what age do babies become aware of tv?

Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to cuddle them
while watching a movie with violence, language etc as they might be picking
up on it? I don't want to be exposing my DD to things that might be
influencing her before I'm aware of it - anyone have any data on this?

The simple answer is, very early!

From personal experience, my DS (now 7 months) started responding to
violent, angry noises from TV/film at just before 4 months old. He didn't
like angry voices or hurt voices and seemed visibly upset by them, so my
tv/video watching while he's awake was switched to G rated and non
commercial only from then on. When I need background noise, I try to stick
to radio. I stick to PBS and Noggin (a commercial free preschool tv
network) when I want TV during the day because I've run out of dancing and
singing ideas. I tape and time shift to nap time if I want to watch Law and
Order

From the research crowd:
Recently the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) came out with a
recommendation that parents not allow children under two to watch any
television. The underlying rationale is that there is a critical period of
brain development during these early years that requires interaction with
people and objects to maximize stimulation and growth. They seemed
especially concerned about establishing the use of TV as an electronic
babysitter at an early age.

http://enews.tufts.edu/stories/01220...cesInfants.htm reviews a study
that shows 12 month old children are influenced by the TV they watch,

and I heard a news report although I can't find a link to it that described
a study that showed children as young as 6 months old can start developing
brand loyalty.
Hope this helps!
Heather

"Linda" wrote in message
...
Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to cuddle
them
while watching a movie with violence, language etc as they might be
picking
up on it? I don't want to be exposing my DD to things that might be
influencing her before I'm aware of it - anyone have any data on this?

Linda writes:

Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to cuddle
them while watching a movie with violence, language etc as they might be
picking up on it? I don't want to be exposing my DD to things that might
be influencing her before I'm aware of it - anyone have any data on
this?

If an anecdote will do... :-) When my son was, I think, about four months
old, I took him to a mother-and-baby cinema screening for the first time.
It turned out to be the only time, because the film was emotionally
harrowing in places and it seemed clear to me that Colin was picking up on
that quite strongly. There wasn't violence, just people being upset.

Having said that, looking around it did really seem to be the case that
most of the other babies were oblivious to what was going on on screen, and
presumably events like this wouldn't show films with such emotional content
if it were common for babies to react as Colin did, because no mother would
go twice... We don't have television, so maybe part of it was that Colin
hadn't learned to ignore it?

It may be that you'll know if they're picking up on it, as I did with Colin
- or maybe it has an influence on them even if there's no visible sign. Not
sure.

Headphones are one option of course - make sure she can't see the screen,
and listen with headphones so she doesn't get the sound. I used to do this
with DVDs on a little portable DVD player when Colin was tiny and used to
do long feeds in the afternoon. Of course you wouldn't want to do this too
much because it interferes with your conversation with the baby.

Sidheag
DS Colin Oct 27 2003

On 2006-02-26 13:22:20 +0800, "Linda" said:

Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to cuddle
them while watching a movie with violence, language etc as they might
be picking up on it? I don't want to be exposing my DD to things that
might be influencing her before I'm aware of it - anyone have any data
on this?

I can't remember where I heard/read this, but babies under 2 shouldn't
watch TV because it is 2 dimentional. Their brains are trying to wire
up for 3D, and seeing 2D stuff moving around un-wires it again, and
then once they look away, they have to re-wire it, etc. It apparently
uses up a lot of energy doing that.

No idea if it's true though, but does make sense.

Jo
--
Woman, Wife, Mother, Midwife

Linda wrote:
Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to
cuddle them while watching a movie with violence, language etc as
they might be picking up on it?

I think it depends on the baby. I have no data, only how my children
reacted. I always kept the volume on real low or muted it during scenes
with a lot of screaming etc. just as a precaution. My first son didn't pay
a bit of attention to the TV and he was quite old before I had to worry
about it. I don't remember for sure but well past one. Then I monitored
what I watched around him as a precaution - he had zero interest in watching
anything from himself until he was closer to 4yo. My second son was much
more sensitive and couldn't fall asleep if the TV was on so I stopped with
him between 4-6mos. As he got older he was just a mess if there was to much
TV. It over stimulated him and really got him going so he was more limited.
FWIW, he loved to watch TV at around age 2-3. If it wasn't for him I don't
think my oldest would have been interested in TV for at least another year.


--
Nikki
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Thing One and Thing Two :-) EDD 4/06

Linda writes:
: Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
: lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to cuddle them
: while watching a movie with violence, language etc as they might be picking
: up on it? I don't want to be exposing my DD to things that might be
: influencing her before I'm aware of it - anyone have any data on this?

Maybe I am extreme, but I would not be exposing a baby to tv programming
with violence any time after birth. Period.

Larry

"Linda" wrote in message
...
Ok I don't mean when they are happy to lie there watching the flashing
lights and hearing the sounds, I mean when is it no longer ok to cuddle
them while watching a movie with violence, language etc as they might be
picking up on it? I don't want to be exposing my DD to things that might
be influencing her before I'm aware of it - anyone have any data on this?


I don't have any data, and I have been wondering the same things. DH and I
are TV addicts, and the TV is on almost all the time (I could give it up,
but no way DH could cope!) Madi is 3 months and likes to watch the pretty
colors (she loves tennis...I think because of the green court).
I definitely do not watch anything with violence or people being angry with
each other (talk shows, etc) because I figure that if babies can be affected
by adults yelling at each other in person, why not on TV? So for me, that's
a definite no-no.
As to other TV? I often will sit with my knees up and her sitting on my
tummy with her back against my knees facing me, so I can make funny faces
and talk with her while we watch, but sometimes I do let her face the TV.
Sometimes I feel bad about that, because we've been conditioned to think
that TV is evil, but so far I've found no data that supports the idea that
watching the TV is any worse then watching an aquarium (for infants). I'll
be interested to see if anyone does have concrete information indicating
that this is bad, because to be honest, it works too well as a soothing tool
to give it up unless I can be shown that it's bad!
So, don't feel alone in the TV watching practice! IMHO, the issue is more
with older kids watching violence or with parents using the TV as a
babysitter.

Amy

A link to find references. Searching infants and television from
www.aap.org or children and television

Irregular sleep patterns and increased risk of ADHD and children as young as
6 months showing brand recognition are considered negatives to children
watching tv. tv as a babysitter is a problem because children need to
interact with adults to learn, and there's a tendency to leave the quiet kid
in front of the tv instead of playing with them.

V. wrote:

I don't have any data, and I have been wondering the same things. DH and I
are TV addicts, and the TV is on almost all the time (I could give it up,
but no way DH could cope!) Madi is 3 months and likes to watch the pretty
colors (she loves tennis...I think because of the green court).

I think the problem with this is a matter of your attention. If you
have the TV on constantly, you are automatically going to be listening
to it more than her. TV demands your attention - people get paid
millions of dollars to find new and clever ways of getting your
attention and keeping it so that you'll see more commercials and buy
more stuff. Right now, Madi needs your attention. If you're trying to
entertain her, rather than letting the TV entertain both of you, you're
going to be speaking to her in "motherese" (the high pitched sound we
use to speak to our babies), which will command her attention more than
the normal speech on television, and will teach her to speak more
quickly than the normal speech of those on television. Whether or not
she learns to speak early/on time may not be an issue for you, because
she will eventually learn to speak either way. It's important to me,
though, so we turned off the TV.

Did you know that watching videos of people speaking foreign languages
doesn't help kids learn foreign language one bit? The reason is
because they need the reactions of someone they care about (you) to
show them when they get a sound right. So, you're speaking Spanish to
the baby, and she all of a sudden says "Ole!" and you get all excited
and say, "That's right! Ole! Good girl, can you say it again?" and
that reinforces what she did by chance. Do that a billion times and
you've learned a language. But watching it on the screen doesn't have
that feedback, so they don't learn it at all from a video. The same
applies to native-language programming. You may think that it's so
great that they're being exposed to all these spoken words, but it's
really all gibberish to her, without the special inflection (baby talk)
that we naturally use with kids, and without the feedback.

It also trains her to have a short attention span. Things move MUCH
more quickly on TV than in real life, images shift, music fades in and
out, it's very stimulating. If a baby gets used to that level of
stimulation, and expects it all the time, how is she not going to be
bored to death by school? I think that would be a real problem.

Another problem with TV is that it sucks up your time. I used to have
the TV on all the time for background noise. I had no idea how much
those moments when something caught my eye, so I'd "tune in" were
adding up. When I turned the TV off (when she was about 3 months old,
after we escaped from the green chair that we lived in for a while), I
found that I had a ton more time to do more important things - whether
it was reading to her, or just relaxing. The house is cleaner, we're
eating more healthfully, we're getting out more, work doesn't pile up
as much, etc.

I've also been weaning myself off of newsgroups (as you might have
noticed) because I was spending a sick and twisted amount of time per
day in front of a screen. I realized that I'm not going to get these
moments back, that these are the days we are going to look back at and
miss, and I don't want to have spent them all in front of a screen
(whether computer or TV) instead of with her. I now get the "digest"
in my email, and I only post if something is really important to me, or
if I have a really different perspective from the other posters in a
thread. Gone are the days of "me too" for me, and good riddance. I've
trained myself to skim about 75% of the threads, which has also made a
big difference.

The main reason, though, to give up television is something I noticed
when my daughter was about 3 months old - she started paying attention,
and not to the program, but to the commercials! That right there was
enough for me to hit the off switch. We watch one hour of TV a night,
usually (my husband watches more, but I'm working on him).
Occasionally I will turn on Dr. Phil or Oprah during the day. We also
turn on the news in the morning, but it's off by the time DH leaves for
work. If I need background noise, I turn on the radio (to the local
pop station that's run by Christians, so it's secular music but they
skip the songs that I wouldn't want to hear her sing, like "My Humps,"
etc.) or to NPR for classical. It works for us.

I would challenge you to turn off the TV for a week, and see what you
think of the changes in your life after that long, and whether or not
you like what you see.

Good luck!
Amy

Amy wrote:
V. wrote:

If I need background noise, I turn on the radio (to the local
pop station that's run by Christians, so it's secular music but they
skip the songs that I wouldn't want to hear her sing, like "My Humps,"
etc.) or to NPR for classical. It works for us.

I would challenge you to turn off the TV for a week, and see what you
think of the changes in your life after that long, and whether or not
you like what you see.

Good luck!
Amy


Thanks for the info and advice. I do need to lessen our TV exposure,
although getting DH to go along with it is going to be nearly
impossible (I am actually thinking about finding a house that if
configured better for DH to have a TV watching area separate from our
living space!) I'm hoping that as she becomes more active that will be
easier since she'll be demanding more of his attention, not just mine.

I did have to laugh at the "My Humps" thing though....first time I
heard that song I thought it must be a joke...I mean, what are they
thinking? It even sounds like a parody!
Just bizarre what will pass for music these days....ugh!

Amy