Kids and TV: What Parents, Teachers and Doctors Say

Kids and TV need not necessarily be a bad mix, but as you may have probably gleaned from the first part of this article, sometimes, a little or no TV at all may actually do our kids more good.

Teachers on TV-watching
Genevieve Aspillaga, M.A., or Teacher Gen, is  a preschool teacher and the school administrator of Progressive Little Saints Learning Center. In her opinion, TV shows can be considered “amoral, like money,” because “it can be good or bad, depending on how you use it. It can be used as an educational tool for children that will definitely be to their benefit. Television can be informative with a lot of guidance and processing from an adult.”

“However, its improper use can definitely be detrimental to a child's development and health. This can happen if the tube takes the place of an adult as a teacher / facilitator . Adults should be educated on how to make the television an appropriate `helper,’" says Teacher Gen.
 
She explains further: “Everything that a child experiences, especially during the formative years, makes an impression. It is part and parcel of the environmental influence (as opposed to what they have inherited). The extent of influence may depend upon the amount of exposure time to the concepts of the TV show and the parental or adult involvement in processing what is being watched.”

On the effects of TV-watching on a child’s personality and/or development, Teacher Gen says that children can actually “develop critical thinking skills when adults guide them through the TV-watching experience.”