HOW CAN WE REDUCE THE NEGATIVE INFLUENCE OF TV ON OUR CHILDREN
New generations and lifestyles bring new challenges. The constant striving of adults for material things leads to a lack of free time, and thus the opportunity to design a creative game with children. Being outdoors and constructive play are often replaced by television and cartoons.
In earlier years, there was not so much presence of television, especially cartoons. The influence of the media on directing the consciousness of the general public was not so strong and represented. The children played outside more, and stayed at home only when the weather did not allow otherwise.
On the one hand, cartoons 10, 20 years ago had a different character. Despite the clear difference between good and bad characters, aggressiveness was significantly less present, as was the rivalry between the characters.
Today, the factor of looks, power and success is highly emphasized, and the "good hero" can use just as aggressive methods as the "evil hero", because he is "good and strong".
The negative impact of watching television, i.e. cartoons, is primarily related to the developmental age of the child.
A child up to 2 years old - should not watch television at all, because at that age he is not able to perceive the meaning of the displayed content, and especially cannot distinguish reality from television content.
Children from 2 to 7 years old - are extremely prone to imitation and learning by model, which means that the child very well "copies" the behavior of persons / characters in his environment who are important to him. The problem is that such characters are often completely inadequate for any kind of identification and that at times they are too aggressive (or they have magical powers: they can fly, shoot spider webs from their hands, jump from the top of skyscrapers onto buildings...) In these aggressive characters, children can see themselves, they want to be like that and while they are watching, they think it is them. If parents do not get involved and explain to them what is reality and what is not (and this happens less and less nowadays, because parents are too busy and leave their children alone in front of the TV), they can understand cartoons as a kind of substitute for real life, which is a hindrance to healthy early development.
Also , children under the age of 7 are not able to assess the intention of a certain behavior. Namely, behavior is placed in the good/bad category, so rules are very important. Such a level of thinking makes it difficult for the child to be selective in the context of seeing the differences between good and bad actions/characters.
The logical consequence of watching TV for several hours a day is that children are motorically clumsy, have a poor vocabulary and have difficulties in verbal expression. Why? Although they have the opportunity to hear a wide range of words, if they do not have the opportunity to practice/use them in live speech, the child is deprived of an extremely important aspect of their development.
Have you ever wondered why a child can't fall asleep after watching a cartoon?
How can we reduce the negative impact of TV on our child?
Limit the time you watch TV and do not deviate from it
Do not watch cartoons early in the morning or at night before going to bed
Choose the content and talk to your child about the content they are watching on television
Turn off the TV during meals/don't eat in front of the TV
Be a good example by regulating your own TV viewing
If you watch television, watch useful, entertaining and educational programs
You regularly go to the nature/park with your child.
Suggest your child engage in other activities, draw, paint, build, shape objects from clay, plasticine..., make interesting paper toys...
Let's make sure that children spend as much time as possible in the air, in sports activities, creative and fun games with family members and peers. Let's develop their creativity, imagination and healthy psycho-physical development!
Pedagogue Nevena Aleksić