Television is a central part of life for children in many U.S. families, and a third of families leave the TV on nearly all the time, according to a new study made by the Kaiser Family Foundation. The study also shows that a third of young children have TVs in their own rooms, and many are put to sleep with the television on.

“Parents are using media to help manage their households, to get through really busy days and tight time schedules, to keep the kids occupied so they can get something done,” said the study co-author Vicky Rideout.

The report is based on a national telephone survey from September 12th to November 21st of 1,051 parents with children aged from 6 months to 6 years and a series of focus groups across the United States.

On an average day, 83 percent of children under 6 years old use screen media—which includes television, video games, DVDs and the computer—and 33 percent of them have a television in their bedroom. Even very young children watch TV. More than 40 percent of children 2 years old and under watch television every day.

Parents’ opinions are different on whether TV helps kids learn—38 percent say yes and 31 percent say no. But according to Amy Jordan of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania, television should never “replace the interactions (交流) that young kids need for their healthy development. There is no evidence that up until (直到) about 2 years of age children learn anything of value from television.”

Thinking:

What do you do when you are free to past your time? Any good ideas to help these TV addicted boys?

作者：佚名

• 上一个资源： Intel Science Talent Search…


• 下一个资源： What makes a good teacher…