So What?

After much deliberation, I have decided that there really are some great educational shows for kids three years old and younger. I know, I know; "But what about your original thesis, Dora?" I may have been a bit hasty in my original thinking because I forgot how necessary new technology has become. Television is used for entertaining but it is also used for educating. I think that if parents choose to allow television for their children, the shows that they watch must foster active participation physically and mentally. Many educational programs already target certain aspects of a child's initial development. However, there are some shows that say they are age-appropriate but have no educational or beneficial aspects to their episodes. I talked to a mom that has a three year old daughter and she is perfectly fine letting her child watch television. Her only concern is how long she watches it. If her daughter watched the television too long, she becomes unresponsive and grumpy. What other side effects have you guys experienced with your children watching too much television?

Well so what?

I think that producers and creators of new educational programming need to make a list of criteria that they turn to when writing an episode. This list should state ways in which each program can get their viewers moving and exploring, using their own imaginations and playtime. Parents must monitor how much television they view and which shows they watch. It is best to watch with them.

I love children's television shows! They have so much to offer, but some don't live up to their full potential. Parents: Just because a show is animated, does not mean it will be mentally or physically stimulating. Since television and other media devices are growing and changing rapidly each day, we need to make sure kids aren't relying on them for everything, but that they are learning new lessons that they can use AFTER watching a show.

I have a new face!

Did you hear the news? Dora is all grown up! But what does this mean for the show? Where is her signature backpack? Her hiking shoes? Ballet flats are not the most conducive to traipsing through a jungle or climbing a mountain hillside. I guess she will be saving the world on a smaller scale. She is supposed to be 10 years old now. Does she look like a typical 10 year old? I think so. I see girls wearing leggings with long tunic shirts. She has a cute headband to match and of course the ever-so-popular ballet flats. She is a fashionable "chica" with a lot of spunk. I like her!


But back to my previous statement about her saving the environment on a smaller scale. She won't be traveling the world, but she will be using more adult methods to help protect her environment. Dora will expand into the world of solving mysteries that have pro-social themes that young girls and boys can relate to, like volunteerism, water conservation, or planting trees to help the environment.


Well this sounds fabulous! I don't know what you all think but this might be a good change for her. Something to think about: What about Diego from Go Diego Go? What is he going to look like at 10 years old?

What are your thoughts? I would love to hear them...and should I update my profile picture to keep up?

Ideas are forming...thanks to the Topoi

I finally have a thesis! Hold your applause please. Ok are you ready for this?

Television for children three years and younger will negatively effect their early development.

But is it really wrong for babies to watch television if it is made for babies?Isn't the whole point of educational TV for kids, TELEVISION FOR KIDS??? What about shows like "Baby's First Words" and "Baby Einsteins"? If you really think about it, does a baby know the difference from a trombone to a violin? NO! However, they may recognize a color or shape if it is repeated multiple times in front of them. Baby videos and TV shows may have a place in their development, but not necessarily in the way most parents think they do. Many parents want their child to be an overachiever, perfect at sports, music, and math. Therefore, many of these programs for babies have animated characters playing sports, listening to classical music, and counting numbers. Why is this industry obsessed with overachievers?

Television is not the only factor that effects a child's early development. It is also the parents and other people around them; the environment they live in can have a larger impact than a dancing animated pig on a wide screen TV. Who is really calling the shots when a toddler can barely talk? The parents are the most concerned about their child.

How necessary are television programs with commercials that interrupt the program for a baby? Babies and toddlers can barely understand what is even happening. How do they know it's bad for them? They should just watch education DVDs that only will play for an hour and then they can have the rest of time to play with their own toys and with their parents. When they get older, television programs can start making a difference to them. They will know how to count and what letters are. Only then do these programs seem valuable.

Wow...sorry that was a lot. I guess I got more ideas in my head than I thought. Well if you have any thoughts on this shoot a comment my way!

Tour of My New Pageflakes! (UPDATE)

I found this great site that lets me set up my own webpage completely devoted to my research topic. Anything you wanted to know about children's programming or the effects of television on child development can be found on my Pageflakes!

ON THE RIGHT SIDE

If you need something specific check out my RSS Feeds. They allow you to take a link from certain pages on a website. This way I can go directly to the page on the site that relates to what I am looking for. You can find all of my RSS feeds on the right hand side. Some of them are articles and some of them are blogs. Each gives me and anyone else who explorers my page a window-sized view into a specific page that has the content that I want. The fact that I can click on it from my pageflakes and be right at that site is the best part of RSS feeds. If you want to start adding RSS feeds to your page, go to a website and find the little orange button in the URL box. Click on that and save it.

I also have a section that gives you a chance to view some other more academic resources that I found. Within the bibliography, I have also included an annotation that gives a bit of background and summary of what the particular book or article is about. I used Zotero and Citeline together to create a bibliography from all the works I had collected through my tireless hours of research. I would pay particular attention to my abstract for the book, Early Childhood Television Viewing and Adolescent Behavior: The Recontact Study by Daniel R. Anderson, and also read my abstract from the journal entry entitled, TV distracts young children: study; Could be hazardous to their development by Shannon Proud. Both these and my other sources provide a more specific outlook on some of the effects television viewing can have on a young child. Anderson's book also holds multiple information on various studies he has gathered from other researchers and scientists.

I thought you might like having the option of reading something more academic than just my featured blogs through my RSS feeds.

ON THE LEFT SIDE

If you look to your left you will see my social bookmarking soulmate on my pageflakes as well as a snapshot of my Diigo account. Diigo is another awesome way to gather websites, bookmarks, and tags, but also network with other people interested in your field of study. Do you remember when I found Claire_drinkwater on Delicious.com? Well, she has a bunch of great bookmarks and tags that relate to children's television and even some that talk specifically about its effect on younger kids!

But that's not all. Instead of spending hours on Google search, my Pageflakes has a Universal Blog Search and a Universal News Search. I have entered certain key search terms like "Kid TV" and "Child television." This way I can log into my account and each box has something new updated in it that has to do with my search topic.

FUN FOR ALL AGES

Last but certainly not least, my comic strip widget gives my page just that added touch of character. I'm not gonna lie, I love how much freedom I had in making my very first pageflake! I could choose my own background, the fonts, colors, and size of my text, and where I wanted each flake to go.

I really enjoy it and I hope you will too!

Be careful what you wish for...

I just saw the new animated movie, Coraline, based on the best selling children's book. Now, I knew it was going to be darker than other animated features that are out this year because it was directed by the same guy that did Nightmare Before Christmas. What I wasn't ready for, was how creepy it was. There were times when I was legitimately scared. I think this brings up a good point about appropriate movie for young people. Just because it is rated PG doesn't mean any kid of any age should go. I feel that this movie is great for children 10 and up but anyone younger; it's bound to give them nightmares. I walked into the ladies room afterward and a little girl was asking her mom if she was "her real mother or her other mother." Her mother just laughed to herself and said she didn't have button eyes so she couldn't be "the other mother." I guess this was a cute moment, but I was also a bit concerned that this 6 year old was afraid of her own mom.

It's the same argument that parents have with the Harry Potter films. Children 10 years of age and younger have read all the books and want to see the movies, but the movies are getting much darker and contain very graphic images of violence. I am a firm believer in reading the books first and then seeing the movie, but if your child is 7,8, or 9, you may want to see the movie before they do just to make sure they can handle it. Some kids can. I work with 9-12 year olds who have seen way worse violence in front of their houses. Wizards and claymation won't scare them. But then there are those children who have been sheltered and may be negatively affected by viewing a movie like Coraline.

I guess all I can say is that I loved the movie and was really pleased with the music and animation work that went in to making it. However, I caution some parents who don't want to deal with nightmares that this movie pushes the boundaries of a PG rating. I would still recommend it, but perhaps not for anyone under 10 years old.