Does TV Watching Help or Hurt Toddlers?

If you've ever wondered if watching Dora the Explorer is helping children develop cognitive skills at a younger age, you might be interested in the results of a recent study conducted by the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital in Boston.

Time.com reported that the study, which followed more than 800 children from birth to three years, concluded that the answer is no. The head of the study, research associate Marie Evans Schmidt, considered the amount of time spent watching TV or DVDs, compared to performances in language and motor skills tests.

In 1999, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended that children under 2 years not watch any TV at all. Schmidt's study showed that, on average, children in that age group spent 1.2 hours viewing television. Interestingly, almost 30 percent of parents in a recent survey felt that TV or DVD viewing by children younger than 2 was educational and "good for the brain."

Schmidt's initial analysis showed that babies who spent more time in front of the tube performed worse on language and motor skills tests at age 3 than those that watched less. However, after factoring in other variables such as the mother's educational status and household income, the relationship between watching TV and doing poorly on tests was eliminated.

Schmidt concluded that TV viewing didn't help or hurt babies' brain development. The more important component was the parent's education and finances. Past studies have shown that mothers with less education tend to talk to their children less, while women with higher education talk to their children more and use elaborate detail when doing so.

ABC News quoted Schmidt as saying, "I don't know why people think TV is good for babies. It's probably the way those products have been marketed. Although our study showed no evidence of harm, parents should be aware that infants watching TV may be at risk of obesity, sleep disturbance and possibly attention problems. We don't want this study to be viewed as a license for babies to watch TV because they won't be harmed. It might be that the effects don't show up until children are older."