 2008).  Software called Infoture was also used to analyzed the sounds.  This software has the capability to distinguish if the sound comes from a television program or not.

    Results of the study revealed that between adult-child conversation and watching television, the former was proven to be a better means of boosting the language development of the child. Even if parents andor guardians are not actually conversing with the child, a simple act of reading to them a story is already a big boost on the childs language development as compared to the child watching the story being told via a television program or DVD. Watching television alone was proven not helpful at all instead it is even contributing to delays in the language development, even adversely affecting the mathematical skills development, of younger children. According to Zimmerman (2008), television has an adverse affect on the language development of a young child, because it limits the input of the parent andor guardian in the childs language development.  Interaction between adult and a child who is just learning how to speak and comprehend the meaning of the words is very crucial in their language development. The study further emphasized that simply allowing the child to watch television, without provision for communication and interaction with any adult, is actually a very poor measure or means of enriching the vocabulary of young children. Parents and guardians are advised then not to leave the language learning development of their young child on these mediums.

    In summary, the study encourages adult-child conversation over watching television if the parent wished to boost the healthy and effective language development of their young children.

    Third of the study on effects of watching television on younger childrens language development that this paper will present is the other study conducted by Dr. Zimmerman and Dr. Meltzoff (2006). The objective of the study is to determine if there is any relationship between media exposure and language development of children who are under two years old. The scope of this study, in terms of sample size, is much bigger than the previous study that was presented.  A total of 1008 parents with children who are 2 or less than two years old were tapped to participate in this study. The survey was done via telephone. The parents were asked if their young children are watching television shows or DVDs.  If the parent answered yes, what follows next is the identification of the type of program that they normally watched with their young children also watching it. The shows were grouped as follows childrens educational programs or shows in TV (e.g. Sesame Street), childrens non-educational shows (e.g., cartoons like SpongeBob, Bob the Builder, etc.), cartoon network shows, childrens movies on DVDs, baby DVDs, and adult shows or programs (e.g., Oprah) (Zimmerman and Meltzoff, 2006). The only responses that were considered are those where the child is primarily watching the show and not just when the said television program is being shown, but the child is not primarily watching. This is to ensure that only those times that their young child is really paying close attention to what they are watching.

    The tool used to measure the results of this study is the Communicative Development Inventory (CDI).  The Communicative Development Inventory was developed to measure the relationship between childrens language and experimental tests of neural, cognitive, and social development it is a standard language development measurement tool (Zimmerman and Meltzoff, 2006). The statistical test that was used in the study is simple linear regression.

    The results of the study is more of an affirmation of the findings of the first two studies that were presented in this paper, that is watching television is not an effective means of helping the child developed effectively his or her language and communication skills.

    A major finding of the said study is that allowing a young child to view baby DVDs andor videos have a negative effect on their vocabulary development. It is not really that bad to allow young children to view baby DVDs andor videos, but parents are cautioned not to totally depend on it for their childs language development (Zimmerman and Meltzoff, 2006).

    It is also interesting to note that the study have found out that too much time spent on watching baby DVDs andor videos have harmful effects on the childs early language development. This is due to the fact that for the childs brain to develop well, interaction is necessary which is what is missing or not happening when a young child is left alone to learn through television. Simply watching the video doesnt encourage interaction with another individual, in this case an adult who can guide the child on their language development.  The nature of baby DVDs andor videos is more of the absorptive and passive mode on the part of the young child who is viewing it. As highlighted in the previous study presented in this paper, interaction between adult and child is still the most effective means of boosting the language development of a young child.

    Since more younger children are now watching television more than years before, the relevance of the results of the three studies explored in this paper is but timely. It is just but right that parents or guardians be informed of the effects that watching television has on their childs language development. The results of the three studies proved that watching television is indeed detrimental to young childrens language development. Readers of this paper and the three studies should also be informed that there is no specific study that have explored why watching television has such detrimental effect on a young childs language development. Said activity is not helping or boosting at all the language development of very young children who are just starting to learn. Educational DVDs and television programs should not be totally banned by any parent or guardian what this paper would like to stress is that such medium have fallen short of their promise regarding enriching a young childs vocabulary and language development. Given this, parents and guardians should not leave their young childs language development on these mediums of language development tools.

Aside from watching television programs, a neglectful parenting style is also contributory to any delay in language development. As highlighted in one of the three studies that were explored, it have been proven that nothing can be compared to the positive effects of adult-child interactive communication. A number of researches and studies have already proven that a healthy amount of attention given by parents and guardians is an effective means of encouraging younger childrens communication skills development. Active interaction between an adult and a young child is still the best and most helpful means of encouraging healthy and effective language development of a young child.

Aside from the validation of the papers hypothesis that watching television is actually detrimental on the language development of a young child, this paper also presented some issues and findings that needs further probing.  As mentioned already, there is still no specific study or research on the reason(s) why watching television is detrimental to language development. Hence, not all questions have answers already, there is still more to be discovered and explored if one is really to understand and know why watching television has such effect on younger children.