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Increasingly, children arrive at school having
trouble listening to teachers. At home, they become accustomed to fast-paced visual
stimulation on TV. For children to be successful in school, they must make the
transition from being primarily visual learners to auditory (listening) learners. If
they watch TV more than they interact with family before they begin school, they have a
clear disadvantage in this transition.
Teletubbies® producers claim that baby talk used on their program exposes
young children to "peer language". Child development experts know,
however, that children learn language through mimicking adult language, not by hearing
poorly pronounced "baby talk" from adults. In fact, young toddlers
probably don't even recognize many of the words spoken on Teletubbies®, since
these words are not what they hear from adults in their everyday world. Most
language experts recommend that adults use simplified but correctly pronounced speech with
their children (most parents do so automatically). Using baby talk, then, is done to
please the broadcasters (who think baby talk is "cute") but confuses young
children.
Infants begin learning language long before they are able to talk. Language is only learned through interaction with others. If a
child of deaf-mute parents watches TV all day, he/she will still not learn spoken
language, but will learn the sign language the parents use. Infancy is a time of
rapid brain development that sets the stage for later language, academic, and emotional
abilities. If parents do not respond to their infants' attempts to communicate, then
infants may miss the period of time critical to learning language. Parents need to
directly respond to and engage their infant, using singsong styles that most parents use
naturally.
Some experts have found that long-term exposure to television diminishes children's
ability to communicate via reading and writing. Again, in order for children to grow
both psychologically and cognitively (mentally), they need to interact with humans, not
attempt to react to television.
In previous generations mothers had their infants in tow, playing on the floor or playpen
while Mom did housework. Infants and toddlers could initiate contact by going up to
their parent, by calling out, by being cute. Now moms and dads are asking their
babies to entertain themselves while the parent does telecommuting, a task that requires
concentration that cannot be interrupted. Parents have found that television quiets
their children so those parents can work.
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