Does TV Shut Out Reading?

child mesmerized, watching tvWith school starting back, now is a great time to kick bad habits and start the school year with new and enriching ones.

One way to start the school year on a better foot is to limit your children’s TV time. That’s probably not something they want to hear, but research shows it’s in their best interest!

Most kids plug into the world of television long before they are old enough for school. I read in a recent EdNews article that the average pre-schooler watches 4.5 hours of television a day, and the average 6-11 year old is right behind them with 4 hours of TV-time a day. Wow!

The Negative Impact of Television on Children

Research says that very young children who live in homes where the television is on most of the time may have more trouble learning how to read than other kids their age, according to a study of media habits of children up to 6 years old. The report by the Kaiser Family Foundation and Children’s Digital Media Centers indicated that 34 percent of children ages 4-6 living in “heavy TV households” can read, compared with 56 percent of those in homes where the TV is on less often.

Television can also affect reading performance for older children who can read. Studies have shown that even having the television on “in the background” negatively affects children’s reading comprehension and memory. It’s definitely not a good idea to have the TV on during study or homework hours!

The research goes on and on, so there’s no doubt that limiting your children’s TV time is a good idea. But that’s not to say you need to cut it out completely. TV in moderation can be a good thing. Check out this article for ideas about the right kind of TV to plug into.

For information on helping struggling readers, contact us at Info@Lexercise.com or 1-919-747-4557 or visit our website to learn more.

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Sandie Barrie Blackley, MA/CCC

Sandie Barrie Blackley, MA/CCC

Sandie is a Fellow of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, a former university graduate school faculty member, and a co-founder of Lexercise. Sandie has been past president of the North Carolina Speech, Hearing & Language Association and has received two clinical awards, the Public Service Award and the Clinical Services Award. She served two terms on the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Speech-Language Pathologists & Audiologists.

As a faculty member at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, Sandie developed and taught structured literacy courses, supervised practicum for speech-language pathology graduate students, and coordinated a federally funded personnel preparation grant. In 2009, Sandie and her business partner, Chad Myers co-founded Mind InFormation, Inc./ Lexercise to provide accessible and scalable structured literacy services for students across the English-speaking world.