CARTOONS AND BABIES

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

Every modern parent sooner or later decides for himself when it is already possible to turn on cartoons or give a tablet with games. Everyone has different motives: someone thinks that cartoons are developing now - therefore it is possible and necessary as early as possible (and producers write 0+), someone just needs to free up time for themselves and household chores, someone believes that it will happen sooner or later, so it doesn't matter if the baby joins the screen life from the cradle, besides, modern monitors do not spoil his eyesight, and for some this is the only way to feed a child. Yes, it is difficult to imagine a modern child who has not seen cartoon, TV or any other monitor (tablet, phone, computer). Moreover, cartoons are truly part of the cultural and social environment, which also develops and educates. Therefore, we do not proceed from the position that cartoons are “evil”. But, as one ancient scientist said, “Everything is medicine and everything is poison. Only quantity differs one from the other”. And in the case of cartoons, also the age at which they become an integral part of a child's life. So, when is it already safe and beneficial to include cartoons for your child?

I'll start with how a child's brain develops in early childhood and how television and cartoons affect its development. So, a few words about boring, but important for understanding the theory of the development of thinking in ontogenesis. Cognition of the surrounding reality begins with sensation and perception, then it moves on to spatial-figurative thinking (by the age of 4). In other words, thinking begins to form from the stage of sensorimotor intelligence (0-2 years), which develops in the process of effective, practical interaction with the environment. The child is “held captive” by the situation and the action, ie. his thinking is not able to be realized without relying on "contemplation" of the situation and the ability to act in it. This kind of thinking is also called "tame". Consequently, for the development of his cognitive processes, a child needs to study this world and its components in all ways available for this - to look, touch, smell, taste, touch, perform elementary manipulations to study various properties of objects - to throw, squeeze, chew, etc. etc. That is why everything that falls into the hands of the baby will certainly be drawn into the mouth, thrown onto the floor, etc.

What happens to the perception while watching a cartoon in a child under 2 years old? A cartoon is a set of pictures and sounds with which a child can only do one thing - watch and listen, you cannot perform any manipulations with it, the child does not participate in it in any way. The cartoon offers a ready-made image (besides, it is not always realistic, because even a parent sometimes finds it difficult to determine who is depicted) - visual, sound, which is also presented in flat 2D format and produces actions incomprehensible for this level of child's intelligence development - “falls” behind the monitor screen, appears from nowhere, as a rule, is deprived of the corresponding situation of facial expressions and emotionally distorted (either devoid of corresponding emotions at all, or these emotions are exaggeratedly expressed). But in order for thinking to reach the next level - spatial-figurative, the child needs to create in his head a "card index" of all kinds of objects of the surrounding reality (performing the manipulations with them described above and studying their properties), and not absorb ready-made abstract images. Therefore, introducing a child to watching cartoons from early childhood, parents impoverish the environment of his cognition, "pouring" into the minds ready-made images invented by someone and depriving the child of the opportunity to create this image in 3D format.

I would also like to say a few words about how cartoons affect the imagination and fantasy of a child. Imagination is the basis of visual-figurative thinking and is one of the forms of mental reflection of the world. It is formed in the child's direct practical experience. By offering a ready-made, fully “complete” image, the cartoon reduces the mental effort to create it on its own, significantly depleting the imagination. It is cartoons from early childhood that often become the main reason for the dislike of books in children - after all, the baby gets used to being presented with a ready-made visual and sound picture, and he becomes uninterested in listening to reading a book.

Also, watching TV and cartoons affects the development of attention. Research shows that for every additional hour a child under three years old watches TV, the likelihood of problems concentrating by age seven increases by about 10%. And low volatility of attention is one of the factors of unpreparedness for schooling and academic failure in the school curriculum [hereinafter - the research results are given from J. Medina's book, Rules for the Development of the Child's Brain].

Also, data from various studies indicate that children who spend time in front of the TV up to 4 years old are prone to worse emotional and behavioral self-regulation. Watching TV and monitoring time in general also inhibits the development of a child's speech. And this applies to both "educational" cartoons and games, and just the included TV as a "background". It is known that, in general, modern children begin to speak half a year later than the previous generation. Early developmental research shows that infants and toddlers are in dire need of direct, LIVE communication with adults for healthy brain growth and the development of related social, emotional and cognitive skills. Communication with monitors slows down this development.

It is also important to remember that what we pass to a child's mind also affects his behavior. Yes, for many, the way to turn on a cartoon or advertisement becomes a kind of "straitjacket" for a kid - after all, he is guaranteed to "stick" (advertising is also smart specialists come up with, it should be such even for adults, not that for a child). In psychology, there is a concept of delayed imitation - the ability to reproduce behavior seen only once (many parents, for example, are glad that the cartoon "taught" the kid to wave "hello" or "goodbye"). A child is able to reproduce what he saw for the first time even after several months, so it is not entirely reasonable to clog the child's cognitive space by watching TV, and even more so with advertising. You should always remember what effect this has on the child. And it is not so obvious and the consequences of this influence will not be noticeable immediately, because it has a "cumulative" effect.

Research also confirms the fact that watching TV (and the most educational cartoons as well) can cause aggression and can lead to problems in communication with peers. It is not for nothing that psychologists, when addressing parents with the problem of aggressive behavior in children, are immediately interested in the amount of time that the child spends in front of the monitors.

It is also important to remember that screen time suppresses physical activity and vice versa - excites neuro-emotional. That is why neurologists do not recommend watching cartoons before bedtime, and also strongly advise to limit (up to complete exclusion) screen time in case of problems with sleep, excessive excitability, hyperactivity.

The next point on which I would like to focus is the motivation of parents to include a cartoon for the kid. As practice shows, there is a tendency to "rejuvenate" the introduction to the monitor pastime, that is, parents begin to turn on cartoons or TV to the baby earlier - literally from the month of life. Mom usually motivates her decision with a desire to keep the child busy while she does household chores, distract, develop, interest him. Yes, of course, it is easier to turn on a magical-magnetic monitor than to come up with and organize a lesson for such a crumbs, and all the more simply to take on the pens and satisfy the main psycho-emotional need of the crumbs - contact with mom.

But, firstly, it is worth remembering that in the first year of life, a child develops through the body, he needs physical activity. Immersion in on-screen reality literally hypnotizes the baby, depriving him of the opportunity to move. And secondly, the mother's habit of capturing the child only with a TV or tablet is formed very quickly, and by the age of 3 it can turn into an addiction - both for the child and for the mother, who will not understand what else can interest and captivate the child. Yes, at first glance it seems that 10-15 minutes a day will not harm the development of the crumb. But practice shows that this time is never limited to 15 minutes - a parent (not a child!) "Gets hooked" on this habit - to turn on the TV at every slightest whim, disobedience and his need to free himself 15 minutes of time, and by 2-3 years the monitoring time for the child is increased to 2-3 hours a day. Cartoons and a tablet become that magic "candy" with which parents motivate a child - they encourage and punish. Gradually, the monitor becomes another family member, without which this family can no longer imagine itself.

And, importantly, a child who has become involved in monitor entertainment from the cradle is really much more difficult to captivate with something, because a cartoon is objectively much more interesting than a book or an independent game. And here I would like to emphasize once again that it is the parent who forms such an attitude in the child. For many mothers, over time, it becomes simply overwhelming work to captivate the child with a book, because the moving and sounding picture of a cartoon for a baby is much more attractive than book static drawings.

I would also like to note that one of the most frequent requests to a psychologist among parents of younger schoolchildren and adolescents is the lack of motivation to study and other activities, Internet and gambling addiction. The roots of these problems lie precisely in the loyal attitude of parents to monitor addiction from early childhood. And to this dependence in the first place. It is strange to expect a different behavior from a child, if for mom and dad 24-hour TV, computer games and constant “hanging” on the Internet are the norm.

Another of the very frequent requests to a psychologist is the lack of independence, "painful" dependence on the mother of the child, the inability and unwillingness to play his own games and toys. The child of this independence also needs to learn. But not by "accustoming" to it, leaving the baby to cry in the crib or giving it to the garden as early as possible. And by giving the child time to play on his own. After a year and a half, when the child masters the ability to manipulate objects (which his mother must first teach him, doing these actions together), he needs to be given time for independent play. And to increase this time with age. By the age of three, a child should have at least 4 hours a day for independent study - when he plays and entertains himself. The reality is that this time for a child is sorely enough.

Modern mothers have an obsessive need to constantly entertain and occupy the child with something, create some special conditions for him (look for and buy everything "baby"), permanently "do" something with him. Cartoons also become that button, including which the mother minimizes her anxiety - after all, the child is “busy” with something, also “developing” and does not interfere with the mother at the same time. A phone with cartoons or a tablet with a game becomes a psychological "pacifier" that the mother hands over to the child so that he "does not spin under his feet", "does not shout", "does not run" in most everyday situations - talking with a friend in a cafe, talking on the phone, while in line at a store or clinic, preparing dinner. Children literally do not learn to wait, to be in a state of "doing nothing." And it turns out that the child spends most of his time in the garden and / or in the classroom, and the time at home is distributed between the monitors of the TV and tablet. The child simply does not have free time in which he could come up with something to do without external "stimulators" - monitors, animators and playrooms. And this also adversely affects the development of the baby, impoverishing his imagination, depriving him of the opportunity to actively learn about the world - through touch, interaction, construction, etc.

Another "scourge" of our time is feeding under cartoons (and, by the way, also a frequent question later on at consultations: "how to wean?"). Thus, the habit of eating ONLY with cartoons will be formed very quickly. And this is fraught with the fact that the child's eating behavior is disturbed: he opens his mouth and eats not because he is hungry, but because he is ready to do anything just to watch a cartoon. Even for adults, nutritionists and nutritionists do not recommend watching TV or reading while eating - after all, when attention is dispersed, gastric juice is released later and the feeling of fullness is also late, which can lead to overeating and excess weight. It is also fraught with the fact that the child does not learn to feel his needs - hunger, thirst. Food begins to be associated only with pleasure, and this is also a direct path to eating problems and lack of contact with your body in the future.

So, at what age is it optimal to involve a child in the virtual world of the screen? Subject to control over the duration of viewing and the content of the provided content - not earlier than 2 years (the American Pediatric Association strongly recommends refraining from watching TV for up to 2 years). Alas, the virtual-screen world is designed in such a way that the consequences of its influence are not immediately noticeable. And in essence, it is not possible to measure the level of harm or benefit at the moment.

Finally, I would also like to focus on the fact that not so much cartoons in themselves are harmful as cartoons as SALVATION for parents (very often this wording comes from the lips of moms and dads themselves). Delegating educational and “soothing” functions to tablets and televisions does great harm to the authority of the parent, his controlling function. A child always senses when a parent is not doing well, and the sooner mom or dad begins to use the monitor as a lifeline for themselves, the more likely they will become dependent on it even earlier than the child himself. Therefore, the conclusion is unambiguous: the later the kid becomes acquainted with the virtual world, the better. And for parents as well.