TV Viewing and the Infant Brainby Mary Ann Romans | More from this Blogger 04 Jun 2009 09:38 AM The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that infants watch no television at all. Still, many parents allow or even encourage their infants to view educational videos and television shows. But does that viewing cause and harm? Do infants who watch television actually do better in life? A recent study at Harvard Medical School had some surprising finds. More than 870 babies were enrolled in the study, dubbed Project Viva. Mothers of the babies reported to researches on how much television their babies were watching at the ages of six months, one year and two years. As mentioned earlier, the AAP recommends that children under two have no screen time. Once the babies turned three years old, researchers evaluated them, examining the babies' visual motor skills and language development. Test scores were adjusted for a number of factors that could affect these functions, such as whether or not a baby was breastfed, the income level of the parents, ethnicity and even the age of the mother. What the study did find was allowing your baby to watch about an hour of television per day had absolutely no affect on the cognitive development in the area of language or visual motor skills. What does this mean? Don't bother with purchasing those educational videos and exposing your child to them daily. But if you do put a video in long enough for you to prepare dinner, don't sweat it either. Previous studies have shown that many infants watch more than one hour of television. So, we don't have a good conclusion on the results of this. I am a big believer in purposeful interaction with a baby. You are the sun and moon to your child, and as adorable as Elmo or those Baby Einstein characters are, they are still no substitute for your face and your voice. You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here! or subscribe to this blog using the subscription box on the right. Related Articles: Introducing Art to My Little One Simple Toys, Simple Joys: Playing with Balls Signs Your Baby May Be Ready for the Olympics Learn more about Mary Ann Romans  Mary Ann Romans is a freelance writer, wife and mother of three children. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband, the kids and a 16-pound cat. Relevantbaby tags User Comments No comments on this article yet. Be the first to comment! Discuss this article
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