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Television and Language Development

Effects of Television on Language Development in Young Children

Over the last one decade, there has been increasing concern that the language abilities of children entering school for the first time are rapidly declining. There has also been concern over the possible negative effects that exposure of young children to television may have on their language development (Close, 2009). Fundamental changes in television technology have resulted in improved quality and quantity of television viewing in many places. The presence of multiple televisions in the same household as well as in the bedrooms of young children is now a common phenomenon (Hudon, 2012). It is necessary to find out and fully understand the impact that television viewing have on the language development of children in early years.

This paper examines the impact of television on language development by analyzing the accuracy of the claim made by the following Language Development Hypothesis: The effects of watching television for young children are detrimental to language development. The analysis involves a discussion of the impact of television on various aspects of language development, including comprehension, vocabulary, expressive language, grammar and pre-literacy skills. Based on the discussion, a conclusion is drawn supporting and/or refuting the claim made by this hypothesis.

Attention and Comprehension

Research carried out on the attention of children to television has examined the relationship between this attention and linguistic comprehension; finding that there is a high correlation between the two. In order to give attention to television, the presence of a certain level of language comprehension is necessary in children. Attention to television increases from birth to five years of age (Duch, Fisher, Ensari, & Harrington, 2013). It has been hypothesized that the attention children give to television increases their comprehension of the programs and improves their receptive vocabulary. Pre-school children have the ability to give selective attention to comprehensible content and take in information during television viewing. Due to their poorly developed linguistic ability, the attention levels of infants are low, and as such, watching television has little or no role in their development of linguistic comprehension. Studies have shown that children below two years of age benefit more from live conversation than from watching television in their development of linguistic comprehension (Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, 2011). Programs designed to develop children’s attention to television, for example, Sesame Street, can draw the attention of children, even below the age of three years and can be utilized in encouraging children to talk. However, this utilization leans heavily on the age of the child, linguistic maturity, how valuable they are and how responsive the parents are to the child (Hudon, 2012).

Development of Vocabulary

Research has revealed that the presence of a positive correlation between childrens' viewing of television and their development of language vocabulary. Vocabulary is not only receptive, but also expressive. Receptive vocabulary refers to the comprehension of the words that are being spoken (for example, nouns or verbs) while expressive vocabulary refers to the production of words. Most educational television programs have been found to have a significant positive impact on the development of syntactic and lexical abilities in the receptive vocabulary of young children (Hudon, 2012). Children gain a wide range of vocabulary and also extend their understanding of words with which they are already familiar through the viewing of educational television. Educational television has also been found to enhance children’s lexical development, especially the distinction of words and what they mean while they are being spoken. Children between the ages of four and ten years are capable of acquiring quick and partial comprehension of the meanings of new words in their first exposure in television, which is the initial phase of lexical acquisition prior to gaining and storage of further information as the children encounter the words thereafter (Hudon, 2012). Studies carried out on programs targeting children below two years reveal that this quick gaining of partial meaning of new words is not present in children in this age group, except in situations where an adult actively assisted the children to gain the meaning of new words spoken in television (Close, 2009).

Development of Expressive Language

Expressive language (language output), which is speaking or engaging in communication verbally or in form of gestures, is associated with a significantly high level of comprehension. Television viewing encourages children to make verbal responses and raises the extent of their oral language (Duch, Fisher, Ensari, & Harrington, 2013). Children aged two and five years imitate noises and sounds, and name the characters heard in television. By referring to the favorite television programs, adults can encourage increased amount of talking in pre-school children. However, research has shown that some television programs inhibit the development of receptive language, especially in children aged below two years due to their presentation of excessive stimuli (Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, 2011). There is also a more negative correlation between heavy television viewing and expressive language development (especially among boys), as compared to light television viewing. Studies have revealed that prolonged viewing of poor content programs results in underdeveloped expressive language, and poor oral communication in many children. This suggests the absence of adequate interpersonal interaction, which is substituted for by prolonged television viewing (Hudon, 2012).

Development of Grammar

The viewing of television has been found to have a very little input in the development of grammar in young children. On the contrary, television has a negative impact on grammar development, which may be attributed to the absence of participation or interactivity in television viewing, or the fact that grammar learning requires a comparatively long period of time. For children between the age of two and three years, natural influences of language are more useful in the development of grammar than the influence of television viewing. Children above the age of three years tend to master sentences incorporating passive voice, negation and multiple clauses, while aspects such as word order, the complexity of sentences, imperatives as well as modal words have not been associated with television viewing (Duch, Fisher, Ensari, & Harrington, 2013). These findings further point out the negative effects of television viewing on children less than two years since the measures found to be negatively related to television are usually acquired by children at this age (Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, 2011).

Development of Pre-literacy Skills

This section examines the association between television and skills such as phonological awareness, storytelling, and the knowledge about works of literacy among young children. Most children television programs incorporate the use of songs, poems and play games, which place a lot of emphasis on rhyme and involve some form of sound patterns. Therefore, they are associated with the phonological structure of words that are spoken. Researchers have found that children engage in some form of role playing by dressing and also acting like various favorite characters in television narratives (Close, 2009). Children also gain knowledge of storytelling and the ability to remember and repeat brief stories, and perform some level of explanatory talk. These abilities, knowledge and skills are one of the most crucial aspects of basic literacy learning. Some researchers argue that children cannot understand television narratives, and their perception of events in television that they are separate fragments, rather than one sequence of events, which limits their memory and ability to comprehend content. This argument is particularly true in cases where children are exposed to complex narratives, which are often featured in adult programs (Close, 2009).

Conclusion

In conclusion, the claim that the effects of watching television for young children are detrimental to language development is not entirely true. Television viewing has both positive and negative effects on various aspects of linguistic development in children, including grammar development, comprehension, vocabulary development, pre-literacy skills and development of expressive language. Whether or not the impact of television viewing on language development in young children is positive or negative heavily leans on a number of factors. The most significant of these factors are the age of the children, the amount of time spent watching television and the involvement and monitoring of parents over children’s television viewing. Generally speaking, television viewing has little or no positive effects on the linguistic development of children aged two years and below (Zimmerman, Christakis, & Meltzoff, 2011). Spending too much time viewing television also has negative effects on the linguistic development in young children (Hudon, 2012). Parents should; therefore, monitor the viewing of television by their children in order to match the content with the most appropriate age group, as well as prevent excessive television viewing by children, which in most cases inhibits interpersonal interaction (Close, 2009).

References

Close, R. (2009). Television and language development in early years: a review of the literature. National Literacy Trust, 6-34.

Duch, H., Fisher, E. M., Ensari, I., & Harrington, A. (2013). Screen time use in children under 5 years old: a systematic review of correlates. Journal of Clinical Pediatrics, 123-177.

Hudon, T. M. (2012). Association of screen time use and language development in young children. International Journal of Behavior, 77-118.

Zimmerman, F. J., Christakis, D. A., & Meltzoff, A. N. (2011). Associations between Media Viewing and Language Development in Children Under Age 2 Years. Journal of Pediatrics, 55-108.

Appendix 1

The articles used to obtain the information contained in this research paper were found using five databases. These are PubMed, Linguistics and Language Behavior, Communication and Mass Media, ERIC and CINAL Plus. Two of the articles used n this paper were found using PubMed, one was found using Communication Mass Media while the fourth was found using ERIC. The strategy used to search for the articles involved using selected keywords relating to the topic under research. The terms used were television viewing among children, language development, and television and language development. The terms were designed to include a wide range of information so as not to exclude articles that may have highly relevant information. One of the articles (Screen time use in children under 5 years old: a systematic review of correlates), is cited as an example of primary research while the rest are forms of secondary research.