The article discusses how media plays a major role in young children’s learning at this time of age. Technological advancements have taken place quality time with the family with children spending more and more time in front of the television, computer, or video games. This fact influenced the authors, Heather Kirkorian, Ellen Wartella, and Daniel R. Anderson to research just how much effects does media have on children and their cognitive development.
In the past, it was believed that “’busyness’ of television leads to a sensory bombardment that produces a series of orienting responses that interferes with cognition and reflection, which means that children cannot process television content and therefore cannot learn from it” (qtd. in Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson 3).
However, at this time, it is argued that “attention in children at least as young as two is guided in large part by program content” ( Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson 3).
With regards to attention to electronic media, research suggests that children between 18 and 24 months do look at videos longer than children aged 6 to 12 months. There is also evidence that children realize that characters from the television are only limited to the television sets when they reach two years and over. In terms of learning from videos, it is known that children over two years of age can learn several things from watching television and other forms of videos like vocabulary (qtd. in Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson 4).
Further, evidence shows that violent programs do affect young children’s behaviors and ways of thinking. “Children who viewed the violent cartoons showed decreases in measures of self-regulation, whereas those who viewed the prosocial programs showed higher levels of task persistence, rule obedience, and tolerance of delay relative to baseline and to children in the neutral viewing condition” (Kirkorian, Wartella, & Anderson 5).
With these data, there is no doubt that parents, guardians, and other adults do monitor the time children spend in front of the television, computers, and video games.
More importantly, the content should be closely monitored to see if it contains violence or other information that might be too much for young children. The public cannot stop technology from developing; however, they can stop technology from influencing their children’s behavior and way of thinking in such a way that they grow up to be better persons the way they should be. If parents can monitor their children’s exposure to media as early as their preschool years, they can at least lower the risks of their children becoming violent and performing criminal acts in the future.
It is very important that adults choose what they want their children to watch or play with. It is recommended that they utilize educational materials to enhance their children’s cognitive development. More importantly, adults need to take the time to do things with their children like watching the television or playing computer games because even if they should have the freedom to do things, they should still be guided every now and then. There is no doubt that media plays a major role in our society nowadays.
Its role will even increase over time when more innovations are done. Adults cannot let their children grow up in the hands of technology. While these advancements do dominate our lives, it is still essential that young children learn from the people that surrounds them instead of characters from television shows.
Works Cited
Kirkorian, H. , Wartella, E. & Anderson, D. “Media and Young Children’s Learnings. ”The Future of Children. 29 September 2008. <http://www. futureofchildren. org/information2826/information_show. htm? doc_id=675354>