Life Is Not a Spectator Sport
(What Children are Not Doing When They are Watching TV)
By Darla Isackson
“We have the whole evening to do whatever you choose. What do you want to do?” My friend asked her grandson, Derrick.
“I want to watch videos or go to a movie,” he replied.
Today’s children are following the example of many adults to become watchers instead of doers, consumers instead of creators, observers instead of active participants. Preschoolers spend roughly one-third of their waking time watching television. As we saunter into summer, here are some things to be aware of.
Things Children Aren't Doing When They Are Only Watching
In the book Meeting the Challenge by Jim Fay, Goster W. Cline, M.D. And Bob Sornson, pediatrician John Rosemond notes the things a child is not doing when he is watching TV or videos:
• Scanning
• Practicing motor skills, gross or fine
• Practicing eye-hand coordination
• Using more than two senses
• Asking questions
• Exploring
• Exercising initiative or motivation
• Being challenged
• Solving problems
• Thinking analytically
• Exercising imagination
• Practicing communication skills
• Being either creative or constructive
At an essential time of brain developmental readiness for task mastery, today's three- and four-year-olds are spending much of their time glued to a screen. This is the age children who in the 1950s Erik H. Erickson characterized as being at the stage of initiative and industry (Erik H. Erickson, Childhood and Society — second edition (Norton) “Eight Stages of Man”)
And therein lies the basic problem. Instead of exercising initiative and industry, our children today are encouraged to watch instead of do. “In fact, reflecting the television and video game generation, most of the items for younger children in Toys “R” Us or any toy outlet emphasize sensory input and rudimentary motor skills, but rarely encourage creativity, task focus, job completion or mastery. Even if they are offered for sale, Tinkertoys, Legos, Lincoln Logs, and alphabet blocks are not the big sellers. What sells big are video tapes and video games“ (Meeting the Challenge, p. 62).
What Has Changed and What Has Not
Have children changed in their basic needs? Have parents changed in their desire to encourage the total development of the child?
Not at all. However, parents and grandparents are just as likely to be caught up in the “watching” instead of “doing” mode as are the children. Today when parents “do'” something with small children, it seldom involves really “doing” anything at all. Parents are most likely to suggest they watch TV together, go and watch a game, go and watch a movie, or go to the zoo and watch the animals. They rarely sit down and create or produce or create something with their small children.
Instead of singing, they watch others sing. Instead of making up stories, they watch or listen to stories someone else made up. Instead of figuring out how to do something and developing a new skill they watch someone else perform. Parents have a relatively few precious hours to teach, train, and encourage the development of children's minds and hearts. Yet in today's society, during those hours, shared focus on a mutual task may not take place at all.