Should children watch TV? The answer scares many parents into cold sweats

On the weekend, my best friend came to visit my house with her child Congcong. As soon as we entered the house, Congcong greeted me and then sat on the sofa in the hall to watch TV. Yun pulled me into the back room and said, \”Help me think of a way. You see, my Congcong has become a TV addict.\” It turned out that Yun and Congcong had agreed to review their homework in the morning and spend the afternoon as they pleased. But within a few days, Congcong became a \”TV fan\”. Yun said: \”The child can\’t take his eyes away from the TV at all. It feels like the child is no longer his own child, but the child of the TV.\” There was a summary report from major hospitals across the country, reminding us that after the winter and summer vacations every year , before the start of school, the number of children visiting the hospital for ophthalmology surged. We don\’t know how many children will be like Congcong and become TV fans accidentally. Why are children easily addicted to watching TV? 1. There are specific psychological needs behind all behaviors of psychologically vacant people. Our wrong way of raising children often creates psychological vacancies in children. Whether it is doting or controlling, we often only focus on our own thoughts and fail to pay attention to the actual inner needs of our children. The child is always in a state of psychological vacancy and dissatisfaction, which is an unspeakable pain. When you feel pain, you will want to find someone to rely on, either to someone or to something. The plots and animations on TV can just satisfy the inner desires, so addiction is inevitable. 2. Mistaking TV as a \”nanny\” When children can sing, dance, and play games along with TV programs, we often think that it will promote the child\’s intelligence. But more often than not, TV unknowingly assumes part of the \”nanny\” responsibility. When children are noisy, we often turn on the TV to calm them down due to temporary laziness. Over time, children become addicted to television and become accustomed to it. 3. \”Not allowed to watch, but forced to watch\” As the child grows older, we will feel that watching TV and studying are contradictory. Watching TV will affect learning, thus preventing him from watching TV. But although children are young, they have their own opinions. Sometimes they will have a rebellious mentality because of our obstruction: \”You don\’t let me see, but I insist on seeing.\” \”I don\’t see openly, I see secretly.\” \”I\’m here.\” If I don’t watch it at my own home, I will watch it at other people’s homes. Anyway, I will look for every opportunity to watch TV.” Should children watch TV? A few years ago, experts in the United Kingdom submitted a report to Congress, recommending that the government enact laws to prohibit parents from allowing children under 3 years old to watch television. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children under 2 years old not use electronic products, and that children after 2 years old until preschool can use them selectively. In Australia, children under the age of 2 are explicitly prohibited from watching any TV programs, and children between the ages of 2 and 5 can only watch for one hour a day. Many research reports show that watching TV too early often does more harm than good to children\’s growth and has many invisible harms. Influence on intellectual development In 2013, the neuroscience research team of Tohoku University in Japan published the results of a study on the daily TV viewing time of adolescents aged 5 to 18 years old: children\’s verbal IQ increased proportionally as the time they watched TV increased. decline. Destroying creativity German child psychologist Peter WintersTan and Robert J. Jonweiss demonstrate irrefutably the damage television can do to children\’s creativity. They conducted a \”drawing a little man\” test on two groups of 5-year-old children. The first group watched almost no TV, while the second group watched an average of more than 3 hours of TV a day. The results were clear at a glance. The first row of little people were drawn by children who watch TV for no more than 1 hour a day. The second row of little people were drawn by children who watch TV for more than 3 hours a day. The third row was drawn by children who had unlimited television viewing time and content. It was clear that they had been frightened by the content on television. Another study conducted on children aged 0 to 3 years old showed that if the child is only placed in an environment with the TV on (even if the child does not watch TV), the child will have symptoms of mental retardation (such as frequent changes of toys, frequent changes of toys, etc.) The game method is getting simpler and simpler, the game ends early, the game cannot be concentrated, etc.). Causes psychological problems A study from Japan shows that for every additional hour of TV watching during childhood, the probability of suffering from depression will increase by 8%. The British \”Sunday Times\” once reported: In the UK, the number of children under 14 years old hospitalized for mental illness has soared by 50%, and 3% of school-age children nationwide have suffered from severe depression. Authoritative experts believe that \”television culture\” is an important reason for this problem. Attention-affecting TV attracts children\’s attention with \”fast-moving images\” and \”bright colors\”. With its repeated stimulation, it will affect children\’s conscious attention. Once the conscious attention is affected, the child\’s attention will be easily distracted. Medical experts also pointed out that early exposure to television will greatly increase the chance of children suffering from ADHD. This is also the reason why many children with ADHD can be quiet when watching TV or playing games, but cannot be quiet once they leave the TV and mobile phones, because their cerebral cortex is used to the stimulation of fast movement on TV. Increased Aggression Many studies have proven that children\’s antisocial behavior (lying, cheating, disobedience, running away, etc.) is related to television. All research results indicate that individual aggression is strongly related to long-term viewing of violent images. And 60% of TV programs contain violent scenes. How to prevent television from harming children? After seeing the above research results, do you want to keep your children away from TV immediately? In fact, there is nothing wrong with watching TV in itself. What is wrong is letting children watch it without restraint and choice. So, what should we do to let TV exert its benefits and avoid harming children? 1. Watch less TV and be a role model for your children. \”Mom and Dad can watch it, so I want to watch it too.\” Many children fall in love with television and other electronic products, often under the influence of their parents. You might as well start with me, watch less TV and become a role model for your children. 2. Control the time you watch TV. Control the time you watch TV every day and limit the duration of a single session. For babies under 2 years old, please try not to watch TV. If you really want to watch it, you should limit it to less than 15 minutes a day. Babies aged 2-3 should be limited to 30 minutes a day. For children over 3 years old, about 45 minutes a day is appropriate. School-age children can watch up to one hour a day. One rule must be adhered to: turn off the TV at the specified time without further delay. noIt will be regarded as breach of trust and will be punished accordingly. 3. Watch high-quality programs. Some children’s animations and videos contain violence and evil, which often catch people off guard. We must be children’s eyes and help them select TV programs suitable for viewing. For example, we should watch more TV programs with aesthetic and educational value and avoid those with negative effects. A special study by the China Youth Research Center shows that there are two types of programs that are most suitable for children to watch: one is children\’s literature, such as feature films and cartoons adapted from children\’s literature classics or fairy tales; the other is intellectual works, such as nature adventures , popular science, science fiction and other special films. 4. Once the child has sufficient self-control, he can then take control of himself. Bill Gates, the richest man in the world, once told \”Today\” host Matt Lauer that he believes it is most appropriate for children to start using mobile phones at the age of 13. Bill Gates\’ eldest daughter Jennifer is studying at Stanford University in the United States. She didn\’t get her first mobile phone until she was 14 years old. She also had to strictly limit the time of use and was not allowed to play on the computer for more than 45 minutes a day. 5. Spend time with your children. Children’s addiction to television is just a symptom. The main reason behind it is \”lack of love.\” Children aged 0-6 years old are at the peak of their need for love. Once their inner needs are not met, they will use their own methods to find it. TV programs and animations with perfectly designed plots and stories can just achieve this. . Therefore, psychologists have conducted countless research on TV fans and Internet addicted teenagers and concluded that the number one psychological reason for children prone to addiction is the lack of father\’s love, and the second number is the bad parent-child relationship. We never want to see cold electronic products such as TVs and mobile phones accompanying our children as they grow up. I believe that when we take the time to spend more time with our children, even those who are absolute TV fans will change and accept our company with joy. With more time spent together, children will naturally spend less time occupied by TV. Go on outings with your children, prepare dinner together, do housework together, play games together, and tell stories together. May we follow him and accompany him with love, so that our children can grow up healthy and bathed in love.