One thing that my research has turned up, in an article published by Princeton University, is the relationship between children’s television watching and academic achievement. I have a feeling the results may surprise some people.
The article is titled Media and Attention, Cognition, and School Achievement, written by Marie Evans Schmidt and Elizabeth A. Vandewater. The authors have researched the findings of studies of the effects of different forms of electronic media on the scholastic ability of young learners, and of particular interest to me is what these findings say about television watching: In a nutshell, the authors observed that “viewing educational TV is linked positively with academic achievement; viewing entertainment TV is linked negatively with achievement.” Time is also a factor, the authors note, stating that “moderate TV viewing” of educational programs (e.g. Sesame Street), which they define as “one to ten hours a week” appears to be beneficial; “heavier viewing”, defined as “more than eleven hours per week”, seems to have a negative academic impact.
I must admit that, before reading the article, I would have expected the authors to come down sharply on television viewing at all; I can’t recall a time I’ve ever heard anyone in academia singing the praises of TV in any context. I’m relieved, however, because I like to let my daughter—who is sixteen months—watch an episode of Sesame Street every day, and she looks forward to it. Some of the books she owns feature the characters, and seeing her able to point them out (and even name some of them) makes me feel that I’m not doing her a disservice.
Here’s a link to the article at Project Muse:
http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/foc/summary/v018/18.1.schmidt.html
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