Tv, children and language, part 2

We mentioned earlier that there are two fundamentals questions that need to be answered with regards to TV and bilingualism

• How bad is TV for children?
• Do TV and DVD support language learning?

Here we’ll look at second question and see what experts think about it.

• Very young children learn from interactions, i.e. from playing and talking with real people, they don’t learn from passive devices like TV and DVD. However as they grow up, around school age, TV and DVD can indeed become a support tool to language learning. This is confirmed by research, let me just mention  few articles on the subject, like Television Viewing in Infancy and Child Cognition at 3 Years of Age or, again, Christakis’ article, as well as a book: The Bilingual Hedge, the only book among the many I read on bilingualism that explores in depth the impact of TV and media on language development at different ages, giving very useful advice to parents on when to introduce these tools and how to optimise their impact.
• Infants’ (o to 3) exposure to TV and impact on language and cognitive development. There is no evidence that any form of DVD or TV program can enhance (first) language development, in fact several studies suggest the opposite, that early TV watching is correlated to speech delay and later on to poorer scholastic performance.
• Preschoolers (3 to 5) exposure to TV and cognitive development. It has been observed that good educational programs can in fact have positive impact on children.
• School age children’s exposure to TV and language learning. Finally, the positive message you might have been looking for. Yes, watching TV or DVD in the minority language can help language acquisition at school age and above. In fact the fact that English skills are so far better in Nordic countries seems to be linked to the fact that movies there are normally not dubbed but shown in the original version, with subtitles. Mind you, this is not good enough a reason to seat a 6 year old in front of the TV for 4 hours a day. An interactive environment is always to be preferred.
• Older children, TV and video games. Both TV, or DVD, and video games can be used to support language acquisition of older children and teenagers. They can provide an entertaining and interesting activity AND exposure to the language. The key issue there is that parental supervision is essential to make sure that the content is suitable for the young person’s age and, of course, that the environment is safe.
• You can promote and support language learning with few tricks. We already covered this topic on the post How reading, DVDs and even videogames can become an opportunity for language stimulation

BILINGUALISM STEP BY STEP

I’ll be pedantic this time, apologies in advance, and I will propose again last time’s homework. I do this because it’s important but largely underestimated, so please do it. You might not see an obvious  impact now, but you certainly will in few years time.
Consider these 15 tips a Pediatrician (Dr. Generoso) gave on optimising children’s TV usage. Go through the list and highlight all the tips that are currently not implemented in your family. Then chosse max 3 tips you might want to introduce and decide HOW you are going to do it. Discuss this with your partner, baby sitter, grandparents, etc. Hang the new rules on the fridge, and make it happen. It’s in your hands (certainly not in your children’s).

1. Propose programs to children that are most suitable to their age
2. Watching television with your children.
3. Do not use the television as a punishment or reward.
4. Do not use the TV as baby-sitter
5. Establish with the children the time to devote to TV
6. Prevent children from watching television before going to school.
7. Prevent children from watching television just before bedtime.
8. Keep the TV off during mealtimes and homeworks.
9. Do not give the child the remote control.
10. Do not place a TV in your children’s bedroom.
11. Use DVDs rather than TV.
12. Seek viable alternatives to television.
13. Have books suitable for exploring topics your children are interested in.
14. Pay attention to the “conditions” of the vision and listening, i.e. no dark in the room and not too high volume.
15. Check the quality and quantity of food taken in front of the television

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