I was viewing some of the posts here the other day regarding TV and babies. It got me thinking and the result is my current blog post. You can read it here http://teachingbabytoread.com/2012/03/09/tv-and-babies-under-2.aspx.
Screen time, namely LR and a few other educational DVD’s, gave my kids the gift of early literacy. Some parents can help their children achieve early literacy through the use of flashcards alone, but for my family it was simply unrealistic to do so. I weighed my options in regards to using screen time to teach reading and never looked back.
Now, my kids pick up books so much that while screen time is still part of their lives, it is not the MAIN part of their lives. Computer/TV learning opened up a whole new world for them in terms of learning to read and the resulting knowledge they have gained through reading books for fun. I wouldn’t change my decision for the world. I believe that early learning has quite literally helped shape who they are as little people, and they would not be who they are now without having had this very formative experience early on.
Every time I hear people up in arms about YBCR and the like it makes me want to vomit, when spongebob, etc, is all the rage. So much for logic, praise the almighty dollar! I still believe that if the ONLY change parents made in regards to their children’s education was to replace broadcast TV with educational TV from the very beginning, the impact would be so tremendous that the school system would probably have to figure out a way to accommodate all of the “gifted” kids miraculously cropping up. I think there will probably be a wave of kids like this in the future on account of the popularity of Ipads and how fast technology enables kids to learn, and when that day comes, I don’t see how the “powers that be” can continue to ignore infant education and technology.
I digress, and I also wholeheartedly agree–lessen the restriction under two within reason. Parents are ignoring it anyway!
I think its all common sense really. There are millions of people without television across the world, and guess what, they have no access to the joy of reading and knowledge (that is not to say they are without joy). You see they (the “experts”) are trying to pinpoint why there is so many ADHD/behaviorally challenged children in the United States. Its pretty easy to just blame the television. Heaven forbid we blame parents or society.
I don’t know much about other societies, but I believe that our (United States) society suppresses the natural tendencies of children. You see from my experience, my children have a tendency to run every where they go. I will wake my child at night from her sleep to take her to the bathroom, and guess what, she runs (half asleep) to the bathroom and back to bed. Its so cute and funny, but its completely natural to her. I do everything in my power to not suppress that. It may look like my kids are wild to others, but to me, I am encouraging their natural and healthy tendency to run. I take them on trails all the time, and guess what, they run. Grocery store? Yep they run there too. Are they polite and look where they are going? Yep as much as you can expect from little ones. Do I care if someone rolls their eyes at me? Nope. Kids are just as likely to run into someone walking as they are running. Sure they could fall, but gosh, skinned knees are nothing in my house. They laugh and move on. I wish someone had let me run like that. I would probably love to run. …Anyway that is my point, they have a natural love to run and I don’t ever want to take that from them.
Babies have a natural love to learn, and lets just equate that as a natural love to live life without restraints…my kids probably seem ADHD to others but really, they are soaking up a lot of material because they love to learn. Do they wiggle and move while learning? Yep, but that is okay. I realize that they can still learn while groving. All day long, my son says, “Mommy, please let me learn something.” ( lol , my response, “Um, Can I make lunch first? I need more energy to learn.”) I use Television and the Computer as resources for my little sponges, and I refused to feel guilty. I will home school my kids because I understand my children, and I know my antiquated society will only suppress their wonderful, natural desires. (My kids do slow down. Thank goodness. Otherwise I would have to learn how to read and run at the same time, and that seems dangerous.) lol
I really enjoyed the article.
This is one of the topics that I really wish I knew more about. I have read over and over that babies need social interaction and really do not learn from tv. This video is a really compelling argument to that. I was curious what you all thought.
Now, this is only one aspect to language learning. My son sings along (says “mu, mu, mu” and also sings the vowels in Spanish) when watching the videos I have made on my youtube channel (www.youtube.com/mindymarissa). I think if he can sing along he must be learning/understanding, right? He is 17 months and has been doing it for a few months already. He also interacts with the Whistlefritz videos. He shouts “no” with the kids in the video. Btw, I think because of this everything I ask him now gets a “no” response. Cute, but annoying.
“http://www.youtube.com/v/cecuiyOh6hg?version=3&hl=en_US”
Anyway, curious to know if anyone has any thoughts. By the way, if you want to see how they tested the babies they actually show a video of the testing in the following video. Sorry for the link I couldn’t figure out how to embed the video to make it play at the right point in the video (it is really long).
That was very interesting. Maybe the reason the test shows negative results from the computer/video learning was because the parent wasn’t involved. That is one great thing about LR/LM. The parent has to be involved, even with the video learning. I can understand not allowing children (of any age) to just sit in front of the TV, but there are so many good programs out there that allow children to learn. A lot of adults watch TV just to unwind. Maybe sometimes young kids want to unwind too! Anyway, I find this topic interesting. In our family, we don’t watch television, mainly because we had to chose between internet service or television service for financial reasons. I read often to my daughter, and she loves it. She also loves the LR/LM and as learned from it in the very short time we have been doing it. But she wouldn’t do any of it if I wasn’t right there with her. Parental involvement must be the key, at least for her. Maybe not with all kids.
These are all good points. I think that video and experience proves how important parental interaction is in any learning process. Certainly, we all wish we could have a nanny who speaks eight languages for our children’s sake, but some of us live below the poverty line. I use television and software to expose my children to other languages, but I am working hard to learn with them (I am trying to stay ahead). I use what I am learning and what they are seeing on the videos and applying the concepts to their play time.
For example, we will play with the dollhouse, and I will use the Spanish words for all the objects inside the doll house. We count everything from cars to dolls in Spanish. We name foods and colors while we are playing in their little kitchen. I ask them questions in Spanish, and the oldest is very good about responding correctly in Spanish. He is now asking me what certain words are in Spanish…I need a pocket dictionary. lol
I went to a bilingual play group the other day to find out that no one spoke Spanish to their children their nor planned on teaching their children Spanish. I was terribly confused by this group. So I am still working on more social interaction in Spanish. They do have a Chinese Language School here, so I am really hoping to get my oldest started there soon. If I was thinking of public schools, I would send my children to the dual-language Spanish/English school…(I am still thinking hard about it, and we will have to see where my Spanish is in two years.)
Technology is more developed, the computer basically everyone has a TV, not to mention.Children each have only one, so the healthy growth of children is the focus of attention of all parents