Comments on: TV as a Parenting Tool?

By: The Attached Family » Letter to the Editor: The Truth about TV

The Attached Family » Letter to the Editor: The Truth about TV — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 19:35:55 +0000

[...] the Editor was written in response to an article published on The Attached Family on July 28, 2009, “TV as a Teaching Tool?” The topics on The Attached Family are open for discussion, and readers are welcome to write articles [...]

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 03:33:54 +0000

Thanks for this balanced article. In our home we probably watch more TV than many other AP families do, something I’ve always felt a little guilty about. However, this tends to be limited to morning news shows and evening “prime time” television, which we’ve found our son (now 17 months) completely ignores. Every now and then he will glance up at the TV and comment on what he sees (“truck!”, for example), but for the most part, he doesn’t pay much attention.

Once a day we will play a video for him (it’s become part of his pre-nap routine), and these are the only times he really watches TV. We play various Baby Einstein videos, nature documentaries, and “Signing Time”, and we watch with him, discussing what we see. He has learned a great deal from these TV watching sessions, including lots of sign language and words for many animals and objects he may not otherwise have encountered. He even identified a moose on TV recently — and we aren’t sure where he learned that word!

We have found TV to be another fun way to interact with our son, and it’s refreshing to see an article that doesn’t dismiss it out of hand.

By: Maria R.

Maria R. — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:09:17 +0000

Thank you for an informative, balanced article. For those who are interested, there’s a recent book called Into the Minds of Babes that goes through all the studies on toddler and TV. Background TV is the most harmful, and as this article said, educational TV is associated with slight but positive increases in standardized tests. Being informed is key to being a great attached parent! PS The author’s site for the book is here: http://www.lisaguernsey.com/books/booksIntoTheMindsOfBabes.htm I have no connection with the author except I thought the book was well done.

By: Dawn J.

Dawn J. — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 01:29:28 +0000

How refreshing to find a positive article on the selective use of TV. We are deeply involved Attachment parents, and made the decision that since our son is breastfeeding beyond the first year of life, sleeps with us, has a huge range of social activities with both AP parents and children, runs around in nature with his folks, loves books, and attends music classes with his mama, that TV in our home is not going to stunt his development. We do use it sparingly, never watching anything with commercials. But he loves to watch Planet Earth in the evenings, snuggling up in Dada’s lap and listening to Attenborough’s voice while watching the whales. And he’s a big fan of Curious George on PBS. Thanks so much for your writing!