Firstly we will discuss the basics of brain development, what is really happening in your little one’s headin the first years of life. Television and media technology in general has increased in the past 2 decades making it highly accessible anywhere, any time. We will then discuss the developmental link on how this can be positive or negative for the developing brain.
Brains are built over time, from the bottom up.
Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles theworld. – Albert Einstein
The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth
and continues into adulthood. Early experiences affect the quality of that architecture by establishing either a sturdy or a fragile foundation for all of the learning, health and behavior that follow. These experiences are internalized and form the core or point of reference in the life span.
Here are just a few amazing infant brain facts to ponder on:
1. ALL BABIES ARE BORN “EARLY.”
Due to the size of the average human birth canal, and the heavy metabolic burden a baby placeson its mother in gestation, a baby’s head can only be so big and still emerge from its
mother, which means babies are born with underdeveloped brains that are hypersensitive to stimulus which amazingly enables a lot of learning to take place.
2. BABIES ARE BORN WITH ALL THE NEURONS THEY WILL EVER HAVE.
Assuming normal development, a baby will emerge from the womb with 100 billion neurons,nearly twice as many neurons as adults, in a brain that’s half the size. This massive number of neurons is necessary for the tremendous amount of learning a baby has to do in its first year of life. Not all of these neurons will stick around; synaptic pruning takes place as a baby ages, in which the brain gets rid of weaker synaptic connections in favor of stronger ones.
3. BIRTH TO AGE 3 SEES THE FASTEST RATE OF BRAIN DEVELOPMENT IN THE ENTIRE HUMAN LIFE SPAN.
In the first three years of your child’s life, their brain is growing faster than any other body part. At birth, a baby’s brain is about one-third the size of an adult’s brain and by age three it’s already 80%fully developed.
4. MOST OF THE ENERGY A BABY EXPENDS IS CONCENTRATED IN THE BRAIN.
As a result of all that rapid brain development, 60 percent of a baby’s metabolic energy is spent ongrowing the brain. In contrast, the brain of an adult uses only about 25 percent.
5. BABIES’ BRAINS PREPARE FOR SPEECH LONG BEFORE THEY UTTER A WORD.
A study of 7-month-old babies showed activation of motor parts of babies’ brains associated withthe physical aspects of speech— Broca’s area and the cerebellum before they actually began to speak. This suggests that the brain sets up a transitional groundwork in a process known as“analysis by synthesis” in which the brain predicts the motor movements that will be required tomake the sounds of speech and prepares to do so.
6. PHYSICAL TOUCH STRENGTHENS BABIES’ SYNAPSES.
Babies who receive regular touch have stronger neuronal connections, and greater overall well-being. It’s well known now that babies who are deprived of touch suffer a number of negative health effects, from low weight to emotional disorders such as Reactive Attachment Disorder.
7. A BABY’S UNWILLINGNESS TO LEAVE A PARENT OR CAREGIVER SIGNALS THE DEVELOPMENT OF LONG-TERM MEMORY.
This also means a baby can now form strong emotional associations.
| The developmental link between brain development and watchingtoo much televisionThere is no consensus on the research available on this issue this is why I put an emphasis on the phrase too much because there is a link on watching television and child development. Scientists now know a |
| major ingredient in the developmental process is the “serve and return” aspect (what you put in is what you get out). Knowledge comes from socialization and experience, young children naturally reach out for interaction through babbling, facial expressions, and gestures, and adults respond with the same kind of vocalizing and gesturing back at them. In the absence of such responses—or if the responses are unreliable or inappropriate—the brain’s architecture does not form as expected, which can lead to disparities in learning and behavior.Too much television can get in the way of such important processes because the child can fail to get, understand and interpret expressions, behaviour, gestures and language especially coupled with lack of socialization. Social competence is learned from a child’s environment through play and taking part in social contexts. So the question arises are children not being deprived of this important skill through watching too much TV? |
Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles theworld. – Albert Einstein
| The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2011 reaffirmed its original 1999 statement on children and media, leaving it essentially unchanged. AAP discourages television viewing in the first two years of life and recommends a daily limit of 1 to 2hrs of quality programming for older children. Despite these recommendations, many studies in the last ten years have shown most children surpass this recommended exposure time.Watching too much television takes time away from essential learning activities such as reading, homework, and structured play activities. The passive nature of television watching, lack of interaction of the viewer, and lack of control of the learner on content, pace, and ordering of the material, makes it inferior to traditional devices such as reading. |
| A large number of skills such as fine motor skills and gross motor skills cannot be learnt from television at all. There is also strong association of television with leisure and relaxation and this have a profound effect on learning by lowering the intellectual involvement in processing the information presented in television programs.Television on its own is not bad but children need parental control on times and programs to be watched for it to be beneficial which has proven difficult for some parents resulting in children having unrestricted TV time and sometimes even access to programs that are not child-friendly. |
Does watching too much TV Alter Children’s Brain Structures?
In a study in Japan by Hikaru Takeuchi et al, Cerebral Cortex, Volume 25, Issue 5, May 2015, Pages 1188–1197, https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bht315
https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/25/5/1188/311796 published: 20 November 2013, it was found from brain imaging (MRI) images that anatomical changes inside children’s brains after prolongedTV viewing had occurred and that lower verbal IQ was also a result yet most parents actually believe that TV helps their children linguistically especially the younger ones still learning to talk. The languagethey learn from TV is not considered ‘functional’ as language is learned through exchanges with others and language is more than just a tool of communication but a vehicle of passing down moral standards, appropriate ways of being etc.
The Neuroscientists in Japan imaged the brains of 290 children between the ages of 5 and 18 years and sorted the data according to how many hours of TV each child had watched. The results showed significant anatomical differences in several brain regions that correlated with the number of hours of TV viewed. These findings were strengthened when the researchers re-examined the same children several years later and were able to see many of these anatomical changes taking place in the children’sbrain over time. The more hours of TV children watched, the greater the changes were in brain structure.
The parts of the brain affected are involved in emotional responses, arousal, aggression, and vision that is the frontal lobes and the visual cortex. The brain regions that bulked up in
children watching more television include gray matter increases in the hypothalamus (over- stimulation of the same brain region by TV) ,septum, sensory motor
Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles theworld. – Albert Einstein
areas and visual cortex, but also in a frontal lobe region (frontopolar cortex), which is known to lower verbal IQ.
Just a quick run-down on what is the hypothalamus and its functions:
- (Hypothalamus is found in the mid brain between the thalamus and the pituitary gland. It is the portion of the brain that maintains the body’s internal balance (homeostasis).
- The hypothalamus forms part of the limbic system that supports a variety of functions including emotion, behavior, motivation, long-term memory
- The hypothalamus is the link between the endocrine and nervous systems mediating the producing of triggering and inhibiting hormones, which stop and start the production of other hormones throughout the body e.g. after eating through the pituitary gland produces the hormone that triggers digestive enzymes and releases another to inhibit/stop the process
when no longer needed).
Also involved in the sleep cycle – children who watch a lot of TV are deprived of age
appropriate sleeping time.
Tests confirmed that the children’s verbal IQ had lowered in proportion to the hours of TV watched,ranging from 0 to more than 4 hours/day. (DO NOT CONFUSE VERBAL INTELLIGENCE WITH VERBAL ABILITY) – children who watch TV a lot will of course pick up a lot of TV lingo, verbal IQ refers to the ability to analyze information and solve problems using language-based reasoning in conversing, reading, writing and thinking).
Social perspective – Does watching too much TV alter Children’sbehaviors?
The short answer is yes, to give a perspective on just how much the content on TV has a bearingon children’s behaviour consider this: a child of 2 years will imitate shooting you with a gun whether in play or in frustration and the sad reality is adults actually think it is normal behavior (yet it is learned from somewhere) and erroneously reinforce bad behavior. Kids may become desensitized to violence because TV violence sometimes begs for imitation because violence is often promoted as a fun and an effective way to get what you want.
| TV is full of programs and commercials that depict risky behaviors (such as drinking alcohol, doing drugs, smoking cigarettes, and having sex) as cool, fun, and exciting. And often, there’s no discussion about the consequences of those actions. |
| Alcohol ads on TV have actually increased over the last few years and more underage kids are being exposed to them more than ever. Health experts have long linked excessive TV-watching to obesity — a significant health problem today. While watching TV, kids are inactive and tend to snack. They’re also bombarded with ads that encourage them to eat unhealthy foods like potato chips and empty-calorie soft drinks that often become preferred snack foods. Studies have shown that decreasing the amount of TV children watched and increasing physical activities like club membership, arts and crafts, sport and house chores led to less weight gain, a huge positive improvement on behavior, and better performance at school. Most children under the age of 8 don’t understand that commercials are for selling a product. Children 6 years and under can’t distinguish program content from ads, especially if their favorite character is promoting the product. Even older kids may need to be reminded of the |
Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles theworld. – Albert Einstein
purpose of advertising. Children will start asking for products advertised – this is designed to make people want things they don’t necessarily need and families will get out of their budget toaccommodate the children’s appetites of wanting to be like their favorite TV characters.
| Children’s advocates are divided because even the research in this area has yielded different outcomes which also makes it difficult when it comes to formulating solutions. Although many urge for more hours per week of educational programming, others assert that zero TV is the best solution. And some say it’s better for parents to control the use of TV and to teach kids that it’s for occasional entertainment, not for constant escapism. That’s why it’s so important to monitor the content of TV programming and set viewing limits to ensure that children don’t spend too much time parked in front of the TV. |
| To limit children’s exposure to TV, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that parents: |
- With children under 2 years old not watch any TV and that those older than 2 watch no more than 1 to 2 hours a day of quality programming.
- The first 2 years of life are considered a critical time for brain development – language is formed, a personality is formed, learning to regulate oneself to name a few. TV and other electronic media can get in the way of exploring, playing, and interacting with parents and others which encourages learning and healthy physical and social development.
- As children get older, too much screen time can interfere with activities such as being physically active, reading, doing homework, playing with friends, and spending time with family.
- Of course, TV in moderation can be a good thing: Preschoolers can get help learning the alphabet on television, primary scholars can learn about wildlife on nature shows, and parents can keep up with current events on the evening news. No doubt about it — TV can be an excellent educator and entertainer.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5007545/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4042392/https://academic.oup.com/cercor/article/25/5/1188/311796 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/486070
Talent Adamson Behaviour Therapist
BA (Health and Social Services) Applied Psychology, BA Hon (HSS) Psychological Counselling – (UNISA)
Imagination is more important than knowledge.Knowledge is limited. Imagination encircles theworld. – Albert Einstein