Television may interfere with playtime. (Michael Temchine for The New York Times)Many parents watch the news or other shows as children play nearby. But new research shows that even when the television is just background noise, it may be disruptive to a child’s normal development.
It’s estimated that 75 percent of very young children in the United States live in homes where the television is on most of the time, even though the kids often aren’t watching it. University of Massachusetts researchers recently studied how TV background noise might affect young children. The study, published in the current issue of the journal Child Development, looked at 50 1-, 2- and 3-year-olds. Each child came to a lab with a parent and was allowed to play for an hour with various toys. For half the time, a television was on in the room, showing an episode of the adult game show Jeopardy! as well as commercials. During the other half hour, the TV was turned off.
As expected, the children paid little attention to the adult television show, glancing at it for less than a few seconds at a time, and less than once a minute. Even so, the distraction of the background noise had a significant effect on how children at every age played. When the television was on, the children played with each toy for significantly shorter periods of time, and focused attention during play was also shorter compared to how they played when the TV was off.
Researchers said that even though the children weren’t interested in the show, background TV is an “ever-changing audiovisual distractor” that disrupts their ability to sustain various types of play. The finding is important because many well-meaning parents who wouldn’t let their young children watch television may not realize that even adult programs that don’t interest children still can have an effect.
“Background TV is potentially a chronic environmental risk factor affecting most American children,” said Marie Evans Schmidt, a research associate at the Center on Media and Child Health at Children’s Hospital in Boston and lead author of the study, in a news release. “Parents should limit their young children’s exposure.”
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What role do the images play (versus sound)? Does radio have the same effect?
— koWhat about background radio noise (be it news, music, etc.)? Was that studied at all? Just curious…
FROM TPP — To you and other readers who have asked this, good question. Not studied though.
— KathySome people might think that this article borders on the hysterical, but I’m inclined to agree with it. I find that TV audio is horrible to put up with when I’m trying to do something else, even something as mundane as washing dishes.
The worst program I’ve experienced is CBS’s “The Amazing Race”, a “reality” show where contestants follow clues and navigate their way around the world. The show’s dialog is typically frantic and incoherent, often amounting to little more than “Go! Go! Go!”. On top of that, the music score sounds like a distressed cat running up and down a synthesizer keyboard. It’s intolerable to listen to and I can’t imagine how anyone could watch it for very long.
— Mark StallardThis applies to adults, too! I know I can’t seem to concentrate as well, whether on work or reading or a conversation, when there’s a TV burbling in the background.
TV is for suckas.
— yunkstahnChildren are not the only ones affected. I hate going to a sports bar because of the distractions constantly going on and no matter how hard I try to have a conversation it never succeeds.
— RichDid they study whether radio had the same effect?
— StephanieFROM TPP — Not studied. I would think it would be different — it’s an audio distraction but not visual.
Soon after moving into our two-story house, we (the parents) banned TV from the downstairs (all the toys are downstairs, in a room right off the kitchen). The increase in the level of happiness, serenity for all of us, and the decrease in bickering (amongst the children) is incredible. We’ve now had no TV downstairs for six years. Life is much more enjoyable for us all, and I encourage others to try this as an experiment. We build more with Legos, dance more, cook together more as a family, play more board games, play more chess, and play the piano more than we did before. The kids do more arts and crafts than before. To watch television, they have to walk upstairs, and they sometimes do that. Overall, they watch less TV than before, I watch far, far less than before, and there is no background noise of TV downstairs. Has anyone else tried something like this? I can’t emphasize enough how much more content I am with life overall after making this small change.
— acwvery interesting info
— pueblo2Are adults damaging their own ability to pay attention if they have TV in the background? What about just music on CD, radio, TV?
— DarcyI have the TV turned on in the background at home while I use the computer. I use the TV as a way to keep track of time….change of programs means time is flying past. I tried putting a little clock program on the desktop, a real digital clock on the monitor…I ignored them all.
The best thing that tells me it’s time to get off the Great Distractor (computer and Internet) is a lamp timer that turns off the main light in the room. But it needs to turn off every ten minutes. Better still would be a program that turns the computer off!
I remember a study that said it slowed down the rate at which they learned to speak as well…
— SusannaI can attest to this. We’ve resorted to TV as a distraction when cooped up in hotel rooms (just to get the diaper changed or the coat buttoned) and it definitely makes kids scatty for a while.
I suspect radio has a similar but less extreme effect. Noise pollution is bad enough without the visual pollution of TV as well.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with watching TV together, and interacting about what is happening. But trying to think clearly while there is background noise is impossible.
What about childcare centres with a constant soundtrack? Sounds so cheerful on the tour doesn’t it? But I suspect the kids are more scatterbrained than usual with it being constantly noisy.
— JillyFlowerWhat about playing in a room where someone has a desktop or laptop and is surfing the web? watching youtube? would that audio and visual have an effect on the kids as well?
— AnneThis reminds me of a study published last year whose results showed a relationship between attention deficit disorder by age seven and TV watching before three. This study was published in the journal Pediatrics in 2007 by F. Zimmerman and D. Christakis.
Here’s the abstract:
— AnnieOBJECTIVE. Television and video/DVD viewing among very young children has become both pervasive and heavy. Previous studies have reported an association between early media exposure and problems with attention regulation but did not have data on the content type that children watched. We tested the hypothesis that early television viewing of 3 content types is associated with subsequent attentional problems. The 3 different content types are educational, nonviolent entertainment, and violent entertainment.
METHODS. Participants were children in a nationally representative sample collected in 1997 and reassessed in 2002. The analysis was a logistic regression of a high score on a validated parent-reported measure of attentional problems, regressed on early television exposure by content and several important sociodemographic control variables.
RESULTS. Viewing of educational television before age 3 was not associated with attentional problems 5 years later. However, viewing of either violent or nonviolent entertainment television before age 3 was significantly associated with subsequent attentional problems, and the magnitude of the association was large. Viewing of any content type at ages 4 to 5 was not associated with subsequent problems.
CONCLUSIONS. The association between early television viewing and subsequent attentional problems is specific to noneducational viewing and to viewing before age 3.
Poster #9, I also use the TV as a “timekeeper” and keep it on much of the day while I work at home, although I ignore most of the content of the shows that are on.
I find that I can totally ignore spoken voice on TV or radio while I read, but I have serious difficulty tuning out music. Music tends to engage my brain in a way that speaking doesn’t. I’ve always wondered what a brain scan would show if I were hooked up while attempting to read and listen to music vs. listening to people speak.
By the way, this causes endless arguments with my husband, who wants to have relaxing evenings where we both read with music playing, which I can rarely do - I would rather have the TV on as background, but he says he can’t ignore the TV. I think most people are more like him, and enjoy music while reading or studying, but it just doesn’t work for me. I wonder what the breakdown is of people who can successfully read with TV vs. with music only.
— erica56There is a really well researched book called “Into the Minds of Babes: How Screen Time Affects Children from Birth to Age…” which mentions the negative effect of a NPR type news radio show.
— nmanI don’t know about children, but I hate the way television has become ubiquitous. You can’t go anywhere — bank, doctor’s office, restaurant — and escape the babble box. The worst example I’ve seen recently was in the hospital. My husband and his roommate each had their own television, but the roommate kept his turned on 24 hours a day. Even at low volume, it was a huge distraction. My husband — normally a voracious reader — could not concentrate well enough to read, slept poorly, and came home exhausted.
— perraIs the prevalence of “attentional” disorders surprising? Good to see that other research confirms the issues associated with constant television.
On occasion, adults may want to experiment with talking to children.
At one time it was considered rude to have guests or others in one’s presence or in conversation with the telephone on. There was some thinking that the human interaction was more significant that the human-machine interaction.
Today, not only is a child’s development hindered by the perpetual media surround, but an unspoken yet pernicious sense of the value of human connection is conveyed.
— marymaryAS a child my sister and I played for hours in our play room without tv, we had toys and our imagination! That was good enough! Nothing irritates me more than a tv as a babysitter for parents! Now children are watching tv before than can even crawl. If turning off the tv will help the child’s brain and play function turn off ther tv! Or have a playroom where they aren’t distracted by anything else but their toys.
Even now I find I am watching less tv, I cut cable several years ago and watch it on antenna ( of course I have a converter box now) I only turn it on to check the weather if we are having a storm, but other wise have turned it off and kept it that way.
— Lady OObviously TV is a distraction that parents could monitor. But what about distractions in child care environments.
Aren’t small groups distracting to other small groups. Children are evaluated independently but, the groups they work in can be very distracting.
— swpThe best thing we ever did was to get rid of our tv. It was a huge thing, and when it spent two weeks in the repair shop the quality of our lives improved so much that we didn’t want it back. The women’s shelter was very glad to get it and we haven’t regretted it one iota.
— e.l.If only my mother were alive so I could shove this in her face.
— JenKNone of this surprises me. My pivotal book on this was Jane Healy’s “Endangered Minds” which explored how the ubiquitous presence of TV and other media affect a child’s developing brain. It was impossible for me to read the book on only one level: I read it initially as a new parent, but I kept realizing, as I read it, that the harmful effects she described were ones I had experienced myself when I watched way too much TV as a kid. Particularly as it subverted homework. The minute that got too tough or too dry, there was the not-so-distant siren sound of the 70s TV shows that my older siblings were watching. Does anyone remember “Love, American Style?”
Anyway, I still think the Healy book is excellent.
— francoisWhen I was a kid, I spent summer days at a friend’s house (my mom paid her mom to watch me and my sister while my folks were at work). We were allowed to watch one commercial-free movie per week (Sound of Music and the like). Instead of idling our time away, we staged plays (written by yours truly), dug to “China”, climbed tress, rode bikes, had lemonade stands, sold fortunes, bead work, and hand-painted rocks while dressed in gypsy costumes (mostly in hopes that it would fund the afore mentioned plays), “cooked” with water, dirt, and other yard debris, etc, etc. I never remember being bored or wishing the t.v. was available.
Now, at 27, I am the mother of two young girls (7 and 3). We do not own a television. Our house (aside from the noise from the kids) is quiet and peaceful. My oldest had television for the first few years of her life and does complain of boredom, wishing for t.v. occasionally, but we just redirect her outside or to art supplies, and she gets over it. My youngest could care less about television… she is far too busy playing with puzzles, little animal figurines, coloring, playing in the yard, dancing, looking at books, etc. Whenever they start squabbling with each other, my husband and I just switch on some music, and, immediately, their energy seems to change for the better. I do let them watch dvds on occasion (Backyardigans, Disney animated films, some classic family stuff), but I avoid exposing them to commercial television as much as possible (doesn’t always work at the grandparents’ houses). I do see a huge difference in their play and overall behavior when we are at grandma’s with the t.v. on. Partially, I think it is grandma’s presence (she spoils them rotten), but partially I think that the t.v. disorganizes their moods. They have far more arguments, fits, etc when we are at grandma’s and the t.v. is on.
Comparatively, my youngest, who has never had a television at home, is much more self-entertaining and has a much longer attention span than my older daughter, who (at every age) wants much higher degrees of novelty and faster pacing in all aspects of everyday life.
— BrynOkay, so background TV is distracting to children during their play time. To say that this has a bearing on a ‘child’s normal development’ or claim it presents a ‘chronic environmental risk factor’ is, I think, a gross exaggeration of the study’s findings.
— apWe do not need ‘research’ to tell us that TV noise is harmful. MORE than harmful. It is an evil which is welcomed into contemporary homes. And not only to children.
— San YingBackground music no matter what the quality also attacks our right to ‘brain space’. We are developing into a monstrous and fearful species. And wonder WHY !!!!!!!!!!!!!