Parents hear a lot about screen time — how much is okay, is it better to have none, will it ruin your children forever? I’ve written about this many times, including overall frameworks for thinking about how screens can fit into a balanced life. Screens aren’t either all good or all bad; use of them needs to be balanced with the rest of our lives.
For most of us, the reality is some screen usage. Once you accept this, the obvious next question is what should be on the screens? My parents were firmly convinced that if we kids were watching TV, it should be educational. Hence, I was allowed to watch two things: 3-2-1 Contact and Square One. My husband, on the other hand, watched all kinds of cartoons and non-educational programming. He turned out fine, with a much greater cultural competency. So, were my parents wrong?
Stepping back from navel-gazing… What does the data say about screen content? Is some better than others?
Are kids’ TV shows overstimulating? (And does it matter?)
Let’s start with one of the most popular discussions on social media about screen content: that it has gotten more stimulating. Parents are often looking for shows from the 1980s and 1990s that moved more slowly (allow me to suggest 3-2-1 Contact!). The idea is that these shows are somehow better — maybe less likely to generate hyperactivity.
It is difficult to know what one means by “stimulating,” but one common interpretation of this is the speed with which the scene changes. And it is true that shows vary in the frequency of scene changes, with (typically) less educational shows having more frequent changes. To see what I mean, I recommend you watch a bit of SpongeBob SquarePants and then a bit of Caillou on YouTube. Calliou just moves much more slowly.
The current television landscape, like the past, offers both faster- and slower-paced shows. Whether there are relatively more fast-paced shows now is not obvious. There are many more shows, period, but that means you can find both kinds.
Given that you do have a choice, should you encourage your child to watch slower-paced shows? There is one piece of data, from 2011, a study that had 4-year-olds watch either a fast or slow show (the shows are not named, but they are pretty clearly SpongeBob and Caillou) or draw for nine minutes, and then complete two tasks designed to test executive function. The kids who watched the fast cartoon performed worse at these executive-function tests. The authors cannot identify mechanisms here; they hypothesize that the fast-paced cartoon requires more processing and depletes the child’s cognitive resources.
I do not think this evidence will be that surprising to many parents. We have probably all found that the more engaging TV is, the harder it is to pull kids away from it and the more they seem to have a brief “hangover.” (The fact that they are more engaged is also helpful because … they’re engaged). Whether this persists in any long-term way is not clear at all. If the theory in the paper is correct, the effects should be short-term.
That paper is from 2011; some follow-up evidence (e.g. this paper) corroborates these short-term effects, but we have no reliable systematic data that would suggest this translates into anything longer-term than a few minutes.
What should you consider about child media choice?
Beyond the question on stimulation, what else should you consider in television exposure? Kids over the age of 2, and certainly over 3, can learn from television. And even younger children can be scared by it if they’re watching something scary. For children in elementary school years, there will be variation across families and kids in what works.
The short answer to this is, basically, as soon as your child is able to pay attention to the television, you should consider what is on it — not necessarily to make sure it’s educational but simply to make sure it’s not scary or inappropriate. Common Sense Media has excellent age grading, based on parent, child, and expert reviews. This is a great place to look when deciding what your kids can watch.
Two more specific points.
First: One recent trial showed some small, short-term reductions in aggressive behavior when parents were encouraged to show their preschoolers less-violent television.
Second: At some point, your child is going to start watching YouTube, or another outlet where they are not restricted to only things you have vetted. This leads me to the most important point here, which is that it is crucial to have an open dialogue with your child about what they are watching and to let them know that they can talk to you about it. This doesn’t mean you need to watch with them (although that’s sometimes a good idea), but there is just no substitute for seeing things with your own eyes. You might see something you don’t like; and even if you don’t, it’s an opportunity to connect.
Can kids learn from TV?
Kids over the age of 2 or 3 can learn from television. That can be bad, of course, but it can also be harnessed for good.
Research on the introduction of Sesame Street (beginning in 1969) has shown that kids who had early exposure to the show (because the channel was more accessible to them) had better early test scores in school. All those letters and numbers of the day seem to have helped.
In general, kids can learn from screens, but not as effectively as they learn from people. We would not want to outsource school to television, but your preschooler might pick up a few letters from Sesame Street or life lessons from Bluey.
On the other hand, I would urge you not to get too invested in the possibilities of television as an educator. Screen time is often a time for kids to have some distraction, to give parents time to get something done, a time for kids to just chill. If they love to watch The Count count up his numbers, super. But if what is distracting is Cocomelon, that’s okay too.
The bottom line
- Fast-paced children’s TV shows can give kids a brief “hangover” during which they may perform worse on executive-function tests, but there is no reliable systematic data that would suggest this translates into anything longer-term than a few minutes.
- Kids over the age of 2 can learn from television. And even younger children can be scared by it if they’re watching something scary. As soon as your child is able to pay attention to the television, you should consider what is on it.
- It is crucial to have an open dialogue with your child about what they are watching and to let them know that they can talk to you about it.
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