New scientific research shows that toddler TV is totally uneducational. In fact, it is probably only harmful. You learn nothing from it as a toddler, it is just a distraction that inhibits your development.
Toddler TV is Nonsense
3 years ago, we the Dutch got it. The Teletubbies were already there, but now more programs were added. The phenomenon of toddler TV. And yes, it is good for your children. They learn a lot from it and it is good for their development some said.
Others didn't like the idea at all. TV is bad, so toddler TV is no better. Well anyway, it was one against the other.
Now research has shown that at least it does not have a positive effect. Whether it has a negative effect the American psychologists who conducted the study do not know.
The American Academy of Pediatrics once said that one or two hours of toddler TV a day could have a beneficial effect. Since then, that argument has been used to make incredible claims. You would be depriving your child of an incredible caarriere if you didn't do it....
Last Tuesday, the AAP was able to issue a science-based verdict on toddler TV. And that reads: it is good for nothing, and possibly even harmful. In any case, it has nothing to do with education.
AAP educator Ari Brown collected 50 studies on the subject. From these, he found that toddlers don't even know what's on them. Let alone what they can learn from it. It's nothing but a colorful, luminous, attention-getting box.
Probably, watching TV even has a detrimental effect and can even cause a learning disability to prevent children from learning to use their creativity.
Research on this will of course follow, but I think the conclusion may already be clear. TV is hypnotic so watch what you watch before you get all those suggestions instilled in you that you don't want....
Parents and Toddler TV
Parents, in addition to toddler TV, also have a lot of power in giving right and wrong instructions. Many parents are already hypnotists without knowing it only untrained. It certainly can't hurt to listen carefully to what you say to a child. This is because a child between the ages of 2 and 5 is constantly in the Theta state, a state of low brain activity. This is also the optimal learning state and the state we also call hypnosis. So any suggestion is immediately accepted without question.
Only when a child is 8 years old then they can think a little more critically and not everything is assumed. Until then, you as a parent are your children's hypnotist and how your children are has to do with what suggestions you implant in them. Then you better get good at it right?
So a course in hypnosis should really be a must in parenting because that is something you are essentially doing as a parent. Now, however, you have no idea what you can do with that state the child is in.
Sophia Bos
accessed 15 Feb 2012