Kingsley: Telly

7th October 2014, Greece

OK – a public confessional: Kingsley turned 10 months of age while we holidayed in Greece, and as a treat I allowed him 10 minutes of telly on his birthday. LOOK HOW HAPPY HE IS!!! I will allow him 11 minutes on his 11th month, and so on. Am I introducing new evils too early into his pure life? Is this the slippery slope to an addictive personality? Will I be the root cause of a poor score card in years to come? What does the literature say??

Enjoying the telly while in Greece. October 2014

Enjoying the telly while in Greece. October 2014

The more TV a toddler watches, the higher the likelihood they will do badly at school and have poor health at the age of 10. THAT’S WHAT. O dear…

The study of 1,300 children by Michigan and Montreal universities found negative effects on older children rose with every hour of toddler TV. The study, part of the Quebec Longitudinal Study of Child Development Main Exposure, asked parents how much TV their children watched at 29 months (two years and five months) and 53 months (four years and five months). On average, the two-year-olds watched just under nine hours of TV per week, while for four-year-olds the average was just under 15 hours.

But 11% of the two-year-olds and 23% of four-year-olds watched more than the recommended maximum of two hours of TV a day.

When the children were revisited at the age of 10, teachers were asked to assess the children’s academic performance, behaviour and health. Higher levels of TV viewing at two was linked to a lower level of engagement in the classroom and poor achievement in maths.

Failing at maths? Er, not a chance. Well that does it, then. Kingsley, notwithstanding your happiness at being shown a telly, you will just have to wait till next month for your next ten minutes of the tube…

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