What is the impact of watching TV on children? Don’t ignore this before the age of 5

\”Why can you adults watch TV, but not children?\” \”You adults are so overbearing!\” My sister-in-law was very angry at her son\’s words. It turned out that my sister-in-law sent her son to my grandma’s house for the summer vacation. After coming back these days, my son stays at home and watches TV every day. He can\’t even shout, as if he wants to catch up on all the cartoons he has missed in the past few years. As soon as the TV is turned off, I lose my temper and do my homework in a perfunctory manner. My sister-in-law said, \”What a good child, why did she become like this?\” In fact, she was not the only one who was worried. Children\’s holidays are a disaster movie for many parents. Before going to work, I gave my children numerous instructions to do their summer homework on time. As a result, when I came home at night and saw the child who was obsessed with the world of animation and didn\’t write a word in his homework, the old mother was so angry that she almost vomited blood. In order to prevent their children from watching TV, parents have tried various tricks such as cutting off the power, hiding set-top boxes, and tempting food, but with little effect, always treating the symptoms rather than the root cause. Children\’s addiction to watching TV is a big headache for many parents. So, should children watch TV? In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has already given clear advice: children under 18 months should avoid using electronic products; children between 18 and 24 months should avoid using electronic products by themselves. Parents can choose high-end electronic products. Watch quality programs with your children to help them understand what they see; children aged 2-5 should not use electronic devices for more than 1 hour a day. Research shows that children watching TV too early and too much often do more harm than good to their growth, and can cause many invisible harms. The Harm of Excessive TV Watching The author of \”The Harm of Television to Children\’s Souls\”, Everett, said: No matter what programs are played on TV, as long as children spend more time sitting in front of the TV, it will be harmful to them. Psychologists believe that watching TV without restraint will greatly damage children\’s ability to persevere. Children who are too young cannot tell the difference between real pictures and reality. The difficulties children see on television are usually easy to resolve. This is not the case with difficulties and setbacks encountered in life. Children will have doubts and doubt their abilities because things are complicated and difficult to handle. Compared with those who do not watch TV often, children who often watch TV tend to lack self-control, behave lazily, and only have three minutes of enthusiasm for doing things. Psychology that affects children\’s language development believes that 0 to 3 years old is the most critical period of life growth, and children need to develop and construct themselves in the real world. Children are addicted to TV, do not communicate with their parents, and are unwilling to play with children. Over time, this will affect the child\’s language development. What’s even more frightening is that it may also affect children’s social skills and make them unsociable or withdrawn. Destroying children\’s imagination, biological psychologist Levey of the University of Chicago pointed out: The brain is like a muscle. If it is not exercised, the brain will atrophy. Children who have been attracted to TV pictures for a long time are like puppets. They are attracted by the colorful pictures on TV, and their creativity and imagination will be greatly reduced. Some scientists have done two sets of experiments: one is listening to the teacher telling the story of Snow WhiteOne group watched the Snow White cartoon, and then the two groups of children were asked to draw the Snow White in their minds. Children who listened to the story drew different Snow Whites in terms of costumes, images, and expressions; children who watched the cartoons drew all the same Snow Whites, because what they saw visually It’s the same Snow White. The answer is self-evident! There are a wide variety of TV programs that affect children\’s mental health. Many scenes that are not suitable for children will affect their mental health if they are seen by children. Several children in the movie \”Kids Are Not Stupid 2\” were watching TV and saw a couple embracing, becoming pregnant, and finally having a big belly. So, a few children played a prank and brought two sleeping children, a boy and a girl, together during a break in the rehearsal program. A few days later, they scared the little boy and said that the little girl was pregnant. Thinking of the TV scenes, both children panicked and were frightened… Children are ignorant and have no ability to distinguish right from wrong. Once they see violence and violence on TV, Horrifying, even inappropriate scenes for children, are likely to cause psychological distress. If children imitate some of the plots, it may even cause certain safety risks. Should we completely stop our children from watching TV? Indeed, letting children watch TV too early or too much will cause certain harm to the child\’s physical and mental development, and may even affect the harmony of the parent-child relationship. However, everything has its two sides, and watching TV is not completely useless. Letting children watch TV moderately and selectively is also an educational method. Canadian scholars once conducted such a study. They chose a remote town without television and an ordinary town with television for comparison. At the beginning, the creativity and reading levels of children in remote towns were far lower than those of children in ordinary towns. After the introduction of television to remote towns, the creativity and reading level of these children increased rapidly, even surpassing that of ordinary towns that originally had television. Two to four years after the introduction of television, these two skills of children in remote towns have improved to basically the same level as children in ordinary towns. This experiment proves that watching TV appropriately can promote children\’s cognitive development, and excessive addiction is a problem. There is a hot topic on Zhihu: Should 3-year-old children be banned from watching TV? One of the answers with the most likes is: Cartoon itself is a carrier, a carrier for children to be interested in and easily accept new things. The real meaning is to help you build a bridge of communication and interaction with your child. As parents, we must make full use of this bridge, enter the child\’s heart, and impart knowledge to him. …I deeply agree. Television is not a scourge. If used properly, it can also be an educational tool. Watching TV is not terrible. What is terrible is watching TV without restraint and choice. The correct way to watch TV: Children always have to go to school and have contact with other people. It is impossible for us to create a \”vacuum zone\” for children to insulate them from TV and lose touch with society. How to watch TV depends on guidance, not \”interception\”. So, what can you do to get your children to watch TV in a controlled manner? Agree on how long to watch TV. Before my child was 2 years old, the TV wasA decoration. After the child is 2 years old, watching TV is agreed by both parties. The earliest is to watch 2 episodes of cartoons a day. In addition to the one hour before eating and going to bed, they can choose the time period they want to watch TV. As the age increases, the number of cartoon episodes also increases, but the single time needs to be controlled within 20 minutes, and no more than 1 hour a day. The establishment of this rule requires both parents and children to adhere to it. It will be somewhat difficult at the beginning. Children sometimes cry and bargain, which tests the determination of parents. When your children see that you persist, they will gradually develop this habit. When the agreed number of episodes is reached, they will consciously turn off the TV. Looking for alternatives to divert attention. I am a person who loves to read. I usually like to read books. My two children have gradually developed a good habit of reading. When they find that the things in books are much more interesting than cartoons, they won\’t touch TV for ten days and a half. A large part of the reason why children are addicted to television is because we don’t give them enough companionship. Therefore, we can give our children more company, build blocks with them, play house, etc., and use the power of games to shift their dependence on TV. When parents give their children more love and care, they will naturally forget about television. Yin Jianli, a child education expert who cultivates children\’s self-control, shared the story of her daughter Yuanyuan watching TV in the article \”How to Make Children Consciously Watch Less TV.\” When Yuanyuan was in elementary school, \”Huan Zhu Ge Ge\” was on the air, and she was fascinated by Little Swallow. There is a conflict between watching TV, doing homework and practicing erhu. Mom suggested to Yuanyuan that she could practice erhu at home and then do her homework. Because of the trust of her parents, Yuanyuan coordinated these things very well. In order to make it easier for her to go home and watch TV at night, she made full use of all the scattered time at school. When she got home, she found every opportunity to write and complete her homework. My mother has never \”controlled\” Yuanyuan when it comes to watching TV, but has always used a nurturing approach to solve problems. Instead of controlling the child\’s physical actions, we find ways to guide her heart, thus protecting the child\’s consciousness and self-confidence. As teacher Yin Jianli said: We should try to reduce temptations in the environment as much as possible instead of persuading children to resist temptations; we should use \”humanity\” to sympathize with children rather than use \”divinity\” to demand children. Allowing children to develop the power of \”self-control\” and develop good habits is the fundamental solution to the problem.