As you probably already know, the American Academy of Pediatrics in 2001 recommended that children under the age of 2 watch no television. It caused quite a stir at the time, and I've been told by many parents and experts that few are following the recommendation.
Now comes a similar recommendation from the Australians.
Research by the Royal Melbourne Children's Hospital suggests that children under the age of two should not watch any TV at all. The researchers have written guidelines for the Federal Government as part of the Get Up and Grow guidelines to reduce childhood obesity. They are designed specifically for child care centers but also provide some advice for parents.
Statistics show that four-month-old infants in Australia watch on average 44 minutes of TV each day and children under the age of four with pay TV at home spend at least three hours a day in front of the screen.
A senior lecturer in Child Development at the University of South Australia, Glenn Cuppitt, says the new guidelines are a measure of desperation to encourage children to be active and to interact with others.
"A measure of desperation." Hmmm. When did active and interactive children become so uncommon that we had to resort to desperate measures to get them to move and play together? And, trust me, this is not the case only in Australia!
It's mind set you have to break. Many don't have the time to find alternatives. If they go cold turkey what will they do when they need a break; do the dinner etc. Where's the harm they're only little is often told to me. I wish brain research could be much more easily digested for everyone instead of the lets do everything fast approach that's been misinterpreted from brain research.
Posted by: Melitsa | October 13, 2009 at 11:38 AM
People tend to do the things for what they are supposed to just for the sake of their time pass and fun.These things are very much interesting and worth implementing when needed.
Posted by: r4i | November 28, 2009 at 02:35 AM